User:Ollie Shaw

OHSAS 18001 The Health and Safety Management Standard.

Introduction OHSAS 18001 is management system for health and safety and is recognised worlwide. It is a systematic approach to managing health and safety risks in an organisation. As a Management System it is similar to the ISO 9001 Quality Standard, ISO 14001 Environmental Standard and ISO 27001 Information Security Standard. OHSAS is abbreviation for Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series.

It is very similar to an ISO standard but has not been adopted by the International Standards Organiastion (ISO). The latest version of OHSAS 18001 was published in 2007. Copies of the standard are available from bookshops, some certification bodies and some on-line resellers. Electronic and paper formats are available.

Organisations can be assessed to OHSAS 18001 by a Certification Body. As with all audits there is an element of judgment by the auditor, so it's not a perfect concept but there are peer-reviews for auditors to ensure consistancy.

Contents

Benefits The main benefits of OHSAS 18001 are: 1) Confidence that the organisation, as far as it is aware, complies with health and safety laws applicable to themselves. 2) The organisation has a mechanism for raising health and safety standardsand 3) Positive proof that the organisation operates to a system and that system covers all foreseeable circumstances.

Limitations As with simialr management systems, the limitations are 1) It can be seen as bureacratic. 2) It takes time, money and effort to comply with the standard and 3) There are additional financial costs for the initial certification audit, and then follow-on surveillance audits.

Implementation Setting up: An initial "Gap Analysis" between the current situation and the requirements of the standards would produce a "shopping list" of action points.

As with many projects, starting with activities that take a long time (they are on the critical time-path) ensures that the project runs on-time.

Starting with the Risk Assessments, and the action required to control risks, sets the scene for improving health and safety standards within an organisation. Risk Assessments are an iterative process - as people become more aware of the risks they want to apply more safety controls. So this stage can take a long time and be updated frequently.

Having completed the risk assessments, there needs to be an "improvement program" based on the identified risks. This also needs to be in line with the organisation's safety policy.

The standard requires certain "must have" procedures, most of which are listed in the section below on "Intergation with other management standards".

A "Launch Day" is useful as it puts down a marker that says "the new health and safety system starts here". So, only activities after this date can be assessed at the certification audit.

Between the Launch Day and certification audit the organisation needs to collect the "Records" required by the standard. This is part of the evidence required by the Certification Body in order to make it's decision.

Integration with other management standards. The OHSAS 18001 standard has considerable overlap with other management systems. The areas that overlap include Document control, Records, Internal audit, Management review, Non-conformances, Corrective action, Preventive action, Operational control, Measuring performance, Training and competence

Organisations should consider the benefits of integration. 1) Efficiency improvements as it avoids duplication in the common areas listed above. 2) It's simple with just one system for all standards and 3) It lower cost of certification (charged by the Certification Body)

Certification process 1. Ask for a quoteation from a Certification Body for an initial certification audit for OHSAS 18001. 2. Complete the contract for certification. 3. Stage 1 Initial Certification Audit. This is like a "mock exam" and is to check the organisations readiness for Stage 2. thsi is to check that the "must have" systems and records are in place, but is not a detailed examination. 4. Stage 2 This is like a "formal exam" and is a detailed examination of the management system. The objective is to collect sufficient evidence to confirm that the applicant does meet the requirements of OHSAS 18001. That evidence can be written, spoken or observed. 5. The certification body reviews the evidence collected and makes its decision.

Certification bodies A Certification Body is the organisation that will audit a business to ascertain its compliance with the OHSAS 18001 standard (and other standards).

Accredited Certification Bodies Certification Bodies that have been approved by an authority are referred to as "accredited".

The "Authority" may be a government, government department, an quaisi government organisation or an organisation nominated by a government. There is usually one authority per country, but some have more than one. The authorities operate peer reviews to ensure consistancy of standards at an international level. In the UK this is the United Kingdom Accreditation Service ([www.ukas.com]).

Non-accredited Certification Bodies Non-accredited Certification Bodies are private enterprises that have chosen not to be regulated by an authority. They can offer certification to the OHSAS 18001 standard and it is up to them to set their own standards.

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_14001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_27001

http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm