7th International Multidisciplinary Symposium

UNIVERSITARIA
„SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH QUALITY AND INNOVATION IN
SIMPRO 2016
ENGINEERING AND RESEARCH”

Managing new and emerging risks in the context of ISO 45001

standard
Doru-Costin Darabonta, Roland Iosif Morarub, Anca Elena Antonovc, Costică Bejinariud*
a
INCDPM “Alexandru Darabont”, 35A Ghencea Blv., Bucharest 061692, Romania
b
University of Petroşani, 20 Universităţii st., Petroşani 332006, Romania
c
INCDPM “Alexandru Darabont”, 35A Ghencea Blv., Bucharest 061692, Romania
d
”Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iaşi, 67 Dimitrie Mangeron Blv., Iaşi 700050, Romania

Abstract

In the last years the world economy is characterized of important changes that have effects at macro economic level as well as at
organization’s level. These effects include the increasing of previous known risks and the rising of new risks due to new
technologies, advances in scientific research and changes in social or public perceptions. In many cases, enterprises are not prepared
to deal with new and emerging risks and this issue represents a main challenge for the employer and the organization management
system. It is well known that failure of OHS management system can have serious consequences on the quality management system
and also on the environmental management systems. The new standard ISO 45001 “Occupational health and safety management
systems – Requirements with guidance for use” (planned for first release in 2016, now in draft version) could be an important
instrument for employer to deal with new and emerging risks. The aim of the paper is to present how the requirements of the ISO
45001 standard could be used to design processes that allow the organization to prevent or reduce the undesired effects of new and
emerging risks. The positive effects of controlling these risks address not only the OHS issues but also the quality and environmental
requirements of the organization.

Keywords: new and emerging risks; occupational health and safety; risk assessment; management system; quality management system; environmental
management system

1. Introduction

In the last years, the image and the perception of risk in the occupational health and safety (OHS) domain has
considerably changed due to the influence of several technological, scientific or social factors. These changes have
effects at macro economic level as well as at organization’s level, including the increasing of previous known risks and
the rising of new risks. An emerging OHS risk is defined as any occupational risk that is both new and increasing (Cioca
and Moraru, 2010; Houtman et al. 2016). According to the definition, a risk is new if:
 “the risk was previously unknown and is caused by new processes, new technologies, new types of workplaces or
social or organizational changes, or
 a long standing issue is newly considered to be a risk due to changes in social or public perceptions; or
 new scientific knowledge allows a long standing issue to be identified as a risk”.
Also, the risk is increasing if:
 “the number of hazards leading to the risk is growing; or
 the likelihood of exposure to the hazard leading to the risk is increasing, or
 the effect of the hazard on the worker’s health is getting worse (seriousness of health effects and/or the number of
people affected)”.
For example, ageing of population is one of the main issues of the social changes. The population across the EU has
been ageing significantly over the last decades and this evolution will continue and intensify in the next decades. The

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +4-074-437-0267; fax: +4-021-315-7822.

E-mail address: darabont_d@yahoo.com.

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