Perth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Perth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Perth
Perth, the Fair City on the River Tay, is home to around 47,000 people and stands as Scotland's historic gateway to the Highlands, its centre framed by the wooded hill of Kinnoull and the longest river in the country.
Its everyday working economy runs on whisky and food production, agricultural trades and light engineering, much of it based on the North Muirton and Inveralmond estates.
Every one of those Perth processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the North Muirton units to the smaller Perth workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Perth and across Perth and Kinross it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Perth was the home of Scotch blending - Bell's, Dewar's and Matthew Gloag's Famous Grouse all began here - and bottling halls, cask stores and vatting rooms still need ethanol-vapour and solvent extraction kept to standard.
Production kitchens, bakeries and cold stores around the estates rely on flour-dust and steam extraction, tested to keep worker exposure below the workplace limit.
Machinery dealers, grain dryers and repair workshops serving Perthshire farms throw off weld fume and grain dust, so on-tool and general extraction is measured against COSHH limits.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the North Muirton and Inveralmond units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Perth 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 Perth College UHI and Perth Royal Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Perth
We are out under Perth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An agricultural engineering workshop in Perth had the capture velocity at its fume-extraction arms falling below benchmark, with a worn fan impeller. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the bench capture hoods and cleared a blocked filter in the ducting, then re-checked each point. The system met control standards once the filter was cleared, and we issued a full LEV report for the COSHH file.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Perth 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 North Muirton 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 Perth line.
Where exposure is in question - a whisky and drinks 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.
For most Perth sites - from the North Muirton 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 Perth 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 Perth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Inveralmond 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 whisky and drinks bay, a food and bakery 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 Perth 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the North Muirton units, term-time access at the Perth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 North Muirton 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 Perth, but a North Muirton fabrication shop and a High Street 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 North Muirton or a smaller Perth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
whisky and drinks, food and bakery, agricultural engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and labs and fume cupboards - the trades clustered around North Muirton and Inveralmond and across the wider Perth and Kinross.
Local knowledge
Two miles north of the city, Scone Palace marks the Moot Hill where Scotland's kings were once crowned on the Stone of Destiny, until Edward I carried the Stone south in 1296. Perth has traded on that royal past for centuries, and its working premises carry modern duties. Local Exhaust Ventilation is one of them: any workshop capturing weld fume, dust or solvent vapour must have its LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months, and we survey, test and certify to that schedule.
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