As research into occupational medicine improved, it had become possible to start to identify

industrial diseases and illnesses caused by exposure to industry specific hazards such as coal dust
in mining (miners black lung or Coalworker's pneumoconiosis), asbestos in construction
(asbestosis and mesothelioma), exposure to physical agents such as occupational noise from
industrial machinery (hearing loss, tinnitus or deafness) and vibration hazards from tools and
equipment (hand-arm vibration syndrome and vibration white finger). These disabling and often fatal
hazard vectors could then be targeted by legislation to reduce worker exposure to these dangerous
substances and activities.
As more industry specific and general safety, health and welfare related legislation started to be
introduced, it became necessary for employers to have a framework within which these safety
regulations could be understood, managed and the legal requirements implemented. This was
necessary, not just to comply with regulations but to also avoid fines and legal costs for non-
compliance, increased insurance and workers compensation costs due to accidents and especially
in the U.S. increasingly expensive criminal and civil liability lawsuits for death and injury caused at
work.

Basic safety management components[edit]

International Labour Organization SMS model[edit]
The ILO guidance document is one of the most basic and adaptable models for organisations to
utilise when developing a safety management system. In the ILO guidance document, [6] the basic
safety management components are:

1. Policy – Establish within policy statements the requirements for sufficient resources; define

top management commitment and state occupational safety and health (OSH) targets.
2. Organizing – How is the organization structured; how is responsibility and accountability
defined; how does the organisation communicate internally and externally; what
documentation is required and how is training and competency defined.
3. Planning and Implementation – How does the organisation plan for, develop and
implement its approach to risk management; how are hazards identified and risk effectively
managed; what goals and objectives are set to drive OHS performance and measure
progress; what arrangements are made for contingency and emergency situations.
4. Evaluation – How is OSH performance measured and assessed; what is the processes for
the reporting and investigation of accidents and incidents; what internal and external audit
processes are in place to review and verify the system.
5. Action for Improvement – How are corrective and preventive action created, managed and
closed out; what processes are in place to ensure the continual improvement process.

Although other safety management models may use different terminology, the basic components
and workflow for safety management systems will be the same. The desired outcome is an effective
Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) process where the goal is that of continual and measurable
improvement.

Regulatory perspective[edit]
Implications[edit]
A SMS is intended to act as a business administration structure for an organisation to effectively
meet its legal obligations under applicable occupational safety and health laws. The scope of the
organisation's operations and therefore its risk profile will determine how the SMS is structured and
what resources are required to manage occupational health and safety risk effectively. Some
organisations may also have to dovetail other management system functions, such as process
safety, environmental resource management or quality management together with safety
management to meet both regulatory requirements, industry sector requirements and an
organisations own internal and discretionary standard requirements.
Safety management should be considered as a part of the overall business management system of
an organisation and not an add-on to it. Increasingly, management standards across a range of
business functions such as environment, quality and safety are now being designed so that these
traditionally disparate elements can be integrated and managed within a single business
management system and not as separate and stand-alone functions.
Due to the close association between health and safety, safety management systems (SMS) are
also increasingly known as occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS); these
two terms can to the greater extent can be used interchangeably.
An SMS is only as good as its implementation – effective safety management means that
organisations need to ensure they are looking at all the risks within the organization as a single
system, rather than having multiple, competing, ‘Safety Management Silos.’ [7] If safety is not seen
holistically, it can interfere with the prioritization of improvements or even result in safety issues
being missed. For example, after an explosion in March 2005 at BP's Texas City Refinery (BP) the
investigation concluded that the company had put too much emphasis on personal safety thus
ignoring the safety of their processes.[8] The antidote to such silo thinking is the proper evaluation of
all risks, a key aspect of an effective SMS.