Buxton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Buxton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town of around 20,000 in Derbyshire's High Peak, one of the highest market towns in England, famed for its Georgian Crescent, the Buxton Opera House and its natural mineral water on the edge of the Peak District.
The signature trade is water and lime - the water bottling and food and drink, the lime and quarrying, and the engineering and tourism - across the Harpur Hill Business Park and Tongue Lane Industrial Estate estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Buxton 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 Harpur Hill Business Park units to the one-bench Buxton 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 Buxton and across Derbyshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Wash-down mist, filling-line vapour and warehouse-plant extraction across the mineral-water bottling and food and drink lines, a major and active trade of the town, where the filling and hygiene processes need capture at source.
Silica-dust, kiln-fume and crushing-dust extraction across the limestone and lime-processing works around the town, home to the largest lime plant in Britain, where fine crystalline silica is a serious respiratory hazard and needs capture proven.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and grinding-dust extraction across the light and precision-engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Harpur Hill Business Park and Tongue 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 Buxton 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 the University of Derby Buxton campus and the Cavendish Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Buxton
We are out under Buxton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A limestone and lime-processing works near Buxton had a silica-dust extraction over a crushing-and-screening line pulling weak, letting fine crystalline-silica dust drift off the plant. We measured the capture at the hood and checked the collector for leaks. It failed on the low capture and the dust breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. Crystalline silica is a serious respiratory hazard, so respiratory protection and the dust housekeeping were checked alongside the airflow.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Buxton 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 Harpur Hill 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 Buxton line.
Where exposure is in question - a water bottling and food and drink process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For the great majority of Buxton sites, from the Harpur Hill 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 Buxton 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 Buxton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Tongue Lane Industrial Estate 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 water bottling and food and drink bay, a lime and quarrying bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Water bottling and food and drink, lime and quarrying, engineering and advanced manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the campus and hospital - the trades clustered around Harpur Hill Business Park and Tongue Lane Industrial Estate and across the wider Derbyshire.
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 Harpur Hill 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.
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 Harpur Hill Business Park or a smaller Buxton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Harpur Hill Business Park units, term-time access at the Buxton 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 Buxton 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 Buxton, but a Harpur Hill Business Park fabrication shop and a Spring Gardens canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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