Ashington · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ashington workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ashington
Ashington is a former colliery town of around 28,000 in south-east Northumberland, once billed as the largest mining village in the world, home of the Pitmen Painters and birthplace of the footballing Charlton brothers.
The signature trade is manufacturing - the paint and coatings chemistry, the EV-thermal and electronics manufacturing, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Wansbeck Business Park and Ashwood Business Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Ashington 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 Wansbeck Business Park units to the smaller Ashington workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Ashington employers and others across Northumberland it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Solvent-vapour, VOC and pigment-dust extraction across the paint and coatings lines of one of the most advanced paint plants in the world, a major employer of the town, where solvent vapour and pigment dust need capture at source.
Solder-fume, process-vapour and dust extraction across the electric-vehicle thermal and electronics-manufacturing units, where soldering and assembly need capture proven.
Cooking-fume, sugar-dust and steam extraction across the confectionery and drinks-production units of the business parks, where the cooking lines need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Wansbeck Business Park and Ashwood units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ashington 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 Northumberland College and the Wansbeck General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ashington
We are out under Ashington's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A paint-and-coatings plant in Ashington had a solvent-vapour extraction over a pigment-and-blending line pulling weak, letting VOC vapour and pigment dust drift into the workspace. We measured the capture at the line and checked the ducting and fan for losses. It failed on the low capture and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The line ran solvent-based coatings, so the VOC monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Ashington system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Wansbeck Business Park 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 Ashington line.
Where exposure is in question - a paint and coatings manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
For the great majority of Ashington sites, from the Wansbeck Business Park 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 Ashington 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 Ashington duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Ashwood Business Park 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 paint and coatings manufacturing bay, an ev-thermal and electronics manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Wansbeck Business Park unit will ask to see.
Paint and coatings manufacturing, EV-thermal and electronics manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Wansbeck Business Park and Ashwood Business Park and across the wider Northumberland.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Ashington 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Wansbeck Business Park units, term-time access at the Ashington university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Ashington, but a Wansbeck Business Park fabrication shop and a Station Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Wansbeck Business Park and Ashwood Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Northumberland.
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