Health and safety are necessary and legally required for any organization, as part of good governance. European statistics continue to show an appalling picture of accidents in work place (specified by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work) such as:

• One person dies in the EU every three and a half minutes  from work-related causes
• 142 400 people die every year in the EU as a result of occupational health and safety related diseases whilst   8900 die due to accidents at work
• Almost one third of these 150 000 deaths  occurring in the EU are  caused by  hazardous substances, with which people come into contact at work.  Asbestos relted diseases accounts for 21 000 of these deaths.

Many organizations implement and undergo certification for its OHSAS Management system for the sake of the employee welfare as well as maintaining a  good reputation and image.

What does  OHSAS 18001:2007 involve?
OHSAS is a management system specification describing  generic occupational health and safety requirements, which was developed by a consortium of certification bodies in different countries around the world. Currently, there is no international standard relating to the Occupational health and safety management systems, although this OHSAS 18001 specification provides the basic requirements for these systems. [The Polish equivalent of the OHSAS 18001:2007  is  PN-N-18001: 2004.

OHSAS was written based on ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 so includes some common elements. It includes the following key elements:

• General Requirements - A short requirement stating that the management system should be documented, implemented and continuously improved.
• Health and Safety policy - This element specifies that the strategy for Health and Safety should be defined in a document called "Health and Safety Policy" and describes in detail what the policy should include.
• Planning - A critical part of this specification, requiring the Organization to undertake an evaluation of its processes, identify the hazards to employees that they involve and prepare a risk assessment relating to these hazards. This part is crucial because the risk of occupational hazards and are subject to control described in the section on implementation and operation of the occupational health and safety management system.
• Implementation and operation - This element is described  at length so that the Organization is provided with the Occupational health and safety requirements for  implementing effective and efficient monitoring controls of occupational hazards and risks that arise in the Organization. This control requires the following activities  to be carried out :

1. Identification of resources, roles, responsibilities and authorities  to enable the system to function smoothly,
2. definition of competence, training and awareness for employees,
3. the establishment of mechanisms for internal and external communication,
4. the establishment of documents, which are required to operate an occupational health and safety management system including procedures for document and records control,
5. the introduction of operational control planning of those operations which are linked to occupational health and safety hazards, and then the establishment, implementation and maintenance of  procedures to supervise them.

• Checking - this element relies on

1. the regular monitoring of Occupational health and safety management system  and  measurement of key characteristics of its operations,
2. periodic evaluation of compliance with the legal requirements relating to the organization,
3. the Organization establishing a procedure for identification of hazards and for performing risk assessment,  undertaking corrective  and preventive action,
4. conducting internal Health and Safety audits

• Overview of management - A summary of the Occupational Health and Safety performance results is required so the Top Management determine the strategy and  continue to improve the Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

Benefits associated with the implementation of an Occupational Health and Safety management system and its certification according to OHSAS 18001 include:

• a reduction in accidents (leading to a reduction in the number of lost work days) through the proper identification of hazards and risk management,
• improvements in management system effectiveness achieved through awareness of hazards,  carrying out risk assessment, as well as conducting audits, surveys, accident root cause analyses followed by undertaking the appropriate action. All these elements increase the awareness about the significance of safety in the workplace  and help minimize the possibility of accident recurrence the safety of workers,
• an increase in the accountability of employees and  minimize  the potential of claims,
• a reduction in  expenditure on workers compensation,
• demonstrate the Organization's  legal and regulatory compliance to the relevant public authorities
• increase of stakeholders' confidence.

BPIC CONDUCTS TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION ACCORDNG TO OHSAS 18001 : 2007.

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