What you need to know
Guidance: what you need to know – the 18000 standards
Headlines
- OHSAS BS 18001: 2007 is an international assessment standard
for occupational health and safety
- It’s supported by OHSAS BS 18002: 2008, Guidelines for the
implementation of OHSAS 18001: 2007 and BS 18004: 2008
Guide to achieving effective occupational health and safety
performance
- The 18000 standards haven’t been adopted as ISO standards, but
OHSAS 18001 and 18002 were developed by national standards and
certification bodies from 43 countries, and are in use in around 80
countries.
What is OHSAS?
OHSAS stands for Occupational Health and Safety Assessment
Standard.
Why three documents?
BS OHSAS 18001: 2007 is the UK approved version of OHSAS 18001:
2007. It states the requirements that must be met to demonstrate
that an organisation has an effective occupational health and
safety management system.
BS OHSAS 18002: 2008 doesn’t add any further requirements beyond
those specified in 18001; however it provides guidance, with
examples and issues to consider when implementing or auditing each
clause in 18001.
BS 18004: 2008 has been described by BSI as “an advanced HSG
65”. It adds to the requirements in 18001 and the guidance in
18002, providing more detailed information about the key elements
of effective occupational health and safety management. While the
OHSAS documents have international application, BS 18004 is
considered more relevant to practice in the UK.
Which standard can my organisation be audited against?
Only BS OHSAS 18001 is auditable. Companies that were compliant
with OHSAS 18001: 1999 had until July 2009 to move to the 2007
standard. Third-party certification to OHSAS 18001:2007 is
available from
BSI,
LRQA,
RoSPA and other certification bodies.
Content of 18001
BS OHSAS 18001 consists of a statement of scope, references to
OHSAS 18002 and ILO-OSH 2001, terms and definitions and the
requirements of an OHS management system. The requirements fall
under the following headings:
OHS policy: that policy should include a
commitment to the prevention of injury and ill health and to comply
with legal requirements, and requirements for the documentation,
maintenance, review and availability of the policy
Planning: including hazard identification, risk
assessment and control, with a hierarchy of controls provided
Implementation and operation: including resources,
roles, responsibility, competence, communication, documentation,
emergency preparedness and response
Checking: including performance measurement and
monitoring, compliance evaluation, audit, incident investigation,
corrective and preventive actions
Management review: includes a list of desirable
inputs to and outputs from management reviews
Annex A provides the correspondence between OHSAS
18001: 2007, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 9001:2000
Annex B provides the correspondence between OHSAS
18001: 2007, OHSAS 18002 and ILO-OSH: 2001.
Content of 18002
BS OHSAS: 2008 explains the principles of BS OHSAS 18001: 2007
and describes the intent, typical inputs, processes and outputs
against each requirement in 18001. Annex A and B are as for
18001.
In addition:
Annex C provides examples of items for inclusion
in a hazard identification checklist
Annex D provides comparisons of some risk
assessment tools and methodologies.
Content of BS 18004
BS 18004 is based on an earlier guide, BS8800 Occupational
health and safety management systems. Structured around
the OHSAS 18001 framework, BS 18004 provides more detailed
information about what to do to implement an effective occupational
health and safety management system in the context of UK OHS
management practice. It includes many more annexes than 18001 and
18002. These include:
Annex A: integration of the OHSAS 18001 management
system into the organisation’s business risk management
system
Annex D: objective setting
Annex E: guidance on risk assessment and control.
This includes examples of harm categories and a hazard
checklist.
Annex G: occupational health
Annex H: worker involvement
Annex I: emergency preparedness and response
Annex K: incident investigation.
Where can I get hold of the standards?
You’ll find that some certification bodies and consultancies
re-sell the standards, often alongside other supporting
documentation (such as OHSAS BS 18001 compliant safety policies).
However, the main supplier is BSI. Use these links to the BSI
shop:
Where did the standards come from?
In 1996, BS8800 Guide to occupational health and safety
management systems was published as non-certifiable guidance.
This was influenced by both the 1991 version of the HSE’s safety
management system guidance, HSG 65, the
quality standard
ISO 9001 and the environmental standard
BS 7750 / ISO 14001. OHSAS 18001: 1999 was meant to be a
specification with less detail than BS8800. BS OHSAS 18001: 2007
developed from this, whilst the original BS8800 with all the detail
went through further development to become BS 18004:2008.
BSI provides a useful explanation of
the differences between the 1999 and 2007 versions of
18001.
How does it work?
Case studies are available showing how the older OHSAS
18001:1999 has been used successfully.
The US NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health) has a detailed case
study of how OHSAS 18001 was used to develop a health and
safety management system, reducing recordable cases, lost-time
cases and fatalities in a large mining and manufacturing
organisation by over 80 per cent between 2001 and 2007.
What other OHS management systems should I be aware of?
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) issued ILO-OSH
Guidelines on Occupational Health and Safety Management
Systems in 2001. This aligns with HSG 65, but with greater
emphasis on employee involvement. The ILO sees ILO-OSH as “an
invaluable tool for employers and workers”.
The Americans based ANSI/AIHA Z10-2005 American National
Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management
Systems on the ILO standard. Z10 is described as a
voluntary consensus standard and ANSI promises benefits in
productivity, financial performance and quality as well as in
health and safety.
Find out if your industry has a specific OHS management system. For
example, the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) publishes the
Responsible Care
Management System Framework.
Training courses
BSI training
RoSPA QSA auditor training
IQMS training for OHSAS 18001: 2007
IOSH links
Systems in focus provide guidance on OHS management
systems, outlining the structure, and the advantages and
disadvantages of OHS management systems generally. A table
comparing the features of HSG 65, BS 18004, BS OHSAS 18001, ILO-OSH
and industry specific schemes provides a useful summary.
Further links
HSE provides a
comparison of BS OHSAS 18001:2007 with BS 8800:2004, BS EN ISO
9001:2000, BS EN ISO 14001:2004, ILO OSH: 2001 and the CIA
Responsible Care Management System Framework.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) provides an outline
of HSG 65, BS OHSAS 18001, ILO-OSH 2001, and the CIA Responsible
Care Management System Framework.
A quick guide to OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18001:1999 becomes BS
OHSAS 18001:2007 can be downloaded from the BSI website if you
register
for free.