Alloa · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Alloa workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Alloa
Alloa is the county town of Clackmannanshire, Scotland's smallest county and long nicknamed the Wee County, set on the north bank of the River Forth. It made its name on brewing, glass and wool - at its height the town ran nine breweries, and George Younger's ales were shipped out of Alloa harbour to the West Indies, Egypt and the Far East.
Its working economy still turns on manufacturing and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the industrial units around Whins Road and the old bottling halls at Kelliebank.
Every one of those Alloa 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 Whins Road units to the smaller Alloa workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Alloa and the wider Clackmannanshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and lathes across the engineering shops around Whins Road and Kelliebank, in a town whose glassworks and mills built a long metalworking tradition.
Steam canopies, mash-tun vapour and grain-dust control in the breweries and bottling halls Alloa built its name on, from Williams Bros in the old George Younger's bottling hall at Kelliebank to the town's wider distilling and soft-drink trade.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Alloa joinery and cabinet works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Whins Road and Kelliebank units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Alloa 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 the laboratories at the Forth Valley College campus and the quality labs at the O-I glassworks, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Alloa
We are out under Alloa's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Capture velocity at some of the station extract nozzles in a high-street Alloa hair salon had slipped below benchmark, with a fan not reaching its rated speed. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. Once a slipping belt was cleared the system met its control standards. We scheduled the visit for a Sunday when the studio was closed, and issued a thorough examination and test certificate.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Alloa 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 Whins Road 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 Alloa line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
On most Alloa sites - the Whins Road units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Alloa 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 Alloa duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Kelliebank 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Whins Road units, term-time access at the Alloa university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a Whins Road unit will ask to see.
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 Alloa, but a Whins Road fabrication shop and a Mar Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Whins Road or a smaller Alloa workshop needs for their COSHH file.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Whins Road and Kelliebank and across the wider Clackmannanshire.
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 Whins Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Local knowledge
John Roebuck founded a glassworks at Alloa in 1750, and the site has made bottles on the banks of the Forth ever since - today it runs as O-I Glass, employing around five hundred people and turning out up to two million bottles a day for the spirits trade. Glass, like the engineering shops that grew up alongside it, throws off heat, fume and fine dust that has to be drawn off at source. That precision instinct still runs through Alloa's machine shops, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist and fume its work produces. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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