Posted By Barry Cooper
My company have decided upon seeking OHSAS 18001 accreditation. I have all the standards, but these are not particularly clear.
Does anyone know where I can get further guidance that actually spells out clearly what is required. A step by step guide would be ideal

Regards
Barry

Posted By Shane Johnston
Have a look at OHSAS 18002, this gives clear guidance on OHSAS 18001. The corner-stone of the management system is your risk assessment procedure. The management system is relatively simple, and does not rely on mounds of documentation, written procedures etc.

If you realy want a understanding of the requirements, get on an OHSAS 18001 Lead Auditors course. Cost about £1500 for the week.

Shane.

Posted By Ian Waldram
The BSI-published book (actually a loose-leaf file) 'Managing Safety the Systems Way' is intended to giive practical examples, using half a dozen imaginary enterprises covering a wide range of business sectors. I think it's quite helpful, though a bit focussed on UK legislation & guidance, so not so good for non-UK enterprises.

Posted By Sean Fraser
Barry,

Have e-mailed you direct with a FAQ sheet SGS have prepared on the subject of OHSAS 18001 - I hope it proves a useful addition to some of the excellent reference suggestions already proposed.

However, it should be noted that although 18001 is the internationally recognised and hence most often audited system, it is actually just a guide and not a Standard in its own right. BSI are presently consulting on a revision of BS8800 and it may be that they are seeking to add this SMS Standard to the business and enviornmental management standards 9001 and 14001 to create an all-encompassing suite of Management Standards. How successful this will be will be bourne out in time.

SGS United Kingdom Ltd. (previously known as SGS Yarsley) is an UKAS Accredited Certification Body and we can provide accredited certification services for ISO9001, ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001 systems among others. A list of similar Accredited bodies can be sought on the UKAS website (ukas.com) or through the DTI register (http://194.128.65.35/index.htm).

Posted By Tom--EHS
Hi, Barry

I happened to be a Senior EHS consultant on ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 in China.

If you need some help in setting up your OHSAS 18001 system, please feel free to contact me.

As others said that: partake in a OHSAS 18001 Lead Auditor course, that will help you more understand the standard.

Also you can have a look at the OHSAS 18002, it will give you some ideas.

As my consulting experience, a deliberative thought should be given to hazard identificationa and evaluation, it is the starting point of the system.

Best regards

Tom

Posted By Nigel Hammond
Hi Barry

Our organisation is halfway through OHSAS 18001 'accreditation'.

I went on the IOSH 1-day course on Management Systems which gave a good introduction to the three main H&S management systems (OHSAS 18001, HSG65 and BS8800).

I then spent a whole week working at home laboriously going through OHSAS 18002, drawing-up mindmaps, decorating it with highlighter pens etc to make sense of it! I then spent the next 6 months rewriting our H&S Manual to make it user-friendly and to comply with OHSAS 18001. I found that restructuring and rewriting our manual helped me to really make sense OHSAS 18001.

I find OHSAS 18001 and 18002 to be clever and well -thought-out documents - but they are a very dry read! It's a pity BSI don't make their documents more appealing - i.e. plain English, nice graphics etc. I gather they do not because their documents are international. I am still not convinced by this argument - even their web site is hard work!

All I would suggest is you go on the IOSH course and block aside time in your diary to go through OHSAS 18002 thoroughly immediately after the course.