Blackburn · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Blackburn workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Blackburn
Blackburn was the weaving capital of the world, and its cotton heritage still shapes a Lancashire borough of around 150,000.
The work runs from textiles to aerospace - the surviving weaving and technical textiles, the chemical blending, the metal and aluminium fabrication, and the aerospace supply chain feeding Samlesbury - across the Whitebirk and Shadsworth estates, with the bodyshops and bakeries between them.
Every one of those Blackburn 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 Whitebirk units to the smaller Blackburn 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 Blackburn and the wider Lancashire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Dust and fibre extraction across the weaving and technical-textile lines, where fine fibre blinds a filter and loads a duct.
Vapour and mist extraction on the chemical blending lines - corrosive fume that quietly eats a duct from the inside.
Fume and grinding extraction on the metal and aluminium fabrication lines, where metal fume needs capture at the bench.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Whitebirk and Shadsworth units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Blackburn 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 Blackburn College and the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Blackburn
We are out under Blackburn's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A chemical blending plant in Blackburn had a vapour-extraction slot hood over an open acid mixing vessel badly corroded, with structural holes along the rear plenum. We mapped the face velocities along the slot openings and checked the static pressure on a digital manometer. It failed on the severe degradation - the leakage had wrecked the containment. The corrosive atmosphere meant full chemical aprons and face shields to take the readings.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Blackburn system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Whitebirk 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 Blackburn line.
Where exposure is in question - a textiles and weaving 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.
For the great majority of Blackburn sites, from the Whitebirk 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 Blackburn 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 Blackburn duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Shadsworth 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 textiles and weaving bay, a chemicals and blending 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 Whitebirk units, term-time access at the Blackburn university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Blackburn 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 Whitebirk and Shadsworth, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
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 Whitebirk 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 Whitebirk 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 Blackburn, but a Whitebirk fabrication shop and a Whalley Range canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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