International standards and guidelines

In today s competitive world, managers tend to look at their colleagues in other companies in order to learn from their best practices. Successful companies in the area of SHE become models for many other companies. 

Managers need to demonstrate their commitment to safety, health and environmental issues to interested parties such as stakeholders, customers, the community, voluntary organisations and the authorities. One way of doing so is to implement voluntary standards on SHE management and to receive proof of compliance from an independent certifying body. In order to receive such a certificate, the company s SHE management system has to be audited by the body to demonstrate that it is operating effectively in conformance with the standard. 

The most important example is the ISO 14000 standard family on environmental management (ISO, 1996). These standards do not specify levels of environmental performance but provide a framework for the companies approach to issues concerning environmental policy, plans and actions. They apply an environmental management system model similar to the quality management model of ISO 9000. The model includes the following elements  

The standards specify feedback mechanisms for the handling of incidents and deviations, including requirements on incident reporting, inspections, and follow-up action. 

The Oil Industry International Exploration and Production Forum has issued voluntary guidelines for the development and nse of SHE management systems (E P Forum, 1994). These guidelines apply a similar SHE management model to that of the ISO 14000 family. 

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International standards and guidelines International Organization for Standardization (ISO) http //www.iso.ch/iso/en/ I SOOnline.frontpage... 

Minimum performance criteria have been defined as the limit of quantification, LoQ, and measurement uncertainty, U (expanded uncertainty of measurement). They are linked to the EQS where possible. Guidance on how to determine/estimate these parameters in a pragmatic way is provided in international standards and guidelines. 

All suppliers should be able to describe their QMS to the auditor. Indeed, the auditor will expect the supplier s QMS to be formalized and documented. The QMS should contain all procedures, internal standards and guidelines that are required when developing, maintaining and qualifying the product. 

Assessment of equivalence should be based on international standards and guidelines for production and processing, the Codex guidelines should be taken as a reference. 

The prime global authority is the International Maritime Organisation. The IMO sets the standards and guidelines for the removal of offshore installations. The guidelines specify that installations in less than 75 meters of water with substructures weighing less than 4,000 tons be completely removed from the site. Those in deeper water must be removed to a depth of 55 meters below the surface so that there is no hazard to navigation. In some countries the depth to which structures have to be removed has already been extended to 100m. 

All these tools and mechanisms require the appropriate infrastracture to be in place and efficiently operational. Specific tasks are undertaken by competent bodies and institutions in compliance with relevant standards and guidelines, which are issued by regional and international organizations. 

A word of caution concerning the use of internal standards is also warranted. Detailed guidelines for the selection of internal standards have been published (13,14). The most crucial and most often overlooked of these criteria is the necessity for the internal standard and the analyte to possess similar physicochemical properties, including similar responses to the extraction and chromatographic conditions. Like recoveries from spiked samples, the internal standard should be added to the samples at the beginning of the extraction in order that it be subjected to the same extraction, separation, and quantitation conditions as the analyte of interest. 

The Codex Alimentarius Commission serves as the seminal global reference point for consumers, food producers and processors, national food control agencies and the international food trade. Codex standards and guidelines cover over 200 food commodities and provided the safe limits for over 3000 contaminants and residues. In 1985, UN Resolution 39/248 adopted guidelines advising governments to support and, as far as possible, adopt standards from the Codex. 

ISO TR 9774-90 Thermal Insulation Materials —Application Categories and Basic Requirements —Guidelines for the Harmonization of International Standards and Other Specifications, 12 pp... 

Northup SJ (1999) Safety evaluation of medical devices US food and drug administration and international standards organization guidelines. International Journal of Toxicology 18 275-283. 

Some drinking water standards and guidelines are also set by international organizations. 

Highly persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals are generally recognized as environmental hazards prompting national and international regulatory agencies to develop standards and guidelines to characterize these chemical attributes. Persistent ehemicals resist natural environmental breakdown and may be present in the environment for many decades. Persistence... 

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