Prudhoe · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Prudhoe workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Prudhoe
Prudhoe sits on a steep, north-facing hillside on the south bank of the River Tyne, eleven miles west of Newcastle and second only to Hexham among the Tyne Valley towns. It is crowned by Prudhoe Castle, the Norman motte-and-bailey stronghold of the Umfravilles that holds the unique distinction of being the only medieval fortress in Northumbria never taken by the Scots, now cared for by English Heritage.
Its modern working economy runs on manufacturing, the fabrication trades and food production, much of it grouped in the units at Low Prudhoe alongside the huge Essity paper-tissue mill and the light-industrial yards off Princess Way.
Each of those Prudhoe 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 Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Prudhoe 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 Prudhoe employers and others across Northumberland it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fibre dust, steam and converting-line extraction at the Essity tissue mill at Low Prudhoe, the former Kimberly-Clark and SCA works whose paper machines once ran at a mile of tissue a minute, plus the machine shops and engineering units around Princess Way.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control across the bakeries, butchers and Tyne Valley food producers that supply Prudhoe and the villages along the river, where airborne flour and organic dust are captured at source.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the joinery and cabinet workshops in the Low Prudhoe units, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Low Prudhoe and Princess Way workshops. Since the HSE reclassification in 2019, all welding fume, mild steel included, is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Prudhoe bodyshops and MOT garages. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, the leading cause of occupational asthma, so booth airflow is examined against its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the quality and fibre laboratories at the paper mill and for the school and clinical labs across the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Prudhoe
We are out under Prudhoe's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The saws had lost capture at a small Prudhoe furniture workshop, the tool hoods let down by debris building up in the ducting. I measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. Capture returned to within the benchmark once the unsealed joint was sorted, and I left a signed report. A worn part got flagged to the owner for their maintenance records.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Prudhoe 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 Low Prudhoe 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 Prudhoe line.
Where exposure is in question - a manufacturing and paper production 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 Prudhoe sites - the Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate 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 Prudhoe 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 Prudhoe duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Princess Way 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 manufacturing and paper production bay, a food and drink production 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 Prudhoe 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 Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Prudhoe university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Low Prudhoe 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.
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 Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate or a smaller Prudhoe workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate and Princess Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Northumberland.
manufacturing and paper production, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate and Princess Way and across the wider Northumberland.
Local knowledge
Prudhoe grew rich on coal from the mid-nineteenth century, when deeper pits and better ventilation opened around 1860, and the Mickley Coal Company added a firebrick works at its colliery in 1870 that pressed forty-five thousand bricks a week in a Belgian kiln. That heavy-engineering instinct still runs through the machine shops and fabrication units around Low Prudhoe, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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