New health and safety challenges are at the forefront of concerns facing most organizations today.

In March 2018, the International Organization for Standardization published the comprehensive International Standard ISO 45001. The new standard created a complete Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) with the intent of providing a meaningful framework for managing OH&S risks and opportunities.

ISO 45001 focuses on identifying risks and opportunities, hazard identification and risk assessment, and operational controls. This standard is designed to help organizations, regardless of size or industry, implement an OHSMS to proactively prevent injury and harm to health. Requirements of the standard were simplified to enable easy integration with other ISO standards and into an organization’s management and business processes.

An OHSMS can provide the framework for organizations to address “communicable diseases” such as the Coronavirus. Relevant biological hazards are addressed through risk assessments and related processes that take into consideration applicable legal & other requirements (such as travel restrictions, workplace routines, employee health screenings, training, exposure reporting, etc. that employers must comply with, whether required externally or by the organization). Requirements of the standard offer systematic processes for managing risk, regulatory compliance, promotion of safe work practices, evaluation of occupational health and safety performance, and continual improvement.

Integrating responsibility for health and safety issues as part of an organization’s overall management system improves leadership and worker engagement, leading to enhanced occupational health and safety performance. An effective, integrated business management system creates streamlined processes, making it significantly easier and more cost-effective to manage health and safety risks, while realizing the benefits of minimizing and avoiding liabilities and associated costs, which can bring about competitive advantage.

Why work with LSQA Middle East?

LSQA Middle East is at the forefront of occupational health and safety management systems. We are fully accredited to offer third-party certification to the ISO 45001 standard by the EGAC which is IAF Full Member. Also, we have been providing occupational health and safety management system certification services since 2012. We can bring this experience to all our clients globally, while leveraging our extensive expertise in the related management system standards including ISO 9001, ISO 50001, ISO 22000 and ISO 14001 etc.

For more information on ISO 45001 from the International Organization for Standardization please visit iso.org.