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ISO Published New Set of Occupational Health & Safety Standards – ISO 45001: 2018
A recent study by International Labour Organization (ILO) says that every day almost 7700 people die out of industrial accidents totaling to 2.78 million every year and still counting. Besides this, each year almost 374 million people suffer from the work-related disorders causing absenteeism from their work. Doesn’t these huge numbers sound upsetting? Of course, Occupational injuries are always bothersome catastrophes. Negligence on it can cause serious damages and ineffable losses to the enormous lives and the organizations as well.
To avoid such difficulties, ISO has designed a set of new and effective standards, ISO 45001, “Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use”, by a committee of Occupations Health and Safety Specialists, which integrates and aligns with other generic management system such as ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) and ISO 9001 (Quality management). The main objective of this effectual set of standards is to improve the work safety principles and to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses worldwide by bringing the Safety World Together with ISO 45001.
The ISO 45001 framework replaces the World’s previous reference standard for Occupational Health & Safety OHSAS 18001. The new Occupational Health and Safety standards are grounded on the simple model of PDCA (Plan-DO-Check-Act). By these set of frameworks, Organizations can plan the safety measures on what to include, with the purpose of minimizing the risks at workplace.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published this new global standard on 12 March 2018.
This document provides a framework to enable businesses to implement effective arrangements for managing occupational health and safety. The implementation of an OH&S management system is a strategic and operational decision for an organization. The success of the OH&S management system depends on leadership, commitment and participation from all levels and functions of the organization.
The standard will help organizations reduce the burden of occupational injuries and illness by providing a framework that can be adopted to improve employee safety, reduce workplace risks and create better, safer working conditions, to all stakeholders.”
Key Changes include:
- ISO 45001 is based on the ISO Guide 83, which defines a common high level structure, text and common terms and definitions
- There is a stronger focus on the “organization’s context” where organizations will have to look beyond their own health and safety issues and consider what the society expects from them
- Requires the incorporation of health and safety aspects in the overall management system of the organization, thus driving top management to have a stronger leadership role with respect to the OH&S management system.
- Focuses on identifying and controlling risks rather than hazards
- Requires organizations to take into account how suppliers and contractors are managing their risks.
- Some fundamental concepts are changed, like risk, worker and workplace.
- New definitions of terms such as: monitoring, measurement, effectiveness, OH&S performance and process.
- The terms “document” and “record” have both been replaced with the term “documented information” documented information must be maintained to the extent necessary to have confidence that the processes have been carried out as planned.
Are you interested to make a promising career in safety or to make your workplace safer? Other than acquiring knowledge on ISO 45001, NIST can provide a platform to make it easy for you! NIST has been contributing to Safety through its exceptional and incomparable Training, Auditing, Consulting, and Recruitment & staffing services. NIST contributes in Creating a Better and Safer Workplace for over a decade and will continue to serve its best. To equip yourself safer, get trained or serviced, contribute your part in Occupational Safety and make your Organization a better place to work-in; please connect with us.
Why Health and Safety is important in the Workplace
Today’s world is changing with high rate in all the spheres. Industries are using new machineries, new substances and new methods with advanced technologies in order to lessen the human efforts and improve the productivity. On the top of all, Japan has tested the high speed magnetic levitation train positively at 374 mph to ease the transportation. When manufacturing sector is concerned, a new welding process has been invented to join two high strength metals very quickly without melting the materials. At the same time, the technologies and machineries are being too intricate and needs higher order expertise to handle. The negligence results in unexpected occupational diseases and accidents due to poor response to the sudden events and the insufficient working procedures. Now a days, the Health and safety of the employees are being highlighted by experts in everywhere as it impacts the social and financial aspects of the organization.
Purpose of health and safety
- The reputation of the organization depends on the efforts put forth to create a health and safety environment in their premises.
- Increase in productivity due to sustained work capacity of the employees.
- The loyalty among employees could be achieved when the measures are taken to prevent work related illness and accidents.
- Safety professionals identify the emerging risks due to the substances or work processes in line with the continuous changes in the working environment.
- Create safety awareness and implementation of the safety procedures in the working place.
Need for Health & Safety
Recent workplace health surveys show that the employees are normally suffered by five major concerns in the workplace. They are mental health problems such as anxiety, stress &depression, long term sickness, musculoskeletal disorders, poor work-life balance and poor work practices. In addition to that there are other problems such as working overtime, monotony, fatigue, tiredness which lead to health and safety issues in the workplace. These problems upshot in absenteeism among employees and reduce cost-benefit of the organization. That’s why health and safety is being the inevitable point of focus by the organizations than ever before.
Why accidents in Workplace
As far as accidents are concerned in the workplace, experts say that 80% of the accidents are happening only by the fault of the person working in the spot. Furthermore, one-third of the accidents happen due to the usage of hazardous equipments like hand-lift trucks, gears and pulleys, saws and handrails, electric drop lights, etc. Being lethargic while working, poor knowledge of the working environment, poor housekeeping, neglecting safety procedures, unsafe situational and climatic changes, poor attitude of the employees are the other causes for the accidents.
Prevention Strategies
A well- known writer, Mark Twain said “It is better to be careful 100 times to be careful than get killed once”
- Systematic training provided to the employees will assist the employees to avoid the musculoskeletal problems by keeping good ergonometric methods.
- Employees are needed to have special training to use the tools and equipments, to implement best work-practices, and to be equipped with machine controls. This will be supportive to prevent workplace injuries and avoid risks.
- Specialized training programs have to be arranged to learn the emergency procedures and learn first aid training to respond in the emergency situations.
Contribution of Health and Safety providers
Health and safety professionals are being the nerve system of the organizations with aim of protecting employees and preventing accidents in the work premises. They serve as major contributors towards the productivity of the company and increase the cost benefit to the organization. The reputed safety providers produce well-qualified and competent safety professionals for occupational health and safety. They are offering variety of fundamental and tailor-made training programs as per the requirements of the industry.
NIST, the leading health and safety provider in India, has been serving to the safety sector with the motto of ‘we contribute to safety’ since 2008.
Occupational Health and Safety challenges in India
India is a multi-diversity country with many races, religions and languages with unbending integrity. It is growing rapidly in economy with its enormous massive workforce in various sectors such as IT, manufacturing, construction and etc. In our country, 90 % of the workers and 50% of the national products come from informal workforce who works for unorganized industries. In fact, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that only 10–15% of workers are accessing the basic occupational health services across the world that applies to our country too.
State of informal Workers
Recently, two labors were affected by the exposure of toxic substances such as toluene and silicone due to the negligence in the safety measures while cleaning the tanks in Chennai. If the safety officers with expertise in confined space were there, this incident could have been avoided. The workers in the unorganized companies encounter severe health issues due to insufficient fund allocation for safety precautions, slackness in the implementation of Law & regulation, shortage of OSH professionals for health and safety and many more. This results in risks of accidents, diseases like pneumoconiosis, asbestosis, musculoskeletal injuries, chronic lung diseases and also leads to hearing losses.
As per economical statistics, poor occupational health reduces working capacity of the workers and causes an economic loss of up to 10–20% of GNP (Gross National Product).As a result, it affects the national productivity in a large scale. Presently, there are only about 1,000 qualified occupational health professionals and around 100 qualified hygienists in India. As far as our population is concerned, the availability of health professionals is in the poor state.
Challenges for Women
Now a days, the number of women employees in various sectors in our country is increasing over the years. The extended work hours put them in mental-stress as they have other responsibilities like child care and etc. that causes health problems to the women. Especially for pregnant women, the exposed toxic chemicals affect the foetuses and as a result, new-born baby could have chronic diseases due to exposure.
Solutions
The analysis and implementation of Health and Safety measures must be the prime concern for our country today. The first step is to provide safety consciousness to the workers and then by providing effective practical training and arranging safety awareness programmes.Practical training is the best solution as the informal workers do not have proper education and experience. Government has to devise the suitable legislation structures to extend OSH coverage to the unorganized sectors and spreading the awareness about OSH among employers and appointing required OSH professionals. The employer has to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees, through provision of safe plant and systems of work, and providing correct information, instruction, training and supervision.
Need of Safety Providers
The effective training to the employees and periodical auditing in the organized industries reduced the risk of accidents in a remarkable scale. Employers could utilize the tailor-made practical training provided by the safety institutes in appropriate with industry’s manufacturing for the growth of the industry.
NIST is the leading safety training institute in India, offering safety courses including practical training such as confined space attendant and fire watcher. These courses are very essential to protect the workers from the potential risks.
World Earth Day
UNESCO has chosen the most required theme for the 22nd April 2017 World Earth Day as “Climate Literacy and Environment”. Earth is one of the precious natures’ gift for living beings to survive and decorate the life.
- Are we protecting the earth?
- Are we conserving water?
- Do we plant enough trees?
- Don’t we pollute the environment?
- Do we endure the weather?
If the answer is yes, we are worth living in the planet, if not we have to seriously contemplate and action on this. Environmental practitioners, HSE specialists and other relevant authorities from national and international bodies involved in raising awareness to protect the environment. Dr Abdul Kalam strongly emphasized for planting trees to have sufficient water for future generation.
Drastic drought, hurricanes, cyclones, Tsunamis, earthquakes and change in monsoon are due to the pollution happened across land, water and air. Heat stroke, heat wave and heat stress are unusual due to ecological modification. This give raise to various diseases and affect the healthy survival of human beings to living things in land, water and air.
It is acceptable that many multi-national companies, governmental and non-governmental organisations come forward in various eco-friendly activities. ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – Clean India Movement is an excellent initiation from the government in 2014. However the implementation is the major challenge as it is the responsibility of every individual to protect the mother earth for healthy and safe living.
People or organisation involved in deforestation, pesticides, hazardous chemical spillage in land and water have spoilt the environmental cycle results in major life threat and existence of the planet. Audit, inspection and review from relevant authorities with strong enforcement of penalties, punishment will protect the country and planet from further impairment.
This is the right time to take an oath to protect the ‘Mother Earth’ where we can implement as individual, schools, colleges, organisations and public to support the UNESCO initiatives for such wonderful cause.
Nebosh IGC August Batch 2011
The Nebosh IGC August batch was conducted in an Excellent way. The Trainer done the major role and the Training coordinators were helpful to the candidates through out the programme.Candidates were taken to a construction site for PRACTICAL visit,which will help for their exams in a better way.Group discussion had done regarding the Safety and also about the way to prevent the hazards.
Course Duration – 12 days ( 8th August 2011 to 23rd August 2011)
Location – Chennai
Venue – HOTEL savera
Nebosh Oil and Gas @ Cochin
The NEBOSH Oil and Gas Certificate is a new qualification designed specifically for those with safety responsibilities in the oil and gas industry. It is the latest addition to our portfolio of globally – recognised health, safety, environmental and risk management qualifications.
Location :
Hotel Abad Plaza,MG Road,Ernakulam
2nd Floor, Chakkappan Square, IV/283 H, Parutheli Palam Junction ,Pukkattupady Road, Edappally Toll Cochin, Kerala – 682 024
Cochin, Kerala
Last date of registration 12 the august:
Contact:Radhika:9645084187
Nebosh course event bangalore
NIST INSTITUTE found Nebosh Igc Bangalore on LinkedIn Events and thought you might be interested in going!
http://events.linkedin.com/Nebosh-Igc-Bangalore/pub/732372
Nebosh Igc Bangalore
Tue, Aug 16 to Tue, Aug 30
This is a virtual event
Keywords: nebosh bangalore, nebosh karnataka, nebosh mumbai, nebosh kerala, nebosh cochin, nebosh kochi, nebosh india, nebosh chennai, nebosh tamilnadu, nebosh ernakkulam, nebosh trichy
Location- Bangalore,Nebosh IGC is conducted in a 4 Star ambiance (Hotel Infantry,Bangalore-01) and this fee includes your lunch and refreshment during training.
Batch Information: Last date of Registration is 03rd August’11
Contact Person – AR.Nisha Yaseen @ 8754485588
