According to discussions surrounding the survey currently being circulated by the Technical Management Board (TMB) of ISO, one of the important factors in determining whether ISO moves forward with an occupational health and safety management standard (OHSMS) is whether ISO should defer to the International Labor Organization (ILO). ILO has published its own guidance document on OH&S […]
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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is once again considering whether or not it should develop an OH&S Management System Standard (For information about ISO standard-setting activities go to http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage)
The Technical Management Board (TMB) of ISO recently sent a survey form to the ISO member bodies (the various national standard-setting organizations from each country) asking for […]
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I attended the meeting of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for ISO TC 207 this week (TC 207 is the ISO technical committee that develops international environmental management system standards). It was held at the same venue where the U.S. delegates to the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility were having their meeting. According to my discussions with a colleague who […]
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When you get involved in developing international standards, you quickly discover that they build one upon another. The definitions used in OHSAS 18001 are from ISO 14001 - those definitions came from ISO 9000 which, in turn, came from other standards before it. Similarly, standards are now being developed using OHSAS 18001 as a model. If you are interested in […]
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Section 4.3.1 of OHSAS 18001 (Hazard Assessment, Risk Assessment & Determining Controls) was completely changed during the revision process. Overall, these changes align OHSAS 18001 more closely with other OH&S management system standards such as ANSI/AIHA Z10:2005.
This section now sets out additional details on both the inputs to be considered and the methodology to be used for the hazard […]
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In a previous blog, I noted that five significant changes were made in the 2007 revision of OHSAS 18001.
One of these changes is in the intended coverage of OHSAS 18001. As noted in the Scope section of the revised standard, OHSAS 18001 is “intended to address occupational health and safety, and is not intended to […]
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A revision of OHSAS 18001, Occupational health and safety management system - Requirements, is scheduled to be published in early July 2007.
When OHSAS 18001 was initially drafted in 1999, it was specifically written to be consistent with ISO 14001:1996, the environmental management system standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). When ISO 14001 was revised in […]
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In 1999, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) initiated a standard-setting activity to establish a United States occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) standard. This activity was concluded in 2005 with the publication of ANSI/AIHA Z10 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.
A number of stakeholders participated in this standard-setting process including representatives from the U.S. […]
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The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines “plethora” as an “overabundance or excess.” That certainly describes the situation when it comes to OH&S standards, particularly OH&S management system standards.
There are international OH&S standards, there are national OH&S standards and there are state and local OH&S standards. In addition, there are standards developed by individual organizations and government […]
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Using a different approach, one can seek to determine what a management system is by examining the definitions penned by the individuals who drafted the ISO management system standards.
The ISO Definition of a “Management System”
ANSI/ISO/ASQ ISO Q9000-2000 defines a “management system” as follows – a system (separately defined as a set of interrelated or interacting […]
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