For some organizations, the transition from OHSAS18001 to iso45001 will require a huge amount of work, and iso45001 puts forward more new requirements, rather than using the existing OHSAS18001 management system as the framework to meet.

According to ILO estimates, more than two million people die each year as a result of work activities. This simple statistical data clearly shows that the requirements for occupational health and safety rules are increasingly urgent, and the use of a unified standard to help organizations standardize processes to ensure compliance has become increasingly important.

Accordingly, OHSAS18001 standard was published by OHSAS in 1999, which was further developed in 2007 and further integrated with ISO9001 and ISO14001 standard language and architecture. Now, the international organization for Standardization (ISO) certifies its commitment to a new standard, iso45001, to replace OHSAS18001. The standard is expected to be released in the fall of 2016.

Considering the time relationship, standards need different language versions, which may take more time; however, at this stage, we can start to understand the thinking of standard framework in advance. The goal of iso45001 is to be more consistent with the use of other ISO standards, making it easier for users to implement and manage various standards. In addition, compared with OHSAS18001, iso45001 will pay more attention to the monitoring and measurement of management responsibilities and performance, and make use of the advanced architecture of PDCA that users are more familiar with.

For some organizations, the transition from OHSAS18001 to iso45001 will require a huge amount of work, and iso45001 puts forward more new requirements, rather than using the existing OHSAS18001 management system as the framework to meet. However, it is worth noting that accreditation organizations, such as ANAB and UKAS, may not continue to provide OHSAS18001 accreditation after the publication of iso45001. At this stage, we are still waiting for the transition rules, but it can be predicted that there will be a transition period of transition, so that the organization has enough time to upgrade to the new standard. Before iso45001 is ready for publication, OHSAS18001 will still be used by organizations that need to seek occupational health and safety system certification in the near future. Maybe some organizations want to establish their system based on iso45001 as soon as possible or at least use the thinking of new standards, then the draft of standards can also be obtained. However, please note that the draft version will change, sometimes it may be very big. However, again, there will be enough conversion time.

Look at the development of standards. The release plan of iso45001 has been fully planned. The draft Committee (CD version) has been released for a three-month review period, and the next committee meeting will be held in December this year. At the end of the committee meeting, a new draft international standard (DIS) will be produced in the spring of 2015, a final draft international standard (FDIS) will be produced in the summer of 2016, and the final standard will be released in the fourth quarter of 2016.