Inverness · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Inverness workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Inverness
Inverness is the Capital of the Highlands, a city of around 63,000 on the River Ness where it runs from Loch Ness to the Moray Firth. It is one of Europe's fastest-growing cities and the administrative heart of the Highland Council area.
Its working economy spreads from the retail sheds and trade counters of the Inverness Retail and Business Park to the workshops, hauliers and food producers packed onto the Longman beside the harbour.
Every one of those Inverness 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 Longman Industrial Estate units to the smaller Inverness workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Inverness employers and others across the Highlands it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Extraction over ovens, smokers and stills at Inverness bakeries, seafood packers and the city's revived distilling and brewing trade, where flour dust, ethanol vapour and steam all have to be pulled off the line.
LEV over machining, grinding and soldering benches at Highland engineering firms, keeping oil mist and metalworking-fluid aerosol out of operators' breathing zones.
Local exhaust and containment for the labs and start-ups at Inverness Campus, tested to the capture rate their processes were designed around.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Longman Industrial Estate and Carse Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Inverness 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 Inverness College UHI and Raigmore Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Inverness
We are out under Inverness's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pharmacy compounding room in Inverness had its fume cupboards under-performing against benchmark, traced to a slipping fan drive belt. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the cupboards and dealt with a worn impeller, then re-checked capture at each point. The LEV passed on re-test across the fume cabinet, and we issued the certificate and readings.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Inverness 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 Longman 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 Inverness line.
Where exposure is in question - a food and drink processing 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 most Inverness sites - from the Longman Industrial Estate units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Inverness 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 Inverness duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Carse 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 food and drink processing bay, an engineering and metalwork bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Longman Industrial Estate or a smaller Inverness workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Longman Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Longman Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Inverness 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 Inverness, but a Longman Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Church Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Longman Industrial Estate and Carse Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider the Highlands.
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 Longman 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.
Local knowledge
Culloden Moor, just east of the city, saw the last pitched battle on British soil in 1746, and it still draws visitors to Inverness by the coachload. The businesses that feed, house and equip them run extraction plant every day - welding fume arms, spray-booth filters and kitchen canopies. We test and, where needed, upgrade local exhaust ventilation across Inverness so it captures fume, dust and mist at source and meets the standard COSHH sets for it.
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