Newsom signs bill pushing for Narcan in workplace first aid kits

Workplaces in California could eventually be required to stock their first aid kits with naloxone or another medication that can stop an opioid overdose under a bill signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Naloxone, commonly sold under the brand name Narcan, can prevent someone from dying of an opioid overdose if administered promptly by a bystander. The medicine binds to the same receptors in the brain as opioids such as fentanyl, which allows the medicine to displace the opioids and reverse their effects.

Assembly Bill 1976 requires California regulators to craft rules requiring first aid kits in workplaces to contain naloxone or any similar medication approved by the Food & Drug Administration. Such a proposal would have to go before a state board for possible adoption by Dec. 1, 2028.

The bill was proposed by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) and supported by the California Emergency Nurses Assn. and a long list of law enforcement groups. Haney argued that it would dramatically increase the accessibility of naloxone, enabling more lives to be saved.

“If fentanyl continues to be more accessible than naloxone, we’re going to keep seeing an increase in overdose deaths in our communities,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this summer, AB 1976 was opposed by the National Electrical Contractors Assn. and other groups tied to the construction industry. The groups argued that the decision should be left to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, which could decide whether a mandate made sense for all employers. For instance, they raised concerns about storing Narcan safely at construction sites that are not temperature controlled.

In recent months, however, the bill was amended to only require the Occupational Safety and Health Board to consider such a proposal — not to mandate that such rules be adopted. After that and other changes, NECA and other industry groups dropped their opposition, according to a lobbyist for its California chapter.

The state board focused on occupational safety has already been weighing the idea: Earlier this year, it reviewed a petition from the National Safety Council, a group that aims to eliminate leading causes of preventable deaths, to require employers to provide naloxone at all work sites.

Cal/OSHA concluded that doing so would lead to a “significant reduction in opioid-related deaths in California,” with deadly injuries resulting from overdoses at work having risen between 2018 and 2022 from 23 to 117, according to a state report. But staff of the Occupational Safety and Health Board cautioned that mandating naloxone in workplace first aid kits could be “unnecessarily burdensome” for some employers.

The state board decided that exceptions could be made for employers who face practical barriers to storing or administering the medication. In June, it asked Cal/OSHA to convene an advisory committee to consider changing the state rules in order to require “ready access by employees to opioid antagonists.”

AB 1976 will push that process along, advocates said, by setting a deadline for the board to consider such changes.