OHSAS 18001:2007 Transition, Period, Changes, Schedule, Upgrading, Plan, Timetable and HELPOHSAS 18001:2007 Transition - New Information
In July 2007, the British Standard Institute (BSI) updated OHSAS 18001:1999 to OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational health and safety management systems - Requirements. The updated Occupational Health And Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Standard was designed to be compatible with ISO 9000:2000 (Quality) and ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental) standards.Transition Period and Timetable
The transition period for updating from OHSAS 18001:1999 to OHSAS 18001:2007 is 24 months from the date of publication, which allows organizations currently certified until July 1, 2009, to transition.
Transition Schedule and Plan
Registrars may audit currently registered organizations to the revised standard at any time and may write nonconformities. However, nonconformities resulting from the changes will not constitute a 'major' nonconformity until the end of the transition period, July 1, 2009.
Significant Changes
* More emphasis and importance to "health."* OHSAS 18001:2007 is called a standard vs a specification for OHSAS 18001:1999, which reflects the increasing option of OHSAS 18001 as the basis for national standards on occupational health and safety management systems.
* New definitions added, and some changes to prior definitions made.
* Improved alignment with ISO 9000:2000 (Quality) and ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental).
* "Acceptable risk" replaces "tolerable risk" (See Section 3.1 in Terms and definitions).
* "Incident" replaces "Accident" (See Section 3.9 in Terms and definitions and Notes 1, 2, and 3).
* The definition of "hazard" (See Section 3.6 in Terms and definition) no longer refers to "damage to property or damage to the to the workplace environment."
* A new term, "all persons working under the control of the organization" now applies to several of the sub-clauses, which is a very significant change.
* Clause 4.1, General requirements, now requires an organization to define and document the scope of the OH&S management system.
* Sub-clause 4.3.1 now required management of change, "For the management of change, the organization shall identify the OH&S hazards and OH&S risks associated with changes in the organization, the OH&S management system, or its activities, prior to the introduction of such changes." This requirement also applies to sub-clause 4.4.6.
* OHSAS 18001:2007 merges sub-clauses 4.3.3 and 4.3.4 into sub-clause 4.3.3, in line with ISO 14001.
* OHSAS 18001:2007 sub-clause 4.3.1, Hazard identification, risk assessment and determining controls, expands the requirements, including the consideration of hierarchy of controls to reduce risks (See sub-clause 4.3.2).
* Sub-element 4.4.1, Resources, roles, responsibility, accountability and authority, now requires that "Top management shall demonstrate its commitment by . . ."
* Sub-element 4.4.5, Control of documents, now requires that "documents of external origin determined by the organization to be necessary for the planning and operation of the OH&S management system are identified and their distribution controlled."
* OHSAS 18001:2007 adds a new sub-clause, 4.5.2 Evaluation of Compliance, for periodically evaluating compliance with legal and other requirements, which is in line with ISO 14001:2004.
* OHSAS 18001:2007 sub-clause 4.4.3 Communication, participation and consultation, adds additional requirement (See 4.4.3.2 Participation and consultation).
* OHSAS 18801:2007 sub-clause 4.5.3 Incident investigation, nonconformity, corrective action and preventive action, adds additional requirements (See 4.5.3.1 Incident investigation).
* Explicit inputs and outputs added to clause 4.6 Management review.
HELP
Phillips-Baird, located near Indianapolis, Indiana, is ready to help! We have updated our OH&S Manual, procedures, work instructions and forms to OHSAS 18001:2007. In addition, we assisted a company in implementing OHSAS 18001:2007. E-mail or call (317) 590-2905.
