The 2018 edition and what has changed since
ISO 45001 was published in March 2018 as the first ISO requirements standard for occupational health and safety management, replacing OHSAS 18001 after a migration period that ended in September 2021. In February 2024, ISO applied Amendment 1 across its management system standards, adding climate change to the context requirements: you must determine whether climate change is a relevant issue for your OH&S management system (clause 4.1), and recognize that interested parties can have climate-related requirements (clause 4.2). Audits are already conducted against the amended text.
Supporting standards that grew around it
- ISO 45003:2021, psychological health and safety: guidance on psychosocial risk within a 45001 system.
- ISO 45002:2023, general implementation guidance for 45001, useful for first-time implementers.
- ISO 45004 (in development), on OH&S performance evaluation and metrics, an area where practice varies widely.
Is a full revision coming
ISO standards undergo systematic review on a cycle, and the committee responsible for ISO 45001 has been progressing toward the standard's first revision. Until a revised edition is actually published, ISO 45001:2018 as amended remains the certifiable text, and historically every ISO management standard revision has arrived with a transition period of about three years during which existing certificates stay valid. The sensible posture for certified organizations is a standing management review agenda item tracking revision status, and no rebuilding on rumors: implement and improve against the published text, and confirm current status on iso.org.
For new implementers
Build to ISO 45001:2018 including the climate amendment; there is no newer edition to wait for. A system with honest hazard management, genuine worker participation, and working feedback loops will absorb any future revision as an update. Systems built to the letter of one edition, without the substance, are the ones every transition punishes.