BS OHSAS 18002 Updated

BS OHSAS 18002, “Occupational health and safety management systems. Guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001:2007,” has been updated with the released of Corrigendum 1, a correction to the text.  This corrigendum to the 2008 Edition was released at the end of August.  It is a minor correction, involving the title and supersession information.  It is applicable only to the British implementation of the OHSAS 18002, as noted above.

The OHSAS standards are written by a group of interested parties under the banner of the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Project Group.  These many participants are listed at the beginning of each of their publications, which are available in many national editions.  They include many national standards bodies, certification, accreditation bodies, occupational health and safety institutes, industry associations, consulting organizations and government agencies.  BSI acts as the secretariat.

There are two primary documents, the OHSAS 18001, “Occupational health and safety management systems. Requirements,” and the OHSAS 18002, the guideline for implementation.  The BSI standards organization has also published an additional standard, BS-18004, “Guide to achieving effective occupational health and safety performance.”

FYI:  The OHSAS standards were developed with an eye to migration as International Standards under the ISO umbrella.  This is actually occuring right now with the development of the ISO 45001, “Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements.”  Since this ISO version is still a committee draft, it is not publicly available yet.  Changes from the OHSAS to ISO Editions will include changes reflecting the recent new emphasis in ISO management system standards to the context of the organization and a stronger role for management (leadership).

I must admit that I took a look at both the previous and corrected  editions of the BS OHSAS 18002 document and I have yet to see where the two differ.  However, there is a new cover page referencing the corrigendum and the usual line under the “Amendments issued since publication.”  So it must be there somewhere!

BS Standards are routinely updated by republishing the entire standard.  So you’ll not be able to get the corrigendum all by itself.  There is a nominal processing fee here at Document Center Inc. for those of you who have purchased this standard from us in the past.  For those who have not, the BS OHSAS 18002 will need to be purchased in it’s entirety.  I will also note that the source document, OHSAS 18002, has not yet been released with any corrigendum.  So at this point it appears to be a correction only for the British edition.

When you go to order your copy, you’ll need to use an authorized Standards Distributor like Document Center Inc.  You can search for and order standards using our catalog at www.document-center.com.  Here is a direct link to the order page for BS OHSAS 18002.  Since we’ve been working with standards since 1982 we’ve developed many other services to assist standards users like you.  For more information on our company and our products, please get in touch with our staff.  They can be reached by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’re your Standards Experts!