Principal amongst the changes is the much greater emphasis on "health" rather than just "safety", and a significantly improved alignment to ISO 14001:2004 (to enable organisations to develop "integrated management systems"). A summary of the key changes is given below.
The OHSAS Project Group decided that the time and circumstances are still not sufficiently correct. This has to be improved in order to be able to promote the standard to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) for development into an ISO International Standard. Consequently the revision has been performed by them.
The OHSAS Project Group They believe that the revised draft is more logical than the earlier edition, From their point of view it and will be an invaluable tool to assist organizations in the management of their OH&S risks.
If your organisations already achieved certification to OHSAS 18001:1999, or is in the final stages of achieving it, a transition period has been agreed in order to let you make the change to using the new standard. We will inform you about the schedule of the transition period and what the necessary actions are in the near future. It is not expected that this will be a difficult process.
For those organisations that are just starting down the path towards seeking certification to OHSAS 18001, and are looking for guidance to assist them, it is recommended using the sister standard OHSAS 18002:2000 ‘Occupational health and safety management systems - Guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001’. While this standard is aligned on a clause by clause basis against OHSAS 18001:1999, it does still contain valuable advice on what you need to do to achieve compliance.
You can download a pdf-file with the key changes of the new OHSAS standard on the right side of this page.
Through the OHSAS Project Group Communique a 2 year transition period has been determined to allow companies already certified to OHSAS 18001:1999 to make the change to using the new standard.
The transition period exists of 2 phases:
Phase 1 (10 months) (July 1 2007 – May 1 2008)
This period is intended for preparation. During this period audits and certification can be performed to either old or new versions of the standard. However, a certificate issued against OHSAS 18001:1999 for the standard three year period will need to be transitioned to OHSAS 18001:2007 not later than July 1 2009.
Phase 2 (14 months) (May 1 2008 – July 1 2009)
All audits shall be carried out according to the new standard and all existing certificates must be transitioned to new standard.
Please be aware that we will shortly be able to deliver OHSAS 18001 accredited certification under the internationally recognised RvA scheme (Dutch Accreditation Council). We are also currently working to extend our UKAS scheme accreditation for OHSAS 18001.
For more information, please contact us.
