The OHSAS 18001:2007 standard, published on 1 July 2007, is more health-oriented than the earlier version. It is better aligned with ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004, and embraces modern and proven concepts of occupational health and safety management and has had its elements and definitions better refined.. This shall simplify the Management Systems integration and possibly increase the interest in OHSAS. A summary of the key changes is shown below.

What has been changed?

• OHSAS 18001 now refers to itself as a standard, not a specification, or document anymore
• The importance of "health" has now been given greater emphasis
• Focus on occupational safety, not getting distracted with assets, security, etc.
• The inclusion of behavior, capabilities and other human factors as elements to be considered in the identification of hazards, risk assessment and determination of controls and finally in competence, training and awareness
• Change Management is now more explicitly addressed
• New definitions have been added, and existing definitions revised.
• Significant improvement in alignment with ISO 14001:2004 throughout the standard and improved compatibility with ISO 9001:2000.
• A new clause on the "Evaluation of compliance" has been introduced, aligned with ISO 14001
• A new requirement has been introduced for the delegation of control as part of OHS planning
• New requirements have been introduced for participation, consultation and the investigation of incidents

If your organization has already certified to OHSAS 18001:1999, or is in the final stage of achieving it, a two year "transition" period ending on 1 July 2009 has been agreed, TQM shall offer various upgrade services including gap analysis of existing OHSAS 18001 to new version, transition training, etc. Please kindly call 2569 0877 for details and the services we can offer.