What Belongs in a Workplace First Aid Kit? A CSA Z1220 & WSIB Guide for Canada

A compliant workplace first aid kit in Canada holds four broad groups of supplies: wound care (dressings, bandages, gauze, tape), personal protective equipment (gloves, a CPR barrier, eye protection), basic tools (scissors, tweezers, safety pins, a first aid guide), and emergency items suited to your hazards (an emergency blanket, burn dressings, saline). Under CSA Z1220-17, the exact contents and kit size depend on your kit type, your number of workers, and whether your workplace is low or high hazard. Below is how to read those rules and size a kit correctly.

Why the rules changed — and why it matters

For decades, many Canadian workplaces stocked first aid supplies from lists written into provincial regulations, such as Ontario's long-standing Regulation 1101. Those lists were prescriptive but dated, and they varied province to province. Over the past several years, jurisdictions have increasingly pointed employers to a single national reference: CSA Z1220-17, "First aid kits for the workplace." The shift matters because it changes both what you stock and how you decide the size of the kit.

The practical upshot: if you bought a kit years ago and never revisited it, it may not match the categories or quantities your province now expects. Rather than memorise a raw item list, it helps to understand the framework — type, size, and hazard — so you can choose a kit that fits your actual workplace instead of guessing.

The four broad content categories

Whatever type or size you land on, a workplace kit is organised around the same functional groups. Thinking in categories makes it far easier to audit a kit at a glance and to explain gaps to a health-and-safety committee.

1. Wound care

The core of any kit. Expect adhesive bandages in assorted sizes, sterile gauze pads, compress and pressure dressings, conforming and triangular bandages, adhesive tape, and antiseptic wipes. Higher-capacity kits carry more of each and add larger trauma dressings.

2. Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Items that protect the responder and the patient: disposable nitrile gloves, a CPR face shield or pocket mask barrier, and — depending on the environment — eye protection. PPE moved to the front of modern kits for good reason; it is the first thing a responder reaches for.

3. Tools

The small hardware that makes care possible: bandage scissors, tweezers, safety pins, and a first aid instruction guide or manual. A guide is not an afterthought — in a real incident, the person nearest the kit may not be the trained first aider.

4. Emergency & hazard-specific supplies

This is where the kit adapts to your worksite. An emergency (foil) blanket, saline or eyewash for flushing, and burn dressings are common. A kitchen, a welding shop, and a landscaping crew each have different exposure, so this category is where hazard assessment shows up most.

CSA Z1220-17 kit types explained

CSA Z1220-17 does not describe a single "workplace kit." Instead it defines several kit types, each suited to a different setting. You match the type to how and where the kit will be used, then choose a size based on how many people it must cover.

Two ideas do most of the work here. First, portability: a basic kit is meant to stay put on a wall, while intermediate and advanced kits travel. Second, distance to help: the further you are from an ambulance, the more self-sufficient the kit needs to be. A downtown office and a remote forestry crew can both be "compliant" while carrying very different supplies.

How to size a kit to headcount and hazard

Once you have the right type, sizing comes down to two questions.

How many workers are on site?

Kit sizes are commonly grouped as small, medium, and large, scaling roughly with the number of workers present per shift — not your total payroll. A workplace of 80 people running two shifts of 40 may be served by medium kits placed so everyone can reach one quickly. Count people who are actually on site at once, and consider how spread out they are: one large kit at the far end of a warehouse is not the same as coverage.

What is your hazard level?

CSA Z1220-17 recognises that a low-hazard office and a high-hazard fabrication shop face different injuries. Higher-hazard workplaces generally call for more supplies and, often, additional hazard-specific items. A useful way to set hazard level is to look at the injuries your work realistically produces — cuts and burns, eye exposure, crush or fall risk — and make sure the kit's emergency category reflects them.

If you are matching a purchase to these categories, a good starting point is a ready-made compliant option. Sands Canada's CSA Z1220-17 first aid kits are organised around these type-and-size distinctions, and our broader range of fully stocked first aid kits covers everything from personal carry kits to larger facility units.

Where WSIB and the provinces fit in

First aid requirements in Canada are set provincially, not federally, so the authority behind the rules depends on where you operate. In Ontario, workplace insurance and first aid guidance fall under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) together with the Ministry of Labour. Ontario historically enforced a prescriptive first aid list, and in recent years moved to align workplace first aid requirements with the CSA Z1220-17 standard — a meaningful change for employers who last bought a kit under the old rules.

Other provinces reference their own occupational health and safety regulations, and some also point to CSA Z1220. Because the details differ and are periodically updated, treat any online list — including this one — as orientation, then confirm the current requirement with your provincial regulator or WSIB before you finalise a kit. The categories above will not change; the exact counts and record-keeping rules can.

Keeping the kit stocked (the part most sites miss)

A kit passes an audit only if it is complete and in-date on the day someone opens it. In practice, kits drift: gloves get borrowed, bandages run low, and sterile items quietly expire. A few habits keep a kit honest:

• Assign an owner. One named person per kit is far more reliable than "the safety committee."
• Inspect on a schedule. Monthly is common; log the date on an inspection card kept with the kit.
• Watch expiry dates. Sterile dressings, wipes, and eyewash have shelf lives — rotate before they lapse.
• Restock after every use. Replace what was used the same day, not "next order."
• Keep it visible and accessible. A locked cabinet or a kit buried in a supply room defeats the purpose.

For ongoing top-ups, it is easier to source refills and consumables from a single supplier so quantities stay consistent. Sands carries the individual first aid and medical supplies used to refill a kit between full replacements — dressings, gloves, tape, and the small tools that go missing first.

Frequently asked questions