Dunfermline · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Dunfermline workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Dunfermline
Dunfermline, an ancient capital of Scotland and home to around 59,000 people, grew up around its medieval Abbey - the burial place of Robert the Bruce - and the weaver's cottage on Moodie Street where Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835.
Its signature trades cluster in the engineering, electronics and logistics units at Pitreavie Business Park and Fife Interchange, where local air is put to work every shift.
Every one of those Dunfermline processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Pitreavie Business Park units to the smaller Dunfermline workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Dunfermline and across Fife it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld fume, solder fume and machining mist across the Pitreavie units, where the town's electronics and fabrication heritage still runs. Local exhaust ventilation is tested against its COSHH capture figure at every hood.
Flour dust, steam and cleaning-chemical vapour in Dunfermline's food and drink plants, where extraction protects both the product and the packer at the line.
Battery-charging bays, packing lines and maintenance workshops at Fife Interchange, home to a 1.1 million square foot fulfilment centre, where charging and vehicle fumes are ducted clear.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Pitreavie Business Park and Fife Interchange units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Dunfermline 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 Fife College and Queen Margaret Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Dunfermline
We are out under Dunfermline's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A bodyshop in Dunfermline had the airflow at its spray booth falling since the last test, pointing to a slipping fan drive belt. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter, then cleared debris from the ducting. The system met control standards after the remedial work, and we issued a thorough examination and test certificate.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Dunfermline 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 Pitreavie 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 Dunfermline line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and electronics 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.
On most Dunfermline sites - the Pitreavie Business Park units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Dunfermline 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 Dunfermline duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Fife Interchange 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 electronics 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. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Dunfermline 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 Dunfermline, but a Pitreavie Business Park fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Pitreavie Business Park or a smaller Dunfermline workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Pitreavie 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.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Pitreavie Business Park and Fife Interchange, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Fife.
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 Pitreavie Business Park unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
Dunfermline Abbey holds the tomb of Robert the Bruce, buried here in 1329, alongside Malcolm III and at least five other Scottish kings - the reason this was the medieval capital of Scotland. That heritage draws the visitors, but the working city runs on the engineering and electronics units at Pitreavie and Fife Interchange, where local extraction, welding fume and paint-mist ventilation must be proven against COSHH. We examine each LEV system to its capture velocity and log the result.
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