OHSAS 18001-Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series

OHSAS 18001 is a voluntary standard that aims at implementing a rigorous and effective occupational health and safety management at an organisation level, and to harmonise relevant existing regulation at an international level. OHSAS 18001 identifies regulations on occupational health and safety issues, towards reducing risks, professional accidents and establishing the requirements for a safe working environment. OHSAS 18001 certification guarantees that the organisation has implemented an occupational health and safety management system. The system is based on the identification and risks assessment of the installations, products and elaboration processes. Regular audits are required to check implementation of measures to improve safety conditions in the workplace.

OHSAS comprises two parts:

  • OHSAS 18001– v. 2007 is the certifiable Occupation health and safety management system standard;
  • OHSAS 18002– v.2000 is the Implementation guide to assist the implementation of OHSAS 18001.

The standard foresees 12 steps:

  • Diagnostic of the organisation H&S aspects
  • Risk assessment
  • Identification of legal and other requirements
  • Definition of the health and safety policy
  • Implementation of a safety management system; Indicators specifications
  • Providers and beneficiaries evaluation
  • Technical and regulatory assessments
  • Trainings (training, internal audits, emergency preparedness, employees information, etc)
  • Elaboration of a manual, documentation system, procedures validation
  • Implementation of an OHSAS Committee by a safety representative
  • Preparation and development of internal audits
  • Eventual integration in quality and environmental systems

An audit of the organisation’s health and safety management system is realised by a certified organisation. In case of compliance, a certificate of compliance is issued, which is valid for 3 years.

Information

  • Author: BSI (British Standard Institute), together with various certification organisms
  • Application: Universal
  • Creation Date: 1999, last reviewed in 2007
  • Availability: Free
  • Pillars: (none so far)

Source

http://www.bsi-global.com/en/Shop/Publication-Detail/?pid=000000000030148086

Remarks

Specificity
OHSAS 18001 specifications were set up after the impossibility to define an ISO standard applying to the safety conditions in the workplace. It is a private sector standard, but it is widely recognised at an international level. Buying the referential costs around £50.

The ILO issued the standard ILO-OSH 2001 soon after to widen the audience and support for this management system. The British standard BS 8800 works along those lines too but in more detail, like the ANSI Z10:2005 in the USA, UNE81900, and the VCA Standard.

Purpose - Implementation, certification