Dumbarton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Dumbarton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Dumbarton
Dumbarton is the county town of the old shire of Dunbartonshire, standing on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows in, and its skyline is ruled by Dumbarton Rock - a twin-peaked volcanic plug crowned by Dumbarton Castle that served as the fortress capital of the ancient Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde. It holds one of the longest recorded histories of any stronghold in Britain.
Its working economy runs on engineering and modular power, food and drink and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Broadmeadow Industrial Estate and the Strathleven and Lomondgate parks, where Aggreko designs and assembles its rental generators and temperature-control fleet.
Every Dumbarton 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 Broadmeadow Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Dumbarton 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 Dumbarton and across West Dunbartonshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on machining and assembly lines, from the Denny engineering heritage on the Leven to the modular power and temperature-control units Aggreko builds at its Lomondgate plant.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the town's bakeries, and the bottling and blending halls left by Dumbarton's whisky trade, where Hiram Walker once ran the largest grain distillery in Europe for the Ballantine's blend.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Dumbarton joinery and cabinet shops, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Broadmeadow and Strathleven units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Dumbarton 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 Vale of Leven Hospital and the science departments of the local college and schools, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Dumbarton
We are out under Dumbarton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The plaster-bench extraction at a refurbished Dumbarton dental laboratory wasn't pulling as it should, down to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the dust extraction hoods, cleared the debris sitting in the ducting and re-checked. With the ducting clear the system met its control standards. A signed report was handed over, and the lab manager kept a steady supply of brews going through the morning.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Dumbarton 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 Broadmeadow 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 Dumbarton line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
For the great majority of Dumbarton sites, from the Broadmeadow Industrial Estate 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 Dumbarton 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 Dumbarton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Strathleven 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production 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 Broadmeadow Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Dumbarton 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 Dumbarton 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.
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 Broadmeadow 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 Dumbarton, but a Broadmeadow Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a College Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Broadmeadow Industrial Estate and Strathleven Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Dunbartonshire.
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 Broadmeadow Industrial Estate or a smaller Dumbarton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
William Denny and Brothers began building ships on the north bank of the Leven in 1844, and in 1882 they sank the world's first commercial ship-model experiment tank on Castle Street, testing hull forms in water before a single plate was cut - a tank still working today as a museum. The Denny yard launched everything from Clyde paddle steamers to fast cross-Channel ships before it finally closed in 1963. That precision-engineering instinct still runs through Dumbarton's machine shops and power-plant assembly lines, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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