OHSAS 18001/ISO 45001

Organizations do so in the context of increasingly stringent legislation, the development of economic policies and other measures that foster good OH&S practices, and increased concern expressed by interested parties about OH&S issues. Implementing an effective OH&S management system will help organization to eliminate or minimize risk to the employees and other interested parties who may be exposed to OH&S risks associated with its activities.

OHSAS 18000 is an international occupational health and safety management system specification, including OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18002. OHSAS 18001 gives requirements of occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS), OHSAS 18002 gives guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001. They were jointly developed via a concerted effort from a number of international third party certification bodies, national standards bodies, and other interested parties. OHSAS 18001 was firstly issued in 1999 and secondly revised in 2007.

ISO 45001 will replace OHSAS 18001, the world’s former reference for workplace health and safety. Organizations already certified to OHSAS 18001 will have three years to comply with the new ISO 45001 standard, although certification of conformity to ISO 45001 is not a requirement of the standard.