Worldwide safety and health standard to move onto next development stage

ISO 45001 would be the first occupational safety and health management system with a true international consensus.

The committee developing the standard – known as ISO PC 283 – met in Dublin last week to examine and resolve comments which have been made about the draft standard by safety and health experts from around the globe.

The five-day meeting followed a similar gathering held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in January.

ISO 45001 has now been approved to move from the Committee Draft stage to the Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. It will move onto this stage following the next meeting of the committee in September.

Richard Jones, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, said: "This will be a major milestone and will keep the draft standard on track to achieve the publishing date of October 2016.”

Richard was among delegates in Dublin at last week’s committee meeting. IOSH is a Category A Liaison body on the committee, which was set up by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

"IOSH was pleased to take part in two task groups helping to examine and resolve nearly 2,500 comments from all across the world, including almost 50 from IOSH,” Richard added.

"When the DIS is issued, there will be a further opportunity for IOSH members to comment on the draft standard and we will keep members informed.”

Once the DIS is submitted to the ISO Secretariat, it will be circulated to all ISO members, who get three months to vote and comment on it. From here it can either go straight to publication or go to the Final Draft International Standard stage.

ISO 45001 will require that safety and health is managed in a systematic and integral way within organisations, and is not just looked on as an added extra. It is intended that it will replace OHSAS 18001.

The ultimate aim is that this standard will lead to improved safety and health performance and help drive down the number of deaths, injuries and illnesses caused by work. According to statistics from the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 6,300 people die every day in the world as a result of work-related injury or disease – more than 2.3 million deaths per year.