East Kilbride · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for East Kilbride workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
East Kilbride
East Kilbride is the largest town in South Lanarkshire, home to roughly 77,500 people, and holds the distinction of being Scotland's first post-war New Town, designated in 1947 to take planned industry and population out of Glasgow.
Its planned estates gave the town a deep engineering and manufacturing base - precision machining, electronics, aero-engineering and surface coatings - clustered on College Milton, Nerston, Kelvin and the Peel Park technology park, and every one of those processes has an air it has to control.
Each of those East Kilbride 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 College Milton Industrial Estate units to the one-bench East Kilbride 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 East Kilbride and across South Lanarkshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and metalworking-fluid extraction on the CNC turning and milling lines that carry on the town's National Engineering Laboratory and aero-engine heritage. LEV holds mist and coolant vapour below the workplace exposure limit at the operator's breathing zone.
Solder-fume and tip extraction at East Kilbride's electronics and instrument benches, where rosin-based flux is a recognised cause of occupational asthma unless hand-soldering and reflow lines are ventilated to source.
Extraction for the aero-engineering firms that succeeded the town's Rolls-Royce overhaul plant - shot-blast dust, thermal-spray fume and paint-shop solvent all captured and tested at the point they are made.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the College Milton Industrial Estate and Nerston units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at East Kilbride 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 South Lanarkshire College and Hairmyres Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in East Kilbride
We are out under East Kilbride's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pharmacy compounding room in East Kilbride had lost control at the prep bench, with the fume cabinet affected by a worn fan impeller. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and freed a leaking connection, then re-checked each point. One point failed at first on a loose joint and passed after remedial work, and we issued a compliance report for the HSE file.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On an East Kilbride 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 College Milton 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 an East Kilbride line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and machining process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For the great majority of East Kilbride sites, from the College Milton 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 East Kilbride 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 East Kilbride duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Nerston 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 machining bay, an electronics and instrument assembly 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 an East Kilbride 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 College Milton Industrial Estate or a smaller East Kilbride workshop needs for their COSHH file.
precision engineering, electronics and instrument assembly, aerospace and surface coatings, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume-cupboard testing - the trades clustered around College Milton Industrial Estate and Nerston and across the wider South Lanarkshire.
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 College Milton Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 East Kilbride, but a College Milton Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Village canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the College Milton Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the East Kilbride university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
East Kilbride was designated Scotland's first post-war New Town on 6 May 1947, planned to draw overspill industry out of Glasgow and built around estates like College Milton and Nerston. That engineering base, seeded by the National Engineering Laboratory, still turns metal today. Wherever cutting fluid, weld fume or solder rosin is generated, local COSHH duty means the extraction has to be thoroughly examined and tested, and we log every hood face-velocity and duct reading against its commissioned figure.
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