Organizations considering the implementation of ISO 14001 often ask if the standard is applicable to safety and health programs as well as environmental issues. We believe that the answer is unequivocally yes.
Not only is ISO 14001 applicable to health/safety programs, it can also provide the same benefits that it makes possible in the environmental area. These include:
Meeting and/or exceeding regulatory requirements, Placing greater attention on significant issues not driven by regulations (establishing a safety culture, raising employee morale), Establishing a commitment to improve and measure performance, and Improving communications between managers and hourly employees.
In addition, using ISO14001 to integrate environmental/safety/health programs into the business system produces other benefits. Measures that reduce environmental incidents can decrease or eliminate worker exposures to hazardous materials. Conversely, increasing awareness of safety practices can focus employees’ attention on environmental concerns. In fact, the success of health, safety, and environmental programs often hinges on worker understanding, attitude, and commitment. The corporate culture must change to make these matters a natural part of each employee’s approach to his or her work.
The ISO 14001 standard assumes that such cultural transformation occurs through employee involvement and responsibility from the bottom up, not via dictates from the top. That assumption, and other concepts present in ISO 14001, is applicable to health and safety. Therefore, it’s reasonable to consider the use of the standard in an integrated approach that can bring about change for all three. Some organizations have done so, and many others will eventually see the wisdom of employing ISO 14001 for that purpose.
How can ISO 14001 be useful for health and safety when it was intended to address the environmental aspects of organizations? These three areas are so linked that a management standard for one can have equal applicability to the others. The reason ISO 14001 was not specifically aimed at health and safety had more to do with professional parochialism and the politics of international standards writing than with any concern about the logic of doing so. In ISO 14001, the only acknowledgement that it could be useful for health and safety appears in the introduction, which recommends its use to those who may need to apply the standard to those areas. No other specific references appear in the document, because the standard’s developers felt that health and safety professionals would eventually develop their own version of ISO 14001. This new version has not emerged, and the likelihood of it happening anytime soon is rather low, because current stakeholders’ views militate against it.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Certification Of ISO 14001 Standards
Certification Of ISO 14001
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is functioning from Geneva in Switzerland as a worldwide federation of national standards organizations. The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing corporation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. ISO’s works result in international agreements which are published as international agreements which are published as international standards.
Previous version of ISO 9000 (1994) emphasize on documents and document control. But as per new standard the extent of documentation can differ from company to company in a simplified manner.
ISO 9000 system requires records at relevant stages which provide data for continual improvement and can be used for legacy as a data bank.
ISO 14000, the environmental management system family of standards, was formally published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on September 2, 1996. ISO 14001 is the conformance standard within the ISO 14000 series. After extensive groundwork, the revised version of ISO 14001 was released on 15th of November 2004. ISO 14001:2004 will replace ISO 14001:1996 after a transition period of 18 months, ending on 14th May 2006, and will become the basis for the certification procedure for environmental management. All ISO 14001:1996 certificates will be rendered invalid on 15th May 2006
Since 1996 the ISO 14001 has formed the basis for structuring, implementation, review and further development of environmental management systems. It lays down the applicable demands for organizations of all kinds and sizes as well as for diverse geographical, cultural and social conditions. The overall objective is to promote environmental protection and the prevention of environmental stress in harmony with economic, social and political requirements.
OHSAS 18001 is an Occupation Health and Safety Assessment Series for health and safety management systems. It is intended to help an organizations to control occupational health and safety risks (OH&S). The importance of managing Occupational Health and Safety is recognized by all interested parties – employers, employees, customers, suppliers, insurers,shareholders, the community, contractors, and regulatory agencies. It enables an organization to control occupational health and safety risks risks and to improve performance.
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