North Shields · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for North Shields workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
North Shields
North Shields is a Tyne and Wear town at the mouth of the Tyne in North Tyneside, around 40,000, home to the working Fish Quay - one of the busiest fishing ports on England's east coast.
The signature trade is marine and fishing - the subsea and offshore engineering of the Tyne, the fishing and fish processing of the Fish Quay, and the engineering and fabrication - across the West Chirton North Industrial Estate and Royal Quays estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a North Shields 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 West Chirton North Industrial Estate units down to the smallest North Shields 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 North Shields and the wider Tyne and Wear it is your evidence under COSHH.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the marine, subsea and offshore-engineering units of the Tyne, where metal fume and coating vapour need capture at source.
Steam, smoke and mist extraction across the fish-processing trades of the Fish Quay, where organic dust and vapour need capture proven.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units of the West Chirton estates, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the West Chirton North Industrial Estate and Royal Quays units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at North Shields 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 local college and the North Tyneside General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in North Shields
We are out under North Shields's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A subsea-engineering fabrication yard in North Shields had a weld-fume and grinding extraction arm on a heavy-plate bay pulling weak because the flexible ducting had split along a seam. We taped off the split to test, measured the capture at the torch and logged the damage. It failed on the split ducting and the lost capture, and we specified the replacement hose. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked against the fabricators working the subsea structures.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a North Shields system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the West Chirton North 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 North Shields line.
Where exposure is in question - a marine and subsea engineering 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 North Shields sites - from the West Chirton North 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 North Shields 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 North Shields duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Royal Quays 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 marine and subsea engineering bay, a fishing and fish processing 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 West Chirton North 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 West Chirton North 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the West Chirton North Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the North Shields 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 North Shields 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 North Shields, but a West Chirton North Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Fish Quay canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Marine and subsea engineering, fishing and fish processing, engineering and fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around West Chirton North Industrial Estate and Royal Quays and across the wider Tyne and Wear.
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