OHSAS 18001

• Date: January 26, 2011
• Source: Admin

The Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems or OHSAS 18000 is a list of specifications on international occupational health and safety management systems, which helps in substantially minimising the risks of employees, improving the existing OH&S management system and gaining assurance. It has two parts — OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18002 — and encompasses BS8800 and a number of other publications.

Background

OHSAS 18001 was created as a response to the widespread demand for a recognized standard against which the organization has to be certified and assessed. This certification was intended to help an organization to control occupational health and safety risks. A main driver of creating this standard was the attempt to remove confusion in the workplace as a result of the proliferation of certifiable OH&S specifications.

A number of documents were used for framing the basics of this certification, which included BS8800, DNV Standard for Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems(OHSMS), Technical Report NPR 5001: 1997 Guide to an occupational health and safety management system and Draft NSAI SR 320 Recommendation for an Occupational Health and Safety (OH and S) Management System.

A concerted effort of a number of leading national certification and standards bodies and specialist consultation organizations were responsible for putting together the codes of OHSAS 18001. These are, among others:
 

• National Standards Authority of Ireland
• Standards Australia
• South African Bureau of Standards
• British Standards Institution
• Bureau Veritas Quality International
• Det Norske Veritas
• Lloyds Register Quality Assurance
• National Quality Assurance
• SFS Certification
• SGS Yarsley International Certification Services

Objectives

The OHSAS 18001 specifications can be applied to any organization provided the organization wishes to undertake establish an OH&S management system to eliminate or minimise risk to employees and other parties who might be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its activities, assure itself that it conforms with its stated OH&S policy, demonstrate this conformance before others, implement, maintain and improve an OH&S management system, seek certification or registration of its OH&S management system by an external organisation.

Source:

http://www.ohsas-18001-occupational-health-and-safety.com/index.htm