Malvern · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Malvern workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Malvern
Malvern sits beneath the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, a Victorian spa town whose name the world knows twice over - for the pure spring water that Queen Victoria carried on her travels, and for the secret radar work that helped win the Second World War. Over Easter 1942 Winston Churchill moved the Telecommunications Research Establishment here, and much of British radar was developed on the town's doorstep in the work that would become QinetiQ.
Its working economy still leans on that research heritage - QinetiQ, the Malvern Hills Science Park and the cyber cluster around them - alongside the manufacturing units at Spring Lane Industrial Estate and the Enigma Business Park at Malvern Link.
Each of those Malvern 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 Spring Lane Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Malvern workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Malvern employers and others across Worcestershire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, from the defence and electronics engineering that grew out of the Royal Radar Establishment to the precision shops supplying QinetiQ and the Malvern Hills Science Park.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Malvern's bakeries and kitchens, and the bottling lines that still draw Malvern spring water from the Holy Well the town built its name on.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Malvern joinery and cabinet shops, and at the ash-frame workshops the Morgan Motor Company has hand-built its cars over since 1909, 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 Spring Lane and Enigma 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 Malvern Link bodyshops and coachbuilders. 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 at QinetiQ and the Malvern Hills Science Park, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Malvern
We are out under Malvern's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A small bakery in Malvern had capture velocity on its flour-handling extraction dropping below benchmark, which we traced to a leaking flexible connection. We ran a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, visualising capture with smoke and checking the filter. Once the unsealed joint was sorted the capture came back within benchmark, and we left the readings and a report for the file. We timed the visit for the school holidays while the unit was quiet.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Malvern 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 Spring Lane 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 Malvern 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.
For most Malvern sites - from the Spring Lane 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 Malvern 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 Malvern duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Enigma 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.
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 Spring Lane Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Spring Lane 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.
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 Spring Lane Industrial Estate and Enigma Business Park and across the wider Worcestershire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Spring Lane Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Malvern university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Malvern 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 Spring Lane Industrial Estate or a smaller Malvern workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
Over Easter 1942 Winston Churchill ordered the Telecommunications Research Establishment out of Swanage and into Malvern College, and around fifteen hundred of the country's best scientists developed much of Britain's wartime radar here within a fortnight. The site became the Royal Radar Establishment, where Cyril Hilsum's team helped pioneer the liquid-crystal display, and the same ground is worked today by QinetiQ and the defence and cyber firms of the Malvern Hills Science Park. That precision-engineering and laboratory instinct still runs through the town's workshops, and each one 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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