The mission to assure the health and safety of workers is essential and requires applied policies and processes to reduce overall injuries in the workplace. Since the passage of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 employers have made significant progress in ensuring work areas are free of recognized hazards. Nevertheless, the International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations, estimates that 2.78 million fatal accidents and 374 million non-fatal injuries happen at work each year.
The International Organization for Standardization or ISO, an international organization that develops standards to facilitate industrial and trade standardization, in March 2018 published ISO 45001:2018. Completed after five years of deliberation and applicable to all organizations, this new ISO standard sets forth a framework for management systems used for occupational health and safety (OHS) and its improvement. According to the ISO, 45001 is intended to provide a set of international guidelines that organizations can use to develop a consistent framework for the management systems used to assess and improve health and safety in the workplace.