Burton-on-Trent · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Burton-on-Trent workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Burton-on-Trent
Burton-on-Trent is the historic capital of British brewing, an East Staffordshire town of around 76,000 on the River Trent, and the home of Marmite.
The signature trade is brewing and food - the breweries and grain processing, the food manufacturing including the Marmite works, and the rubber and packaging - across the Centrum 100 and Hawkins Lane estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Burton-on-Trent processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Centrum 100 units to the one-bench Burton-on-Trent workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Burton-on-Trent and across Staffordshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Grain-dust, steam and CO2 extraction across the breweries and grain-processing lines, the defining trade of the brewing capital, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers, including the yeast and spread manufacturing, where organic dust needs capture at source.
VOC, dust and fume extraction across the rubber and packaging lines, where process fume and dust need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Centrum 100 and Hawkins Lane units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Burton 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 Burton and South Derbyshire College and Queen's Hospital Burton, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Burton-on-Trent
We are out under Burton-on-Trent's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A brewery and grain-processing facility in Burton-on-Trent had the dust extraction cowl over the malted-grain mill positioned too high, letting fine grain dust settle on the high beams. We measured the hood capture velocity, showed the correct close-positioning with a smoke pen and advised lowering the cowl. It failed on the hood positioning and design efficacy, despite an adequate volumetric pull. It was a listed brick building with exposed timber beams, which raises both the fire and the organic-dust-explosion hazard.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Burton-on-Trent 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 Centrum 100 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 Burton-on-Trent line.
Where exposure is in question - a brewing and grain processing 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.
For the great majority of Burton-on-Trent sites, from the Centrum 100 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 Burton-on-Trent 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 Burton-on-Trent duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Hawkins Lane 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 brewing and grain processing bay, a food manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Centrum 100 and Hawkins Lane, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Staffordshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Burton-on-Trent 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.
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 Burton-on-Trent, but a Centrum 100 fabrication shop and a Station Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Centrum 100 units, term-time access at the Burton-on-Trent 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 Centrum 100 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 Centrum 100 unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.