Newcastle upon Tyne · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Newcastle upon Tyne workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle grew on shipbuilding and heavy engineering, and the Tyne still fabricates - the offshore and subsea yards at Wallsend and Walker run alongside a city of over 300,000.
The heavy work is on the river - the offshore and subsea fabrication at Hadrian Yard and the Walker riverside, the marine engineering and heavy metalwork, the food-and-drink manufacturing - with the bodyshops, fabrication units and teaching labs of the two universities filling the ground between.
Wherever a Newcastle upon Tyne process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Hadrian Yard units down to the smallest Newcastle upon Tyne workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Newcastle upon Tyne and the wider Tyne and Wear it is your evidence under COSHH.
Fume and grinding extraction on the offshore and subsea fabrication lines at Wallsend and Walker, where heavy welding and cutting fume need capture at source.
On-torch and downdraught extraction across the marine and heavy-engineering units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Fume arms and bench extraction on the general fabrication shops - metal fume captured at the arc.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Newcastle bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the city's bakeries and food producers, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the two universities and the RVI and Freeman hospitals, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Newcastle upon Tyne
We are out under Newcastle upon Tyne's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A marine repair and engineering shipyard in Newcastle had a large mobile extraction unit for enclosed-space grit blasting blowing grit dust back out of itself - the flexible hose sleeve had torn. We ran a pitot-tube traverse inside the main duct and checked the physical state of the collection hoses and filter seals. It failed on mechanical damage to the main hose. The test was inside the hull of a dry-docked cargo ship, so it was working at height on confined-space permits throughout.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Newcastle upon Tyne 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 Hadrian Yard 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 Newcastle upon Tyne line.
Where exposure is in question - an offshore and subsea fabrication 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.
Across most Newcastle upon Tyne sites - the Hadrian Yard 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 Newcastle upon Tyne 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 Newcastle upon Tyne duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Walker riverside 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 offshore and subsea fabrication bay, a marine and heavy engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Newcastle upon Tyne 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.
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 Newcastle upon Tyne, but a Hadrian Yard fabrication shop and a Stowell Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Hadrian Yard 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 Hadrian Yard production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Hadrian Yard and Walker riverside, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Tyne and Wear.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Hadrian Yard units, term-time access at the Newcastle upon Tyne university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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