Barrow-in-Furness · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Barrow-in-Furness workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a Cumbrian coastal town of around 67,000, whose economy is dominated by the submarine yard that builds the Royal Navy nuclear fleet inside the vast Devonshire Dock Hall on Barrow Island.
The signature trade is shipbuilding - the submarine fabrication of the yard, the offshore-energy support of the port and gas terminal, and the engineering supply chain that feeds them - across the Sowerby Woods Business Park and Sandscale Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Barrow-in-Furness 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 Sowerby Woods Business Park units to the smaller Barrow-in-Furness 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 Barrow-in-Furness and across Cumbria it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, grinding-dust and blasting-and-paint extraction across the submarine-hull and heavy-plate bays, the defining trade of the town, worked indoors inside the enclosed dock hall where the fume has nowhere to escape but the capture system.
Coating-vapour, weld-fume and turbine-servicing extraction across the offshore-wind operations base and the gas-terminal support units, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Machining-mist, weld-fume and metalworking-fluid aerosol extraction across the precision-engineering and fabrication units feeding the yard, where metal dust and oil mist need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Sowerby Woods Business Park and Sandscale Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Barrow 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 Furness College and Furness General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Barrow-in-Furness
We are out under Barrow-in-Furness's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A shipyard fabrication bay in Barrow-in-Furness had a weld-fume extraction arm over a heavy-plate station drooping short of the seam because its internal spine had cracked. We clamped the arm to hold position, measured the capture at the tip and logged the mechanical fault. It passed on the airflow but failed on the arm's positioning integrity, so the hood could not be held over the weld. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the arm on the submarine-hull sections.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Barrow-in-Furness 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 Sowerby Woods 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 a Barrow-in-Furness line.
Where exposure is in question - a shipbuilding and submarine fabrication 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.
Across most Barrow-in-Furness sites - the Sowerby Woods Business Park plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Barrow-in-Furness 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 Barrow-in-Furness duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Sandscale 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 shipbuilding and submarine fabrication bay, an offshore energy and gas bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Sowerby Woods Business Park or a smaller Barrow-in-Furness workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Sowerby Woods Business Park units, term-time access at the Barrow-in-Furness 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 Barrow-in-Furness, but a Sowerby Woods Business Park fabrication shop and a Dalton Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Sowerby Woods Business Park unit will ask to see.
Shipbuilding and submarine fabrication, offshore energy and gas, advanced manufacturing and engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Sowerby Woods Business Park and Sandscale Park and across the wider Cumbria.
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 Sowerby Woods Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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