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 [...]
Posted in Standards & Certification 
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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 [...]
Posted in Standards & Certification, Upcoming Events 1 Comment »
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 [...]
Posted in OHSAS 18001:2007 Revisions, Standards & Certification 4 Comments »
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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
Posted in FAQ, Standards & Certification 0 Comments »
Since OHSAS 18001 is intended to set a framework for an OH&S management system – like ISO 14001 sets a framework for an environmental management system and ISO 9001 sets a framework for a quality management system – it is probably worthwhile to explore just what a “management system” is. To enjoy standard-setting is to enjoy [...]
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OHSAS 18001 is a specification document (standard) that sets out requirements for establishing and implementing an occupational health and safety management system. It was originally developed in 1999 by an independent group of national standards organizations and certification bodies. Although it is not an ISO standard, OHSAS 18001 is structured the same way as [...]
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