Gosforth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Gosforth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Gosforth
Gosforth is Newcastle's affluent northern suburb, a place of tree-lined avenues and a busy High Street that grew up where the Great North Road ran out of the city. Its name comes from the old 'Goseford', the ford frequented by geese, and its park has staged the Northumberland Plate - the 'Pitmen's Derby' - at Newcastle Racecourse since the course moved there in 1882.
Its working economy runs on offices, engineering and food production, much of it grouped in the units at Gosforth Business Park and Balliol Business Park and the office towers of the Regent Centre.
Every one of those Gosforth 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 Gosforth Business Park units to the smaller Gosforth workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Gosforth and the rest of Tyne and Wear it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres in the engineering and manufacturing units at Gosforth Business Park and Balliol Business Park, north of the racecourse.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food plants around Gosforth, from the Greggs doughnut lines and the savoury Centre of Excellence at the Gosforth and Balliol sites to the suburb's cafe kitchens.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Gosforth 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 Gosforth and Balliol business-park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Gosforth and Kenton 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 laboratories and office tenants of the Regent Centre and the wider Newcastle science base, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Gosforth
We are out under Gosforth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A much-loved hair salon in Gosforth had face velocity reading low across its station extract nozzles, traced to a filter well overdue for replacement. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with the debris in the ducting. All points passed on re-test once the tired filter was sorted, with readings and a report for the file. We worked early mornings before clients arrived to keep the salon running.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Gosforth system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Gosforth 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 Gosforth 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
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.
On most Gosforth sites - the Gosforth 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 Gosforth 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 Gosforth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Balliol Business Park 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.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Gosforth Business Park and Balliol Business Park and across the wider Tyne and Wear.
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 Gosforth Business Park or a smaller Gosforth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Gosforth Business Park units, term-time access at the Gosforth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Gosforth, but a Gosforth Business Park fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Gosforth 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 Gosforth Business Park and Balliol Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Tyne and Wear.
Local knowledge
Coal made the modern suburb: the Brandling family sank Gosforth Colliery in 1825, and the neighbouring Coxlodge Colliery had been worked since around 1809, its Jubilee and Regent pits driving the pit villages that Gosforth grew over. That heavy-industry instinct still runs through the engineering and manufacturing shops in the business parks north of the High Street, 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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