OHSAS 18001 Training Courses

Our online OHSAS 18001 Internal Auditor Course will be available from June 2011. Also, we will be providing our OHSAS 18001 Auditor Awareness course online from April 2011.

CURRENT AND UPDATED COURSE - You can also obtain ISO 14001 Internal Auditor Training direct from the web using our IEMA-accredited training course. Save time and money by completing our training course. Click on the logo below to visit our site - you can view the demo at www.auditmentor.com

OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 SERVICES AND BACKGROUND

Marsden International has developed it's expertise in HSE management systems over the last 20 years by delivering a range of HSE management services across a wide range of industry sectors and company sizes.

Many HSE- related projects and consultancy assignments have been undertaken, including reviews, OHSAS 18001 and ISO14001 implementation projects, environmental aspects evaluation, HSE regulatory assessments and in-house training for staff and our expertise is available to help your organisation improve it's performance in the area of HSE Management.

We are able to assist organisations in the UK and abroad to establish, develop and compliment management system functions such as risk assessments, legal assessments, management system development and OHSAS 18001 training. Our speciality is training. We have an impressive track record in this area, and we are now developing as web training specialists using the internet to deliver much of our training.

Accredited auditor courses require some personal input, so we link web training with shorter training courses in which delegates meet and review their experiences, get answers to queries and demonstrate their understanding of the audit process by participating in some intensive audit scenarios and role play.

The Published Articles - IEMA Magazine 'The Environmentalist' 2005 - 2010

Published Articles - read more by clicking this link or use the sidebar button. All articles were published in the Environmentalist Magazine between 2005 and December 2010. This is the final article for the series and all cover topics relevant to the ISO 14001 Auditor.

Article Published December 2010

Fact, Fiction or Somewhere In-between - The Sinking of the largest drilling rig in the world (2001)

Inspiration for the final and thirty third article in this series of ‘The Auditor’ was proving elusive whilst enjoying another train trip to Aberdeen in readiness for an offshore HSE Audit. However, a casual browse through a borrowed Sunday newspaper magazine revealed amazing images of a sinking oil platform off the coast of Brazil. Here was the inspiration for the final article in ‘The Auditor’ series.

The sheer scale of this disaster, which happened in 2001 with the loss of 11 lives was of the highest magnitude possible - the platform was the largest in the world at the time. The accompanying article, written by an award-winning journalist, wove an interesting mix of personal comments gleaned from various sources which included the wife of a petroleum engineer who died in the accident, an oil workers’ union representative and two injured subcontract workers. The overall article embraced the broader sustainability and ethical viewpoint, pointing a finger at the social and financial inequality caused by the mishandling of wealth generated by a rapidly expanding oil industry.

With particular reference to the disaster itself, the emotive nature of the article can be balanced by reading the official and verified report published in June 2001 by the Inquiry Commission of the P-36 accident, easily downloadable via the web. This document provides a summary of the findings which describes how a number of factors led to the explosion and sinking of the platform. The report states that a rupture of the starboard emergency drain storage tank took place due to accidental entry of hydrocarbons followed by an increase in pressure. Various other events combined which led to the two explosions and ultimately, the loss of the platform.

One interesting point for the auditor is that the magazine article refers to comments made by the engineer to his wife prior to the accident – the unverifiable personal testament which pointed to some particular concerns raised about the safety of platform. One was that “one of the valves in the legs is not working”. Another comment was that “a tank that contained the run-off gases had been placed in the leg of the structure, a potentially fatal oversight”. The communication of these, and probably other concerns, were made to management which were apparently “brushed off”. The number of accidents reported was also up for scrutiny, implying that under-reporting of incidents and accidents was the norm.

The formality and rigour of the official report on one side and the almost casual personal viewpoint expressed by the newspaper article both provide vital information and lines of enquiry for the auditor. In particular, what mechanisms existed for proper communication of safety concerns? What maintenance regimes were in place, especially for checking venting and valve operations? What formal reviews were carried out at the design stage of the platform? Why were inspection doors left open? Perhaps most importantly of all, why was the risk assessment process inadequate?

Environment, health and safety, as outlined within OHSAS 18001 and performance risk all come together on an oil platform. Fact, fiction and all that lies inbetween are similarly entwined and it is the work of the HSE / OHSAS 18001 auditor to tease them apart in order to reveal real and vital opportunities for improvement.

John Marsden (FIEMA)

John Marsden is an independent management system auditor who works for a number of international certification bodies.

OHSAS 18001 Training and Consultancy