ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2026: What The Updated First Aid Standard Means For Your AED Program
Short answer: ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2026, released September 17, 2026, is the revised consensus standard for workplace first aid kits and supplies. For the first time it adds guidance on CPR and AED preparedness, on staffing levels for trained responders, and on product-specific awareness training. Compliance is voluntary, but OSHA points employers to the consensus standard when it evaluates whether workplace first aid provisions are adequate.
Most of the coverage of the new workplace first aid standard has led with naloxone, and that is a fair headline. Buried underneath it is a change that matters more if you own an AED program.
For the first time, the standard that governs what goes in the first aid cabinet has something to say about the device on the wall next to it.
What Z308.1 Is, And Why A Voluntary Standard Carries Weight
ANSI/ISEA Z308.1 is the American National Standard for Minimum Requirements for Workplace First Aid Kits and Supplies. It is published through the International Safety Equipment Association and approved by ANSI. It is the document that defines Class A and Class B kit contents, the performance requirements for kit containers, and what a compliant workplace first aid provision looks like.
Compliance with it is voluntary. That word does a lot of work, and it is usually misread.
OSHA's own first aid requirement is written in general terms: adequate first aid supplies must be readily available. OSHA does not publish a shopping list. When it evaluates whether an employer's provisions are adequate, it refers employers to the consensus standard. Occupational Health & Safety, reporting on the revision on September 17, 2026, put it directly: OSHA refers employers to the consensus standard for guidance when evaluating workplace first-aid supplies.
That makes Z308.1 a working benchmark rather than a suggestion. It is the answer to the question of what adequate means, and it is the document a safety manager can hand to a finance director without having to argue from first principles.
What Changed In The 2026 Revision
| Area | What the 2026 revision adds |
|---|---|
| Naloxone | Recommends at least two naloxone nasal sprays in a clearly labeled kit kept near other emergency supplies |
| CPR and AED readiness | Guidance on CPR and AED preparedness, on staffing levels for trained responders, and on product-specific awareness training |
| Tourniquets | Clarifies the distinction between arterial tourniquets and ineffective elastic bands, and flags counterfeit tourniquets as a workplace concern |
| Bleeding control | Expanded guidance on supplemental kits including chest seals, hemostatic bandages, compression bandages and thermal blankets for higher-risk environments |
| Mobile and field workers | Hazard assessment across changing job sites, when to carry a kit from the vehicle to the worksite, and field restocking |
| Bilingual guides | First Aid Guides must be provided in both English and Spanish |
| Anti-choking devices | Updated guidance on these as supplemental supplies |
Read that table as a safety manager and one theme runs through it. Every change moves the standard away from describing a box of supplies and toward describing a prepared workplace. Naloxone is useless without someone willing to use it. A tourniquet is worse than useless if it is the wrong device. And an AED on the wall is a purchase, not a capability, until somebody on shift knows it is there and has touched one before.
The New CPR And AED Language, In Practice
Three phrases matter here, and they translate into three different operational questions.
CPR and AED preparedness. The question is no longer whether there is a device in the building. It is whether the device is findable, current, and connected to a plan. Placement, signage, pad and battery status, and whether anyone would reach it inside the window where it does any good.
Staffing levels for trained responders. This is the change with the sharpest edge for a multi-site employer. A single trained responder is a single point of failure who takes vacations, works one shift, and eventually resigns. The standard starts asking how many trained people a site should have, which is a headcount question, and headcount questions have budgets attached to them.
Product-specific awareness training. Generic CPR certification teaches the sequence. It does not teach the device on your wall. A responder who trained on one manufacturer's unit and is standing in front of another will still succeed, because these devices are designed to talk a stranger through it. But hesitation costs seconds, and this is the cheapest gap on the list to close. Ten minutes with the actual model, once a year, at an existing safety meeting.
Occupational Health & Safety notes that this guidance is particularly relevant at workplaces where emergency medical services may not be immediately available. That describes a great many warehouses, plants, rural sites and single-building campuses.
Turning The Standard Into A Site Readiness Checklist
The standard is a document. This is what it looks like as a walk-around, per site, once a year.
- Device count and placement. How many AEDs, where, and can an average person retrieve one and return within roughly three minutes from the farthest occupied point of the building.
- Device status. Pad expiration, battery expiration, status indicator showing ready, cabinet unobstructed and unlocked.
- Responder headcount per shift. Not the total trained on the roster. The number who are physically present at 2am on a Sunday, or during the summer when half the staff is off.
- Refresher cadence. When each responder's certification expires, and whether anything in the calendar causes it to be renewed.
- Device-specific familiarity. Whether the trained responders have handled the exact model mounted at that site.
- Signage and awareness. Whether an employee who has worked there six months could point at the nearest AED without being walked to it.
- Registration with local dispatch. Whether 911 knows the device exists.
Building The Budget Case
The fourth quarter is when school districts, municipalities and corporate safety departments spend remaining fiscal-year funds, and Q1 is when the next cycle opens. A funding request that cites a current consensus standard reads differently from one that argues generally for safety.
The structure that tends to work:
Name the standard and its date. ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2026, released September 17, 2026. Note that it is the current revision, and that the prior revision did not address CPR and AED preparedness at all. A standard that just changed is a reason a request is arriving now.
State the gap in the standard's own terms. Not we would like more training. Instead: the current standard addresses staffing levels for trained responders and product-specific awareness training. At our three sites we have four trained responders concentrated on first shift, and none has trained on the model installed at the north plant.
Scope it per site rather than as a lump sum. A per-site figure survives a budget conversation better than a program total, because it can be approved partially without being rejected entirely.
Show the multi-year shape. Devices are a capital purchase with a service life. Pads and batteries are a recurring consumable on a known expiration schedule. Training is annual or biennial. Presenting all three at once prevents the pattern where a device is funded in year one and its pads quietly expire in year three.
Include what you already have. A request that opens with an accurate current inventory is far more credible than one that opens with an ask.
Where Z308.1 Stops And State Law Begins
Z308.1 is a consensus standard for workplace first aid supplies. It is not the law, and it does not replace the AED-specific requirements that vary by state and by facility type.
Many states have their own statutes covering AEDs, and the requirements differ widely in what they address: registration with a local EMS agency or a state registry, medical direction or physician oversight, training requirements for expected responders, maintenance and testing records, and notification after a device is used. Some states set specific requirements for schools, health clubs, dental offices or state-owned buildings that do not apply to employers generally.
The practical approach is to treat Z308.1 as the floor for workplace readiness and your state's AED statute as the separate, binding layer on top of it. If you operate in more than one state, those layers are not the same in each one. Check your specific state requirements and facility type rather than assuming a single national rule.
What To Do With This
If you are building a Q4 or Q1 budget request for AED training or equipment, this is the document to cite. If you are not, the useful version of this week is a single walk-around per site against the checklist above, written down.
We have specialized in AEDs and AED program management since 2003, and this is our only business. If you want to talk through what the revision means for your sites, call us at 888-541-2337.
Related Reading
- HeartSine samaritan PAD Recall 2026: How To Check Your Serial Numbers Without Taking The AED Off The Wall
- Is Your AED On The Map? How AED Registration Connects Your Device To 911
Sources And Further Reading
- International Safety Equipment Association, September 17, 2026 ā Updated Workplace First Aid Standard Adds Naloxone Amid Growing Overdose Crisis
- Occupational Health & Safety, September 17, 2026 ā Updated First Aid Standard Expands Overdose Response and Emergency Training
This article summarizes publicly reported coverage of ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2026 and explains how it relates to AED programs. It is not legal advice, it is not a substitute for the standard itself, and it does not replace your state's AED requirements or a manufacturer's instructions for use. Confirm requirements for your own facility type and jurisdiction, and make sure the people expected to use an AED have current training.
