A Model of Occupational Health and Safety Management.

Mathematics does not lie, there are many liar mathematicians

Henry David Thoreau

ISO 45001 (ISO 45001. Occupational health and safety management systems.

Requirements with guidance for use).

Well is necessary talk about a little history of OHSAS 18001. The OHSAS 18001 standard was developed to bridge the gap where no international standard existed for occupational health and safety. The first version of the standard appeared in 1999 and was based on a number of existing standards, that had been developed by the leading national certification bodies. The current version of the standard is OHSAS 18001:2007. This supersedes OHSAS 18001:1999, which was phased out in July 2009. OHSAS 18001 has been designed to be compatible with the ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental) standards, thus helping organizations to achieve an integrated management strategy. The OHSAS 18001 standard specifies the number of key criteria for an organization to demonstrate and includes:

• Planning for hazard identification, risk assessment, and risk control

• Structure and responsibility

• Training, awareness, and competence

• Consultation and communication

• Operational control

• Emergency preparedness and response

• Performance measuring, monitoring, and improvement

Now talking about the development of ISO 45001, this came from the British Standards Institute (BSI), which proposed to ISO in 2013 that OHSAS 18001 be considered as the basis for an international standard. ISO agreed and established a committee to oversee its development. As the proposers, BSI took on the role of Secretariat to the new committee (ISO PC 283).

The first meeting of ISO PC 283 took place in London in October 2013, where key decisions were made, for example, that the standard would contain the requirements and include interpretative guidance as an annex. The WG was established and further divided into Task Groups (TGs) to separate the workload into manageable sections, so that each TG could focus on one or more clauses of the draft standard.

There are 54 countries involved, 15 ‘observer’ countries and 17 Liaison members, including IOSH.18 The second meeting was held in Casablanca in April 2014 and the volume of comments to resolve required subsequent meetings (virtual and face-to-face) by the various TGs to complete the work and produce the CD1.

The subsequent ballot of CD1 on readiness to move to DIS did not achieve the required majority and a third meeting was held in Trinidad in January 2015. The output of this meeting moved the standard to CD2 stage and this version currently being balloted to see if it can move to DIS. Assuming suitable progress is made on the standard, it is anticipated that it will move to FDIS in Spring 2016 and be finalised and published in October 2016. In terms of comparison between ISO 45001 and OHSAS 18001, similarities include: using the ‘plan, do, check, act’ model; setting policies and objectives; and conducting internal audits and Page 7 of 9 review.

Currently there are a number of differences, including:

-There are now ten sections; whereas OHSAS 18001 had four sections

-More focus on continual improvement and hierarchy of control

-More focus on risk management and ongoing assessment of risk and opportunities

-More focus on the need to demonstrate and understand compliance status at all times

-Subsections on contractors, procurement and outsourcing

-More on use of performance indicators

-Context of organisation – such as its supply chain, local community and cultural, social, political, economic and --governance environments

-Leadership – top management need to take an active role e.g. strategic planning and leading organisational culture

-Documented information – includes electronic and processed information e.g. use of smartphones or tablets

As you can see, this is going to be a huge change in Health and Safety, my humble opinion, I hope this is an important step and no more paper work.

Best regards.

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Ergonomía | The Ergonomist

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