Health, Safety, Environment (HSE)

Katie Bird (Head Communication and Content Strategies) ISO +41 22 749 0431 bird@iso.org ISO 14001, the world’s most popular standard for environmental management, is now under review, with an update version due to be available in early 2015.  Over 250,000 organizations are certified to ISO 14001 and while it continues to be as relevant as ever, the revision will take into consideration a number of issues to ensure organizations are able to grow in a sustainable way.  ISO 14001, one of ISO’s most successful management system standards, is shortly to undergo its second revision to ensure that it remains relevant over the next two decades. Since it was first published in 1996, ISO 14001:2004, Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use, has been adopted by well over 250 000 certified users in 155 countries worldwide. Recently, over 40 experts from some 25 countries, members of ISO/TC 207, Environmental management, the ISO technical comm...

This brief guide describes what you, as an employer, need to do to protect your  Following this guidance is normally enough to comply with the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (WAHR). Falls from height are one of the biggest causes of workplace fatalities and major injuries. Common causes are falls from ladders and through fragile roofs. The purpose of WAHR is to prevent death and injury from a fall from height. Work at height means work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. For example  you are working at height if you:  ■ are working on a ladder or a flat roof;  ■ could fall through a fragile surface;  ■ could fall into an opening in a floor or a hole in the ground.   Take a sensible approach when considering precautions for work at height. There may be some low-risk situations where common sense tells you no particular precautions are necessa...

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 do not ban ladders. They require that ladders should only be considered where a risk assessment has shown that the use of other more suitable work equipment is not appropriate because of the low risk, and short duration of the task or considerations of where the work is located. HSC accepts the practicalities of the use of ladders for work at height, and the fact that they are commonly used in a wide variety of situations. Ladders are used in almost all employment sectors, sometimes for purposes other than those for which they were designed. Schedule 6 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 deals with the requirements for ladders and states: ’Schedule 6 Requirements for Ladders: Every employer shall ensure that a ladder is used for work at height only if a risk assessment under regulation 3 of the Management Regulations has demonstrated that the use of more suitable work equipment is not justified because of the low risk and - the shor...

JSA and a (Qualitative) Risk Assessment (QRA) are different hazard and risk management tools. When you're doing a JSA, you are not, in fact, performing a risk assessment, which is a completely separate tool in risk management tool box. In a JSA, the work team goes through a fairly simple analysis by breaking a job down into task-steps and then running through a six-step process to identify the following information: 1) the hazards in each step; 2) the triggers that could release the hazards; 3) the incidents that could occur in each step should the hazard be uncontrollably released; 4) the potential consequences of an uncontrolled hazard; 5) the prevention controls to be used to control the hazard; and 6) the mitigation and recovery controls to be used to manage any emergency and recover control over the hazard. I call the above process "Think 6, Look 6" to describe what workers need to do to complete a JSA! In QRA, a team assesses the risk (likelihood) of any ...

You will need to introduce preventative and protective measures to control the risks you have identified by your risk assessment.   To help you to identify the best way to control the risk, a ‘hierarchy of control measures’ has been developed.  You need to adopt solutions from the top of the hierarchy before considering those lower down.  The hierarchy begins with ‘elimination’, as eliminating the risk altogether will always be preferable to risk reduction.   1.     Elimination  – if possible, avoid the risk altogether- For example, do the work in a different way, taking care not to introduce new hazards; use mechanical pile cropping techniques to avoid piling. 2.   Substitution  - you could substitute a dangerous product or tool for one, which is less dangerous. 3.   Control the risk at source  - For example using manual handling aids when lifting heavy objects; fitting local exhaust v...

Add caption OHSAS 18000 is an international occupational health and safety management system specification. It comprises two parts, 18001 and 18002 and embraces a number of other publications. For the record, the following other documents, amongst others, were  used in the creation process: -BS8800:1996 Guide to occupational health and safety management systems -DNV Standard for Certification of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems(OHSMS):1997 -Technical Report NPR 5001: 1997 Guide to an occupational health and safety management system -Draft LRQA SMS 8800 Health & safety management systems assessment criteria -SGS & ISMOL ISA 2000:1997 Requirements for Safety and Health Management Systems -BVQI SafetyCert: Occupational Safety and Health Management Standard -Draft AS/NZ 4801 Occupational health and safety management systems -Specification with guidance for      use -Draft BSI PAS 088 Occupational health and safety management sy...