OHSAS 18001 is a guideline document jointly developed and published in 1999 by a number of independent national standards-setting organizations and certification bodies.

After publication, OHSAS 18001 has been widely used around the world as it has proven to be a good way to achieve an organization's Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) commitment. Today, OHSAS18001 is used by 15,000 companies in 100 countries.

The OHSAS18001 standard has been widely recognized around the world. Through this complete and effective management system, accidents can be reduced, a better working environment and continuous improvement can be created. While OHSAS18001 is not a cure for all OHS problems in an organization, it has a unique global recognition for a better work environment and continuous improvement through this complete, proven management system.

Despite its success, OHSAS18001 still needs constant updating. In 2006, the OHSAS editorial board, including Bureau Veritas, began revision work.

An initial working draft of the revision to the OHSAS 18001 standard was open for comment in January 2006.

After reviewing 500 comments at the OHSAS Working Group meeting in Madrid, Spain, in October 2006, the second version of the working draft was released for public comment in November 2006.

In March 2007 in Shanghai, China, the OHSAS working group reviewed the 500 proposals for the second edition of the working draft.

A number of comments were reviewed and consensus was reached on the language of the standard revision.

The OHSAS18001:2007 version of the standard was released on July 1, 2007. This new version will be more result-oriented than before, with better compatibility with ISO9001:2008 and ISO14001:2004. The elements and definitions are perfected in combination with proven modern OHS management concepts. This will further drive organisations to integrate their management systems and gain more attention to OHSAS. Organizations certified to OHSAS 18001:1999 have a 2-year certificate transition period (until July 1, 2009).

Since my country's occupational health and safety management system standard GB/T28001-2001 is not equivalent to the conversion of OHSAS18001, there is no time limit for the conversion of the new version, but with reference to the revision of the new standard, it will help our certified organizations to optimize OHSMS .

Differences between the new version of OHSAS18001 (2007 version) and the old version (1999 version)

Compared with the old version of the document, the main changes in the new version of the standard are:

01. Now more emphasis is placed on the importance of "health" and the balance between "safety".

02. The new version of OHSAS18001 regards itself as a standard rather than as a specification or a document like the old version. This means that OHSAS18001 will gradually become the basis for the national standard of OHSMS.

03. The "PDCA" model diagram is only given as a whole in the overview, not a partial diagram at the beginning of each main element.

04. Only international references are given in the references in Chapter 2.

05. Added new definitions and revised existing ones.

06. The whole standard has greatly improved the consistency with ISO14001:2004, and strengthened the compatibility with ISO9001:2000.

07. The term "tolerable risk" is replaced by "acceptable risk".

08. The term "incident" is included in "incident".

09. The definition of the term "hazard" no longer refers to property damage or damage to the work environment. Now considering that this "property damage or destruction of the working environment" is not directly related to occupational health and safety, occupational health and safety is the purpose of the OHSAS standard, and this kind of loss is included in the field of asset management. However, the risk of "loss" affecting occupational health and safety should be identified by the organization through the risk assessment process and controlled by appropriate risk control measures.

10. Clause 4.1 The organization shall determine and document the scope of coverage of its OH&S management system.

11. The content of the occupational health and safety management policy in Article 4.2 shall include the prevention of injury and disease and the commitment to continuous improvement of OH&S management and OH&S performance, providing for the establishment and review of OH&S

policy framework.

Article 12.4.3.1 puts forward specific requirements for hazard identification, the scope of risk assessment, assessment methods and the formulation of control measures, so that hierarchical control can be considered; it also puts forward more specific requirements for change management.

Clause 13.4.3.2 requires that organizations shall ensure that applicable regulatory and other requirements to which they are to be complied are taken into account when establishing, implementing and maintaining their OH&S management system.

14. Clause 4.3.3 With reference to ISO14001:2004, elements 4.3.3 and 4.3.4 are combined.

15. Clause 4.4.3 divides communication, participation and negotiation into two sub-clauses, which puts forward new requirements for employee participation and negotiation.

16. Clause 4.4.4 defines the scope of the system documentation.

17. Clause 4.4.5 is more consistent with the ISO9001 standard.

18. Clause 4.4.6 Change Management is explicitly addressed.

19. Clause 4.4.7 clearly states that the needs of interested parties, such as emergency services and neighbours, should be considered in planning an emergency response.

20. Clause 4.5.2 adds a new clause "Compliance Assessment" to emphasize the importance of complying with laws and regulations.

21. Article 4.5.3.1 puts forward new requirements for incident investigation.

22. Clause 4.6 sets out clear input and output requirements for management review.