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WHAT IS
OHSAS 18001?
 OHSAS
stands for Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series.
In April 1999, the British Standards Institute released the
specification that they called OHSAS 18001. This was developed in
response to strong worldwide demand for a generalized, comprehensive
outline for managing occupational health & safety issues.
A descendant of BS 8800 and a number of other national and
private-sector standards, OHSAS 18001 can be used by any company to
promote safe work practices and employee well-being. Its format
parallels ISO 9001 and 14001, and registrars are now implementing
and testing uniform models for auditing and registration to OHSAS
18001.
While OHSAS 18001 has not yet reached the status of an international
standard, a growing number of organizations are becoming interested
in attaining registration to this voluntary scheme. They understand
that this will provide them numerous benefits, including:
· Ensuring the proper and effective management of worker health &
safety.
· Demonstrating to regulatory bodies the seriousness of their
commitment to these issues.
The potential to obtain lower insurance premiums by
showing insurers that they are carefully managing risk.
WHAT IS RESPONSIBLE CAREİ?
Responsible Careİ is the logical next step: an amalgamation of ISO
14001 and OHSAS 18001.
The Responsible Careİ initiative was launched in 1988 by the
American Chemistry Council (ACC), and remains largely within the
province of the chemical industry. Responsible Careİ basically
consists of three major elements:
1. All of the requirements of ISO 14001, the environmental standard;
2. All of the requirements of OHSAS 18001, the occupational health &
safety specification; and
3. Public outreach.
While technically classified as a "voluntary" program, certification
to Responsible Careİ is required for any chemical company that wants
to be a member of ACC. And although the program has been around for
about 14 years, the initiative to train and certify independent,
3rd-party auditors is only just now getting underway. Under this
updated program, Responsible Careİ will be an auditable
specification known as "RC-14001." | |
