Accrington · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Accrington workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Accrington
Accrington is a Lancashire town in Hyndburn, around 35,000, home of the Accrington NORI brick that founded Blackpool Tower and the Empire State Building, and of Accrington Stanley.
The signature trade is brick and food - the brick-making and ceramics of the NORI heritage, the food manufacturing, and the engineering and advanced manufacturing - across the Foxhill Bank and Grange Lane estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Accrington processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Foxhill Bank units to the smaller Accrington workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Accrington and across Lancashire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Silica-dust, kiln-fume and cutting-dust extraction across the brick and ceramics lines of the NORI heritage, where fine silica dust is a serious respiratory hazard and needs capture at source.
Steam, flour-dust and oven-fume extraction across the pie and food-manufacturing lines, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and advanced-manufacturing units feeding the Lancashire aerospace cluster, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Foxhill Bank and Grange Lane units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Accrington bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Accrington and Rossendale College and Accrington Victoria Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Accrington
We are out under Accrington's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A brickworks near Accrington had a kiln-and-cutting dust extraction hood over a green-brick line pulling weak, letting fine silica dust drift off the cutting bench. We measured the capture at the hood and checked the collector for leaks. It failed on the low capture and the dust breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. Silica dust is a serious respiratory hazard, so respiratory protection and the dust housekeeping were checked alongside the airflow.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Accrington system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Foxhill Bank units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on an Accrington line.
Where exposure is in question - a brick-making and ceramics process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For the great majority of Accrington sites, from the Foxhill Bank units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Accrington site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Accrington duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Grange Lane floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A brick-making and ceramics bay, a food manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Foxhill Bank and Grange Lane, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Foxhill Bank units, term-time access at the Accrington university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You do the work and we re-test, and on a Foxhill Bank production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Accrington workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at Foxhill Bank or a smaller Accrington workshop needs for their COSHH file.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Accrington, but a Foxhill Bank fabrication shop and a Broadway canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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