The scientific and systematic works carried out with the aim of protecting the employees from the dangers that may arise in the workplace and carrying out the work in the workplaces and in situations that would harm the health and creating a better working environment are called occupational health and safety studies. Based on this definition, it can be said that the aim of the studies carried out to ensure occupational health and safety is to protect employees from occupational accidents and diseases.
Occupational health and safety activities are carried out for the following purposes:
• Creating a healthy and safe working environment for employees
• Protecting employees against health and safety risks arising from their environment
• Ensuring and improving security welfare for employees
• To ensure the continuity of production in the company
• Increasing the productivity of the company
According to the statistics, our country is not very domestic in terms of occupational accidents. On average, four people die every day from work accidents. Every year, 15 has more than a thousand disabled people. Every year, the average 140 thousand employees have an occupational accident.
Occupational accidents are mainly experienced in construction, mining and metal sector.
In order to ensure occupational health and safety, the machines and working methods used in the workplace must be safe and harmless to health. Appropriate protective measures must be taken to protect against biological or chemical substances used in the workplace. Necessary trainings should be given considering the skills and abilities of the employees. It is necessary to monitor how the work performed, the practices related to the work and the measures taken are implemented. Necessary measures must be taken in accordance with the size and activities of the workplace. In accordance with the nature of the work performed, employees should be provided with protective clothing and equipment against hazards. Measures to eliminate extreme mental and physical fatigue should be taken. The methods of response to possible accidents should be known by the employees. Within the scope of occupational health and safety, scientific and technical information should be kept at hand.
Again, according to statistics, 78 percent of work accidents are caused by insecure movements based on human factor and 20 percent is caused by insecure situations caused by workplace environment.
Judging from the causes of occupational accidents, some of these accidents are caused by employees' own heatn preparation and lack of organization, some of them to act hastily, some of the employees iş security is caused by lack of awareness.
According to the International Labor Organization, occupational accidents are events that are previously unknown and uncontrolled, which will harm the employees and the environment. According to the World Health Organization, occupational accidents are unplanned events that cause most personal injuries, damage to machinery and equipment, and stop production for a while.
Another important issue in terms of occupational health is occupational diseases. Occupational diseases are temporary or permanent illnesses, disability or mental illnesses experienced by employees depending on the nature of the work. Occupational diseases can be caused by many physical, chemical, biological and psychological factors.
OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System
Firms producing goods or services have to address and continuously improve occupational health and safety activities in a systematic manner in line with their general strategies. The OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard is an important tool for the proper conduct of this work. Unfortunately in our country efforts for occupational health and safety as the use of personal protectors. In addition, these efforts were seen only as a necessary task and were not really targeted at employee health and safety. It has been perceived in the world until recently. But in 1996 The British Standards Institute has taken serious steps in this direction and has published the BS 8800 Occupational Health and Safety Management System Guide. This study is not based on any certification work but merely serves as a guide for health and safety issues. Following this initial implementation, new standards of occupational health and safety have been published in other countries in a similar manner, based on the BS 8800 standard, the contents and forms of which are different from each other. In order to eliminate this differentiation, the British Standards Institute started a new study in 1999 and prepared the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard. In this way, an internationally accepted health and safety standard has emerged. However, it is important to remember that the OHSAS 18001 standard is internationally recognized, but it is not an ISO standard.
The basic principles of the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard are as follows:
- There should be an occupational health and safety management system policy approved by senior management.
- A comprehensive planning work should be conducted to identify hazards, identify risks and take the necessary measures.
- Applications and activities related to identified and probable risks should be defined and contingency plans should be prepared.
- System performance should be monitored and measured on a regular basis and corrective and preventive actions taken when necessary.
- Risk assessments should be made and the system should be subject to internal audits at regular intervals.
- The top management of the company should periodically review the system.
With OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System, The authorities and responsibilities of employees, managers and supervisors are made clear and the participation of employees at all levels is ensured.
In short, the main objective of the OHSAS 18001 standard is to eliminate or minimize the risks in the company in the light of legal regulations on occupational health and safety, to create a healthy and safe working environment and to ensure the sustainability of this environment. In other words, the OHSAS 18001 standard has three main objectives:
- Protecting employees: The first objective is to protect employees from the negative effects of the workplace and to provide a comfortable and safe working environment.
- Ensuring production safety: The second objective is to minimize labor, time and material losses due to occupational diseases and work accidents, thereby increasing labor productivity.
- Ensuring company safety: The third objective is to prevent situations such as fire, explosion or machine failures that may endanger the company by taking precautions in the working environment.
What is ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System?
Unfortunately, legislators and private organizations on occupational health and safety, as explained above, have not seriously upheld the issue to date.
It is a fact that the International Standards Organization has not been able to develop standards to ensure occupational health and safety. As a matter of fact, the OHSAS 1999 standard issued in 18001 has filled an important gap in this sense. However, people and organizations are increasingly aware of the quality and environmental conditions. People are no longer just looking for quality products or services, but also interested in the social responsibility of the manufacturing companies. In this direction, people also question whether the companies comply with the legal regulations related to worker health and safety, whether they establish a safe and healthy working environment and whether they continuously improve this working environment.
Therefore, in order to complete the deficiency in this field, International Standards Organization, ISO 45001. It has rolled up its arms to prepare the Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard. This new standard will replace the BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard, which is now recognized worldwide.
The first draft study was published in February of this year and the ISO 45001 standard received some suggestions and requests during the first vote and the draft was not approved. The second version of the revised draft adopted in the second vote. The final version of the standard is expected to be published in December of this year or in January of 2017. ISO 45001 standard is likely to be implemented. 2017 will be in the second half.
When preparing the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System standard, attention was paid to ensure compliance with the ISO 2015 Quality Management System standard and ISO 9001 Environmental Management System standard revised in 14001. In this way, the ISO 45001 standardIs composed of ten items in accordance with the new structure called Annex SL which forms the roof of the quality systems.
After the ISO 45001 standard is published, the current OHSAS 18001 standard will be valid for a while.
What Does ISO 45001 Standard Bring?
The ISO 45001 standard brings companies an internationally recognized occupational health and safety standard. This standard provides the necessary conditions for risk management, formal and systematic analysis, compliance with regulatory requirements, the promotion of safer business practices and the assessment of occupational health and safety performance. With this systematic approach, production will be stopped and loss of life and property, time, labor and material losses will be reduced to the lowest level.
In the preparation of the ISO 45001 standard only It is not the Technical Committee of the International Standards Organization;More than fifty countries and organizations, including the International Labor Organization, have taken responsibility to comply with international needs and requirements. In this way, a standard that can be used by companies from all over the world and from every sector has been developed. ISO 45001 can be applied by all companies that can foresee beyond the occupational health and safety issues and take into consideration the expectations of the society.
With the establishment and implementation of ISO 45001 standard in companies employees will be prepared for adverse situations, the company's occupational health and safety performance will be monitored, improvement activities will be carried out according to the monitoring results, company activities will be audited, reviewed and reported. The fact that this standard is applied for employees is an important trust factor, and employees will be a part of the system in this way.
What will be the benefit of ISO 45001 Standard for Companies?
First of all, since some measures will be taken in a timely manner, explosions, fires, machine failures and similar incidents which endanger the company and its employees shall be prevented. In this context, possible occupational diseases and occupational accidents will be prevented.
Occupational diseases and work accidents cause serious production and labor losses. Eliminating or minimizing them will provide significant savings to companies. Costs of firms will decrease and their productivity will increase.
Companies applying the ISO 45001 standard will not be subject to any sanctions since they will also comply with the relevant legal regulations.
In the meantime, companies will gain superiority over their competitors in the sector in which they operate and create a sensitive and responsible company image against their customers.
our organization TÜRCERT Technical Control and Certification Inc., ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System certification studies, national and international accreditation organizations are based on the authority.