Middlesbrough · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Middlesbrough workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough was Ironopolis - by the 1870s it made around a third of the UK's pig iron - and the Tees still fabricates steel and runs a major chemical and process cluster.
The heavy work is on the Tees - the structural-steel fabrication, the chemical and process plants of the Teesworks and Wilton cluster, and the offshore and energy engineering - alongside the welding, bodyshops and testing labs, across Teesworks and the Riverside Park estate.
Each of those Middlesbrough 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 Teesworks units to the one-bench Middlesbrough workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Middlesbrough and the rest of Teesside it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Fume and grinding extraction across the heavy-steel fabrication yards, where heavy welding and cutting fume need capture at source.
Vapour and mist extraction on the process and petrochemical lines of the Teesside cluster - corrosive fume that quietly eats a duct from the inside.
Fume and dust extraction on the offshore and energy-fabrication lines of the freeport, where heavy welding fume needs capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Middlesbrough 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 Teesside University and the James Cook University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Middlesbrough
We are out under Middlesbrough's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A heavy structural-steel fabrication yard in Middlesbrough had its track-mounted high-vacuum extraction arms drooping to the floor - the friction joints were badly worn. We tightened the counterweights and the articulation friction pads and measured the intake face velocities. It passed on the airflow but we flagged a physical safety risk until the drooping arms were structurally reinforced. It was a heavy marine-engineering site, so it was steel-toe boots, metatarsal guards and hard-hat tracking throughout.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Middlesbrough 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 Teesworks 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 Middlesbrough line.
Where exposure is in question - a structural steel fabrication 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.
For most Middlesbrough sites - from the Teesworks 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 Middlesbrough 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 Middlesbrough duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Riverside 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 structural steel fabrication bay, a chemicals and process 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 Teesworks unit will ask to see.
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 Middlesbrough, but a Teesworks fabrication shop and a Linthorpe Road 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 Teesworks or a smaller Middlesbrough workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Teesworks production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Structural steel fabrication, chemicals and process, offshore and energy engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Teesworks and Riverside Park and across the wider Teesside.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Teesworks units, term-time access at the Middlesbrough university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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