Nottingham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Nottingham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Nottingham
Nottingham has made medicines since Boots was founded here in 1849, and its science and manufacturing base - pharma, aerospace and rail among it - still runs across the city and Beeston.
The work clusters on the business parks - the pharmaceutical and contract-manufacturing plants around Beeston, the aerospace and rail engineering, and the general fabrication, welding and food-manufacturing lines across Castlewood and Trent Gateway - with the bodyshops, printers and labs filling the estates between.
Each of those Nottingham 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 Castlewood units to the one-bench Nottingham workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Nottingham and across East Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Fume-cupboard, tablet-press and containment extraction across the Beeston pharma cluster, where capture at source is the whole control measure.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction on the aerospace and precision-engineering lines, where fine dust and mist need capture proven.
Welding and grinding extraction on the rail and heavy-engineering units - metal fume and dust captured at the bench.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the general 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 Nottingham 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 two universities and the Queen's Medical Centre, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Nottingham
We are out under Nottingham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pharmaceutical tablet-pressing and packaging plant in Nottingham had the localised extraction arms on a high-speed tablet press showing a sharp drop in static pressure - a block of compacted excipient powder had set inside the flexible duct knuckle. We dismantled the joint, cleared the compressed powder and re-tested the face velocity and static-pressure drop. It passed once it was clear, with the capture velocity back to design spec. It was a high-grade hygiene area, so every anemometer probe was sanitised before it went in.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Nottingham system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Castlewood 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 Nottingham line.
Where exposure is in question - a pharma and contract manufacturing 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.
For most Nottingham sites - from the Castlewood 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 Nottingham 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 Nottingham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Trent Gateway 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 pharma and contract manufacturing bay, an aerospace and engineering 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 Castlewood 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 Nottingham, but a Castlewood fabrication shop and a Hockley canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Castlewood units, term-time access at the Nottingham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Castlewood or a smaller Nottingham workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Pharma and contract manufacturing, aerospace and engineering, rail and heavy engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the universities and hospitals - the trades clustered around Castlewood and Trent Gateway and across the wider East Midlands.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Castlewood and Trent Gateway, the university and hospital labs, and the wider East Midlands.
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