OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ASSESSMENT SERIES (OHSAS) 18001 AND ISO 45001 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (OHSMS)
OHSAS 18001 was an international standard for occupational health and management which has been replaced by ISO 45001. ISO 45001 is an international standard for health and safety at work developed by national and international standards committees independent of government.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES OHSAS 18001 FROM ISO 45001?
- The currently defunct OHSAS 18001 focused primarily on managing occupational health and safety hazards and like issues. However, ISO 45001 primarily focuses on the interaction between the working environment and the organization, while managing hazards by minimizing or excluding the possibility of any.
- The current ISO 45001:2018 standard is a process-based certification while the defunct OHSAS 18001 was a procedure-based certification. ISO 45001 focuses primarily on the causes of hazards without focusing on the solutions for hazards only.
- The OHSAS 18001 was more rigid in its application, but the ISO 45001 is very dynamic in its application. It addresses all the occupational health and safety issues of organizations, and at the same, it also serves as a backbone in safety management for efficiency in productivity and enhancement of the welfare of all the workers.
- The OHSAS 18001 certification primarily focuses on the occupational risk management of organizations, while the ISO 45001 primarily focuses on both risk management and opportunities thereby excluding future hazards and exploring opportunities for optimizing the safety management frameworks of organizations.
- OHSAS 18001 did not consider the views of all stakeholders of organizations, while the ISO 45001:2018 address views of all stakeholders of organizations in its approach. ISO 45001 is a better stakeholder management framework standard than OHSAS 18001 leading to a better working environment and relationship management.
OHSAS 18001 processes are – OHSAS 18001 standard training, Internal auditing training, Document Review, Document preparation, Risk analysis, Application of prepared documents and preparation of records, and Pre-audit preparation review, while ISO 45001 processes are – Understand OSH Management Systems and ISO 45001, Examine Your Current System, Engage Stakeholders, Determine Priorities and Establish Goals, Establish or Improve Your OSH Management System and Choose the Right Safety Management System.
It is common to see today that many organizations are still using OHSAS 18001 as their occupational health and safety management compliance benchmark. Such a framework will not be universally accepted as it is officially obsolete, though its contents may be useful to organizations for practical purposes.
William Nwaogu, Technical Advisor,
SAFETY CONSULTANTS & SOLUTION PROVIDERS LIMITED.
