Lancaster · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Lancaster workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Lancaster
Lancaster is a historic Lancashire city of around 52,000, home to Lancaster University and the working court of Lancaster Castle, with a linoleum heritage once the largest in the world.
The work is advanced manufacturing and campus science - the precision engineering and fabrication, the university science and engineering research, and the floor-coverings of the linoleum heritage - across the White Lund Industrial Estate and Caton Road units, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Lancaster 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 White Lund Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Lancaster units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Lancaster and the wider Lancashire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Machining, grinding and mist extraction across the advanced and precision-manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Solvent-vapour, dust and mist extraction across the floor-covering and finishing units of the linoleum heritage, where process vapour needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the White Lund Industrial Estate and Caton Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Lancaster 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 science and engineering labs of Lancaster University and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Lancaster
We are out under Lancaster's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A university chemistry laboratory in Lancaster had a fume cupboard on a research bench failing its face-velocity check because the extract fan belt had worn and slipped. We reported the low and uneven velocity, checked the sash and inspected the fan drive. It failed on the containment shortfall, and the belt and drive were repaired before a re-test brought it back inside the safe band. The test was booked into a vacation period so no research was disrupted, and the bench was decontaminated before access.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Lancaster 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 White Lund 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 Lancaster line.
Where exposure is in question - an advanced and precision manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
Across most Lancaster sites - the White Lund Industrial Estate plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Lancaster 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 Lancaster duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Caton Road industrial area 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. An advanced and precision manufacturing bay, an engineering and metal fabrication bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Lancaster, but a White Lund Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Penny 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 White Lund 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.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Lancaster 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.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around White Lund Industrial Estate and Caton Road industrial area, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
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 White Lund Industrial Estate or a smaller Lancaster 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 White Lund Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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