Cramlington · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Cramlington workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Cramlington
Cramlington is a Northumberland new town of around 29,000, built around industry in the 1960s and home to a major pharmaceutical cluster and to the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital.
The signature trade is pharmaceuticals and science - the pharmaceutical and biopharma manufacturing, the chemicals and advanced manufacturing, and the laboratories - across the Nelson Park Industrial Estate and North Nelson estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Cramlington 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 Nelson Park Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Cramlington workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Cramlington and the rest of Northumberland it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Dust, solvent-vapour and fume-cupboard extraction across the pharmaceutical and biopharma manufacturing lines, the defining trade of the new town, where process dust and vapour need capture at source under containment.
Vapour, mist and process-fume extraction across the chemical and advanced-manufacturing units, where process vapour needs capture proven.
Machining, grinding and weld-fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Nelson Park Industrial Estate and North Nelson units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Cramlington 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 local college and the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Cramlington
We are out under Cramlington's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Cramlington had a solvent-vapour extraction over a reactor bay letting a vapour escape because a section of the branch ducting had corroded through. We ran the capture checks on the sound branches and logged the structural failure. It failed on the corroded duct and the vapour breakthrough, and we handed the specification to a ducting contractor. It was a controlled process area, so solvent-vapour monitoring and full PPE were carried throughout.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Cramlington system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Nelson Park Industrial Estate 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 Cramlington line.
Where exposure is in question - a pharmaceutical and biopharma manufacturing 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.
Across most Cramlington sites - the Nelson Park Industrial Estate 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 Cramlington 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 Cramlington duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the North Nelson 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 pharmaceutical and biopharma manufacturing bay, a chemicals and advanced manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Nelson Park Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Nelson Park Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Cramlington, but a Nelson Park Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Manor Walks canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Nelson Park Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Cramlington university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Nelson Park Industrial Estate or a smaller Cramlington workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Cramlington 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.
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