Does ISO 45001 replace OHSAS 18001?
With the release of ISO 45001:2018 as the new standard for creating an Occupational Health & Safety Management System (OHSMS), there is a question of what will happen with OHSAS 18001:2007. Because the previous standard was not maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), but instead was maintained by the British Standards Institution (BSI), there is some confusion as to whether this is a replacement standard. If you have OHSAS 18001, do you need to transition to ISO 45001? The short answer is yes, because ISO 45001 will replace OHSAS 18001. But what does this transition even mean? Learn how ISO 45001 will replace OHSAS 18001 in this article.
What is new with ISO 45001:2018?
First, it is important to note that both standards include many of the same requirements, as both are used to create an OHSMS. While both standards emphasize the management of Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) hazards and legal requirements, and the importance of top-level management involvement, there are some new requirements in the ISO 45001:2018 standard that are included to further benefit your company.
One of the biggest changes is to organize the ISO 45001 standard to match the standard format for ISO management systems, called Annex SL, so that the structure and format match those of other management systems such as ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015. This organization helps you to better align the different management systems you may implement, and allows you to easily see the common processes that can be done together (such as the internal audit).
One important change involves how we think about risk in the OHSMS. Where OHSAS 18001 only talked about the risks associated with the OH&S hazards in the organization, ISO 45001 talks about managing other risks and opportunities along with controlling these OH&S hazards. With these additional risks and opportunities to assess, many companies will want to have a more formal risk management process than they did using OHSAS 18001.
