Cambridge · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Cambridge workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Cambridge
Cambridge is the heart of Silicon Fen - a cluster of more than 5,000 knowledge companies employing over 67,000 people - anchored by an 800-year-old university.
The work is science and technology - the biotech and pharma labs of the science parks, the electronics and semiconductor R&D cleanrooms, and the confectionery and food producers - across Cambridge Science Park and Granta Park, with the fabrication, bodyshops and print units between them.
Every Cambridge process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Granta Park plant to the single-bench Cambridge units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and 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 Cambridge and across Cambridgeshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Fume-cupboard and containment extraction across the Silicon Fen life-sciences and pharma labs, from Granta Park to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where capture at source is the whole control.
Wet-bench and micro-soldering extraction in the electronics and semiconductor R&D cleanrooms of the Cambridge Science Park, where solder and solvent fume need tight containment.
Dust, steam and mist extraction across the Cambridgeshire food and confectionery producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Cambridge Science Park and St John's Innovation Park fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at the Cambridge and Cambourne 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 Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin and Addenbrooke's Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Cambridge
We are out under Cambridge's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics R&D cleanroom in Cambridge had a micro-soldering extraction system pulling poorly because the engineers had rigged up their own DIY plastic funnels on the capture arms. We took the unapproved extensions off, rebalanced the main-line dampers and re-measured the raw capture velocities. It failed as modified, then passed perfectly once it was back to its manufactured state. It was a fast-moving incubator space where people are always tweaking their benches, so a good part of the job was showing them how the LEV is meant to work.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Cambridge 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 Granta 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 Cambridge line.
Where exposure is in question - a biotech and pharma labs 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 most Cambridge sites - from the Granta Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Cambridge 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 Cambridge duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Babraham 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 biotech and pharma labs bay, an electronics and cleanrooms bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Cambridge, but a Granta Park fabrication shop and a Mill Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Granta Park units, term-time access at the Cambridge 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 Granta Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Cambridge 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.
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 Granta Park or a smaller Cambridge workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Granta Park unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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