Safety management system

Last updated

An occupational safety management system (OSMS) is a management system designed to manage occupational safety and health risks in the workplace. If the system contains elements of management of longer-term health impacts and occupational disease, it may be referred to as a occupational safety and health management system (OSHMS) or occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS).

Contents

Description

An OSMS provides a systematic way to continuously identify and monitor hazards and control risks while maintaining assurance that these risk controls are effective. [1] OSMS can be defined as:

...a businesslike approach to occupational safety. It is a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing occupational safety risks. As with all management systems, a occupational safety management system provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. A occupational safety management system is woven into the fabric of an organization. It becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs. [2]

There are three imperatives for adopting a occupational safety management system for a business – these are ethical, legal and financial. There is an implied moral obligation placed upon an employer to ensure that work activities and the place of work are safe; there are legislative requirements defined in every jurisdiction on how this is to be achieved and there is a substantial body of evidence which shows that effective occupational safety management can reduce the financial exposure and damage to the reputation of an organisation by reducing accidents.

To address these three important elements, an effective OSMS should:

The foundation to an effective occupational safety management system is that of effective risk management. The defined process within an organisation for the identification, assessment, evaluation and control (or risk treatment) of risk will be key, must be carefully considered and then documented within the occupational safety management system. As with occupational safety management, there are a number of risk management models that can be used depending on the risk profile of an organisation, but the internationally recognised standard ISO 31000 - Risk management – Guidelines [3] is a common starting point. Interestingly, there is no reference to safety within the standard.

Historical context

Occupational safety management evolved as a counterweight to the exploitation of workers in industry through the 19th and 20th centuries. As the industrial revolution opened up substantial commercial opportunities in Western societies, the financial imperative of business owners and industrialists lead to the use of an exploited, unskilled and uneducated workforce including child labour and rural migrant workers, often in working conditions where injury and death were day to day occurrences.

It became the remit of legislators with a social conscience to understand that governments had a moral and legal responsibility to protect workers using general and industry specific occupational safety legislation. In the UK, the early 19th century Factory Acts were a significant development for gradually improving occupational safety through the decades, in fact the last iteration was made in 1961. This evolving environment was also the driving force behind the formation of the trade union or labour union movements and worker representation in the early 19th century across Europe and America which developed through the decades into representation in wage and working condition negotiations, but also in protecting the health, safety and welfare of workers.

One clear example of how unsafe and dangerous work conditions had become during the industrial revolution can be seen in this extract relating to an early 20th century mining disaster in West Virginia, USA.

As the 19th century closed out and the 20th century began, West Virginia had become a more dangerous place to mine than most.

West Virginia fell far behind other major coal-producing states in regulating mining conditions. Between 1890 and 1912, West Virginia had a higher mine death rate than any other state. West Virginia was the site of numerous deadly coal mining accidents, including the nation's worst coal disaster. On December 6, 1907, an explosion at a mine owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah, Marion County, killed 361. One historian has suggested that during World War I, a U.S. soldier had a better statistical chance of surviving in battle than did a West Virginian working in the coal mines. [4]

The drivers that were to positively influence mine safety as the 20th century progressed included; improvements in mining legislation with regulatory oversight and in occupational health and safety legislation, involvement by trade unions to improve workers’ rights and working conditions, developments in mining technologies and a more general acceptance in wider society that such high levels of fatalities were no longer acceptable. [5]

As research into occupational medicine improved, it had become possible to start to identify industrial diseases and illnesses caused by exposure to industry specific hazards such as coal dust in mining (miners black lung or coalworker's pneumoconiosis), asbestos in construction (asbestosis and mesothelioma), exposure to physical agents such as occupational noise from industrial machinery (hearing loss, tinnitus or deafness) and vibration hazards from tools and equipment (hand-arm vibration syndrome and vibration white finger). These disabling and often fatal hazard vectors could then be targeted by legislation to reduce worker exposure to these dangerous substances and activities.

As more industry specific and general safety, health and welfare related legislation started to be introduced, it became necessary for employers to have a framework within which these safety regulations could be understood, managed and the legal requirements implemented. This was necessary, not just to comply with regulations but to also avoid fines and legal costs for non-compliance, increased insurance and workers compensation costs due to accidents and especially in the U.S. increasingly expensive criminal and civil liability lawsuits for death and injury caused at work.

Basic occupational safety management components

International Labour Organization OSMS model

The ILO guidance document is one of the most basic and adaptable models for organizations to utilize when developing a occupational safety management system. In the ILO guidance document, [6] the basic occupational safety management components are:

  1. Policy – Establish within policy statements the requirements for sufficient resources; define top management commitment and state occupational safety and health (OSH) targets.
  2. Organizing – How is the organization structured; how is responsibility and accountability defined; how does the organization communicate internally and externally; what documentation is required and how is training and competency defined.
  3. Planning and Implementation – How does the organization plan for, develop and implement its approach to risk management; how are hazards identified and risk effectively managed; what goals and objectives are set to drive OHS performance and measure progress; what arrangements are made for contingency and emergency situations.
  4. Evaluation – How is OSH performance measured and assessed; what is the processes for the reporting and investigation of accidents and incidents; what internal and external audit processes are in place to review and verify the system.
  5. Action for Improvement – How are corrective and preventive action created, managed and closed out; what processes are in place to ensure the continual improvement process.


Although other occupational safety management models may use different terminology, the basic components and workflow for occupational safety management systems will be the same. The desired outcome is an effective Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) process where the goal is that of continual and measurable improvement.

Relationship to other business management practices

An OSMS is intended to act as a part of the business administration system for an organization to effectively meet its legal obligations under applicable occupational safety and health laws. The scope of the organization's operations and therefore its risk profile will determine how the OSMS is structured and what resources are required to manage occupational health and safety risk effectively. Occupational safety management should be considered as a part of the overall business management system of an organization and not an add-on to it. Due to the close association between health and safety, occupational safety management systems (OSMS) are increasingly known as occupational safety and health management system (OSHMS) or occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS). Further, management standards across a range of business functions such as safety, environment and quality are now being designed so that these traditionally disparate elements can be integrated and managed within a single business management system and not as separate and stand-alone functions. Therefore ,some organizations dovetail other management system functions, such as safety management, environmental management and quality management together with occupational safety management to meet both regulatory requirements, industry sector requirements and their own internal and discretionary standard requirements.

Effective occupational safety management means that organizations need to ensure they are looking at all occupational safety risks within the organization as a single system, rather than having multiple, competing, 'Safety Management Silos'. [7] If safety is not seen holistically, it can interfere with the prioritization of improvements or even result in safety issues being missed. For example, after the March 2005 BP Texas City refinery explosion, investigations concluded that the company had put too much emphasis on personal safety thus ignoring the safety of their processes. The antidote to such silo thinking is the proper evaluation of all risks, a key aspect of an effective OSMS. [8]

Development of occupational safety management standards

Industry sector standards

Over time, particular occupational safety management models can become a preferred standard within an industry sector which is an approach often driven by industry representative bodies or trade associations. In industries where public occupational safety is a prime consideration or where organisations operate in a high risk industry sector, specific regulations may be introduced which detail requirements that fit the industry risk profile, such as the OSHA requirement for a process occupational safety management system. [9]

Industry specific occupational safety management include:

Regulatory requirements for a occupational safety management system include:

Independent occupational safety management standards include:

National and international standards

Many countries have developed national occupational safety management models that have become adopted by organizations across a wide range of industries. National standards draw on experience and knowledge from a wide variety of organizations and individuals and can provide a uniform and consistent framework in which to work. In addition, such standards can be externally accessed and certified, which for many organizations is a very desirable goal.

These standards have a number of benefits:

The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001 (OHSAS 18001) standard from 1999 was an attempt to consolidate and establish a definitive certifiable standard internationally, taking lessons and best practice from many national standards. It was widely adopted with a revision undertaken in 2007. The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series Project Group was independent of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use standard was withdrawn and replaced by the ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use standard [21]

One significant development that ISO 45001 has introduced is compatibility with the ISO 14001 environmental management and the ISO 9001 quality management standards.

See also

Related Research Articles

The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of it is help organizations (a) minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment ; (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and (c) continually improve in the above.

A management system is a set of policies, processes and procedures used by an organization to ensure that it can fulfill the tasks required to achieve its objectives. These objectives cover many aspects of the organization's operations. For instance, a quality management system enables organizations to improve their quality performance, an environmental management system enables organizations to improve their environmental performance, and an occupational health and safety management system enables organizations to improve their occupational health and safety performance, can be run in an integrated management system.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. OSHA's mission is to "assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance." The agency is also charged with enforcing a variety of whistleblower statutes and regulations. OSHA's workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects on employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hazard analysis and critical control points</span> Systematic preventive approach to food safety

Hazard analysis and critical control points, or HACCP, is a systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe and designs measures to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP attempts to avoid hazards rather than attempting to inspect finished products for the effects of those hazards. The HACCP system can be used at all stages of a food chain, from food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) require mandatory HACCP programs for juice and meat as an effective approach to food safety and protecting public health. Meat HACCP systems are regulated by the USDA, while seafood and juice are regulated by the FDA. All other food companies in the United States that are required to register with the FDA under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, as well as firms outside the US that export food to the US, are transitioning to mandatory hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls (HARPC) plans.

In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the violations both by the wrongdoer and by others. This view has been supported by economic theory, which has framed punishment in terms of costs and has explained compliance in terms of a cost-benefit equilibrium. However, psychological research on motivation provides an alternative view: granting rewards or imposing fines for a certain behavior is a form of extrinsic motivation that weakens intrinsic motivation and ultimately undermines compliance.

ISO/IEC 20000 is the international standard for IT service management. It was developed in 2005 by ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 and revised in 2011 and 2018. It was originally based on the earlier BS 15000 that was developed by BSI Group.

Environment, health and safety (EHS) is an interdisciplinary field focused on the study and implementation of practical aspects environmental protection and safeguard of people's health and safety, especially in an occupational context. It is what organizations must do to make sure that their activities do not cause harm. Commonly, quality - quality assurance and quality control - is adjoined to form HSQE or equivalent initialisms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISO 22000</span> Food safety standard

ISO 22000 is a food safety management system by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which is outcome focused, providing requirements for any organization in the food industry with objective to help to improve overall performance in food safety. These standards are intended to ensure safety in the global food supply chain. The standards involve the overall guidelines for food safety management and also focuses on traceability in the feed and food chain.

The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), formerly known as American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), is a global organization of occupational safety and health (OSH) professional members who manage, supervise, research and consult on work-related OSH concerns across all industries. Society members use risk-based approaches to prevent workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses.

ISO 31000 is a family of international standards relating to risk management codified by the International Organization for Standardization. The standard is intended to provide a consistent vocabulary and methodology for assessing and managing risk, resolving the historic ambiguities and differences in the ways risk are described.

ISO 26262, titled "Road vehicles – Functional safety", is an international standard for functional safety of electrical and/or electronic systems that are installed in serial production road vehicles, defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2011, and revised in 2018.

Nigel Howard Croft is a globally recognized authority on quality management and conformity assessment. He retired as Chairman of the ISO Joint Technical Coordination Group for Management System Standards in December 2023 after serving a three-year term, having been appointed by ISO's Technical Management Board in December 2020. During his tenure, he coordinated the deployment of the ISO London Declaration on Climate Action into all ISO Management System Standards, requiring organizations that implement these standards to determine the extent to which climate change can affect their results and the ways in which their activities can have a impact on climate change. This can then lead to the implementation of risk-based adaptation and mitigation strategies. Dr Croft was previously Chair of the ISO Technical Committee TC 176/SC 2 from February 2010 until December 2018, with overall responsibility for the ISO 9001 standard, used worldwide as a basis for certification of quality management systems, and the ISO 9004 guidelines standard aimed at improving organisational performance, among others. In 2019 and 2020 he led the revision of "Annex SL" of the ISO Directives, that forms the basis for over 40 management system standards including those on environmental management, Occupational Health and Safety, Information Security, Anti-bribery, Food Safety, Artificial Intelligence and many more.

Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001 was an international standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It was developed in March 1999 by Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series Project Group, by a national standards bodies, academic bodies, accreditation bodies, certification bodies and occupational health and safety institutions, with the UK’s national standards body, BSI Group, providing the secretariat. The goal of it is the reduction of occupational injuries and diseases, including promoting and protecting physical and mental health. ISO 45001 was published in March 2018 by the International Organization for Standardization. Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series Project Group adopted the ISO 45001. Organizations that are certified to OHSAS 18001 were able to migrate to integrated management system or ISO 45001 by March 2021 to retain a valid certification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational safety and health</span> Field concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people at work

Occupational safety and health (OSH) or occupational health and safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work. OSH is related to the fields of occupational medicine and occupational hygiene and aligns with workplace health promotion initiatives. OSH also protects all the general public who may be affected by the occupational environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISO 45001</span> International standard for occupational health and safety management systems

ISO 45001 is an international standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It was developed in March 2018 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of it is the reduction of occupational injuries and diseases, including promoting and protecting physical and mental health.

A psychosocial hazard or work stressor is any occupational hazard related to the way work is designed, organized and managed, as well as the economic and social contexts of work. Unlike the other three categories of occupational hazard, they do not arise from a physical substance, object, or hazardous energy.

The Annex SL is a section of the ISO/IEC Directives part 1 that prescribes how ISO Management System Standard (MSS) standards should be written. The aim of Annex SL is to enhance the consistency and alignment of MSS by providing a unifying and agreed-upon high level structure, identical core text and common terms and core definitions. The aim being that all ISO Type A MSS are aligned and the compatibility of these standards is enhanced.

MS 1722:2011 – Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems – Requirements is a Malaysian Standard that provides requirements on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OSHMS) and basis for the development OSH systems in an organisation. The MS 1722 standard enable an organization to manage its OHS risks and improve its OHS performance. The requirements of the standard are intended to address OHS for employees, temporary employees, contractors and other personnel on site rather than the safety of products and services. The standards provide a more effective method of protecting employees and others from workplace injuries and illnesses and demonstrate management commitment in meeting OHS requirements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workplace safety standards</span> Standards to reduce occupational risk

Workplace safety standards are sets of standards developed with the goal of reducing risk from occupational hazards.

References

  1. ↑ "System Approach for Safety Oversight" (PDF). SASO Outreach. Spring 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 21, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  2. ↑ "Transport Canada publication TP 13739". Archived from the original on June 16, 2008.
  3. ↑ "ISO - ISO 31000 — Risk management". December 10, 2021. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  4. ↑ "West Virginia's Mine Wars". West Virginia State Archives. Archived from the original on February 23, 2020. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  5. ↑ Tilleard, Andrew (May 13, 2020). Success from Failure: Learning from Industrial Accidents and Disasters. ISBN   978-1-9999499-8-3.
  6. ↑ ILO-OSH 2001 Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems. International Labour Organisation. January 1, 2009. ISBN   978-92-2-111634-9. Archived from the original on May 9, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  7. ↑ Evans, Andy; Parker, John (May 2008). "Safety Management Systems" (PDF). Beyond Safety Management Systems. AeroSafety World. pp. 12–17. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  8. ↑ Baker, James A (January 2007). "Report of the BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved September 29, 2009.
  9. 1 2 "1910.119 - Process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals. | Occupational Safety and Health Administration". Archived from the original on October 11, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  10. ↑ "IOGP - the global oil and gas industry trade association". Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Operating Management System Framework for controlling risk and delivering high performance in the oil and gas industry". Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Safety Management". ICAO. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Safety Management System (SMS) for Airports – Guidance, Tools, & Related Information". Federal Aviation Administration. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023.
  14. ↑ Dickstein (July 28, 2011). "EASA Begins the Process of Implementing SMS Rules". Archived from the original on January 12, 2015.
  15. ↑ "The International Safety Management (ISM) Code". Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Consolidated federal laws of canada, Railway Safety Management System Regulations, 2015". April 2015. Archived from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  17. ↑ "American National Standards Institute - ANSI Home". Archived from the original on October 16, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  18. ↑ "ASSP - American Society of Safety Professionals | ASSP". Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  19. ↑ "ANSI / ASSP Z10 OSH Management Standard | ASSP". Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Hand and Arm Vibration Assessments".
  21. ↑ "Iso 45001:2018". September 22, 2022. Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.