Oldham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Oldham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Oldham
Oldham was the cotton-spinning capital of the world - 16 million spindles at its peak - and the mills still shape a town of around 242,000.
The signature trade is textiles - the cotton and textile-recycling lint and dust - alongside the mechanical and structural engineering, the metal fabrication and precision electronics, across the Hollinwood and Chadderton estates, with the bodyshops and food producers between them.
Each of those Oldham 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 Hollinwood units to the one-bench Oldham 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 Oldham employers and others across Greater Manchester it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Dust and lint extraction across the cotton and textile-recycling lines, where fine fibre blinds a filter and loads a duct.
Machining, grinding and weld-fume extraction on the engineering and textile-machinery lines, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
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.
Solder-fume and fine-dust extraction on the electronics and precision-engineering benches, where capture at the tip is the whole control.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Oldham 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 Oldham College and the Royal Oldham Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Oldham
We are out under Oldham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A cotton and textile recycling plant in Oldham had the secondary cyclone filter bags choked solid with fine cotton lint, and the backpressure was tripping the fan motor on over-current. We brushed the internal collector bags down, reset the trip panel and ran a multi-point pitot-tube traverse. It passed once the filter loading dropped and the airflow came back to the design figures. The plant runs inside a huge multi-storey Victorian cotton mill, all narrow timber staircases and retrofitted plant.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On an Oldham 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 Hollinwood 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 an Oldham line.
Where exposure is in question - a textiles and recycling 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.
On most Oldham sites - the Hollinwood units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Oldham 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 Oldham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Chadderton 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 textiles and recycling bay, a mechanical and structural engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Hollinwood and Chadderton, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Hollinwood production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Textiles and recycling, mechanical and structural engineering, welding and fabrication, electronics and precision, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Hollinwood and Chadderton and across the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Oldham, but a Hollinwood fabrication shop and a Yorkshire Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Oldham 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.
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 Hollinwood unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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