OHSAS 18001 update

Amid a swirl of interest, the new OHSAS standard has finally been launched in the UK. David Smith asks what impact this will have on auditors and finds out just how extensive the changes are.

For those keenly following the development of standards in occupational health and safety (OH&S), recent developments in the UK represent a significant step forward.

The UK has decided to adopt the new version of OHSAS 18001:2007 and to publish it as BS OHSAS 18001:2007. The UK version, denoted by the BS prefix, identifies those issues that need to be taken into account when using this specification in the UK.

Key changes you’ll see in OHSAS 18001:2007 are:

  • the importance of ‘health’ has now been given greater emphasis
  • OHSAS 18001 now refers to itself as a standard, not a specification, or document, as in the earlier edition. This reflects the increasing adoption of OHSAS 18001 as the basis for national standards on occupational health and safety management systems
  • the ‘plan-do-check-act’ model diagram is only given in the introduction, in its entirety, and not also as sectional diagrams at the start of each major clause
  • reference publications in clause 2 have been limited to purely international documents
  • new definitions have been added, and existing definitions revised
  • significant improvement in alignment with ISO 14001:2004 throughout the standard, and improved compatibility with ISO 9001
  • the term ‘tolerable risk’ has been replaced by the term ‘acceptable risk’
  • the term ‘accident’ is now included in the term ‘incident’
  • the definition of the term ‘hazard’ no longer refers to ‘damage to property or damage to the workplace environment’
  • it is now considered that such ‘damage’ is not directly related to occupational health and safety management, which is the purpose of this OHSAS standard, rather that it is included in the field of asset management. Instead, the risk of such ‘damage’ having an effect on occupational health and safety should be identified through the organization's risk-assessment process, and be controlled through the application of appropriate risk controls.
  • sub-clauses 4.3.3 and 4.3.4 have been merged into a single clause 4.3.3 ‘Objectives and programme(s)’ in line with ISO 14001:2004
  • a new requirement has been introduced for the consideration of the hierarchy of controls as part of OH&S planning
  • management of change is now more explicitly addressed
  • a new clause on the ‘Evaluation of compliance’ has been introduced, as per ISO 14001:2004
  • new requirements have been introduced for participation and consultation
  • new requirements have been introduced for the investigation of incidents

ISO OH&S standards

But what of the present position of ISO in this area? There is currently no internationally accepted ISO standard on occupational health and safety and there is an ongoing assessment about whether ISO standards on guidance and/or a specification should be developed. In the absence of any developments at ISO level, BSI published a guidance document BS 8800:1996 (subsequently revised as BS 8800:2004) and in 1998, the OHSAS project group was established. The original objectives of this group were to promote the publication by ISO of an OH&S management system standard specification and requirements standard and to develop a specification. A specification, OHSAS 18001:1999, was issued in 1999 and this was supported two years later by a corresponding guidance document, OHSAS 18002.

Despite the lack of a formal ISO standard, adoption of OHSAS 18001 has been widespread, a fact supported by a number of surveys undertaken for the OHSAS project group. The work of the project group continues, resulting in the recent publication of the revised document OHSAS 18001:2007.

The 2000 revision of ISO 9001 marked a tangible step change in the quality field. The benefits of integration of management system standards are now widely perceived and a new version of the environmental standard ISO 14001 was published in 2004, providing the framework for the new of OHSAS 18001:2007. It is now regarded as essential that any new revisions are similarly compatible with both the environmental and quality standard wherever practicable. This must not, however, be seen detrimental to the OH&S requirements, which comprised a number of unique elements.

The UK made a significant input to the revision of OHSAS 18001:2007 and the British standards committee responsible for OH&S management systems has endorsed the adoption of the new specification as a British standard. This will be supported by a revision of BS 8800 to assist those who wish to know how to implement effective occupational health and safety management systems. The new guidance document will be published in the future as BS 18004. Its contents will be very much based on the existing BS and the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance framework, HSG 65. In addition OHSAS 18002 will be revised to assist those who wish to assess OHSAS 18001 systems. The revision process for this document is now underway.

To find out more about OHSAS 18001 visit www.bsi-global.com