Atherton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Atherton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Atherton
Atherton - known for centuries by its old name Chowbent, or simply Bent - is a town of around 26,000 people in the Wigan borough of Greater Manchester, on the coalfield between Bolton and Leigh. It grew rich on three trades at once: nail and bolt making that dates back to the fourteenth century, the cotton mills, and the deep collieries at Gibfield, Chanters and Howe Bridge.
Its working economy still turns on precision engineering, the fastener and fabrication trades and food production, much of it grouped in the units at Chanters Industrial Estate off Tyldesley Old Road and the newer sheds at Gibfield Park.
Wherever an Atherton process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Chanters Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Atherton workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Atherton and the rest of Greater Manchester it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and grinders at the precision shops on Chanters Industrial Estate, including firms such as Redfern Engineering, where fine metalworking-fluid mist has to be drawn off at the machine before it drifts across the floor.
Steam canopies, flour-dust control and oven extraction in Atherton's bakeries and food units, where airborne flour is a recognised cause of occupational asthma and has to be captured at source.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Atherton's cabinet makers and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the tool before it can reach the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the units at Chanters Industrial Estate and Gibfield Park, home to the fastener and fabrication trades the town is built on - Smith Bullough among them, one of the last bolt and nut makers in the country. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Atherton bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined against its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the science labs and quality-control rooms at local colleges and manufacturers, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Atherton
We are out under Atherton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Face velocity across the extraction canopies at a privately owned Atherton pharmacy was reading low, which we traced to debris built up in the ducting. We checked static pressure, cleared the blocked filter and re-tested each point against benchmark. Everything then passed across the fume cupboards, and a full LEV report went into the COSHH file. We timed the visit around the weekly delivery so the technicians could keep working undisturbed.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On an Atherton system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Chanters Industrial Estate 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 Atherton 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
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
On most Atherton sites - the Chanters Industrial Estate 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 Atherton 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 Atherton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Gibfield 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 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.
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 Chanters Industrial Estate and Gibfield Park and across the wider Greater Manchester.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Atherton 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Chanters Industrial Estate and Gibfield Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Chanters Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Atherton 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 Chanters Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Chanters Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
Along with neighbouring Shakerley, Atherton has made nails and iron fastenings since the fourteenth century, worked from ore brought in from Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Spain, and the Chowbent ironworks made the town a byword for nuts, bolts and spindles. That trade never fully left: Smith Bullough still forges bolts and nuts here, one of only a handful of such makers remaining in Britain. Grinding, forging and welding all throw off mist, dust and fume that the law says must be controlled at the tool. 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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