Linlithgow · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Linlithgow workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Linlithgow
Linlithgow is a royal burgh of around 13,000 people in West Lothian, strung along the line between Edinburgh and Falkirk, its skyline defined by the roofless ruin of Linlithgow Palace standing above Linlithgow Loch.
The town's working trade sits mostly on Mill Road Industrial Estate and E-Net Park, where distillers, joiners, motor engineers and light manufacturers share the same run of units.
Every one of those Linlithgow 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 Mill Road units to the smaller Linlithgow 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 Linlithgow employers and others across West Lothian it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fine-dust extraction and LEV testing for the joinery shops on Mill Road, where firms such as Howdens work hardwood and MDF at volume. Wood dust is a known cause of occupational asthma and nasal cancer, so extraction is tested to keep airborne dust below the workplace exposure limit.
Regent Motors and the other trade garages around the industrial estates run vehicle-exhaust and brake-dust extraction. Diesel engine exhaust and legacy brake residues both demand capture at source rather than general ventilation.
Linlithgow Distillery and the town's drinks producers rely on extraction over mash tuns, bottling lines and cask stores. Confined-space carbon dioxide and cleaning-chemical vapours make local capture a health requirement, not a comfort.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Mill Road and E-Net 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 Linlithgow 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 West Lothian College and St John's Hospital in nearby Livingston, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Linlithgow
We are out under Linlithgow's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A cabinet maker's workshop in Linlithgow had capture velocity at its extraction hoods dropping below benchmark, with a build-up of debris in the ducting. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and cleared the ducting, then freed a leaking connection and re-checked. All points passed on re-test once the connection was sealed, and we issued the certificate with the readings.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Linlithgow 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 Mill Road 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 Linlithgow line.
Where exposure is in question - a joinery and woodworking 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.
Across most Linlithgow sites - the Mill Road 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 Linlithgow 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 Linlithgow duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the E-Net 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 joinery and woodworking bay, a motor engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Mill Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Linlithgow, but a Mill Road 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 Mill Road or a smaller Linlithgow workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Mill Road and E-Net Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Lothian.
joinery, motor engineering, distilling, welding, vehicle refinishing and laboratory work - the trades clustered around Mill Road and E-Net Park and across the wider West Lothian.
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 Mill Road unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
Linlithgow Palace was the birthplace of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1542, and of her father James V thirty years earlier, and its roofless great hall still commands the loch shore. The burgh that grew around a royal court has always housed skilled trades, and today those trades are the metalworkers and manufacturers on Mill Road and E-Net Park. Where they cut, grind and weld, local exhaust ventilation is what keeps the fume out of workers' lungs - and what the law measures.
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