Redcar · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Redcar workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Redcar
Redcar is a Teesside seaside town in the North East, around 37,000, home to the Redcar Beacon and to Teesworks - the UK's largest freeport, rising on the old steelworks as an offshore-wind and clean-energy hub.
The signature trade is heavy industry - the offshore-wind fabrication and steel heritage of Teesworks, the chemicals and process industry of the Wilton complex, and the engineering - across the Kirkleatham Business Park and Teesworks estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Redcar 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 Kirkleatham Business Park units to the smaller Redcar 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 Redcar and across Teesside it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the offshore-wind and heavy-fabrication bays of Teesworks, where the monopile and jacket welding needs on-torch capture at source.
Vapour, mist and process-fume extraction across the chemical and process plants of the Wilton complex, where process vapour needs capture proven under permit.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Kirkleatham Business Park and Teesworks units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Redcar 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 town's primary care hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Redcar
We are out under Redcar's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An offshore-wind fabrication yard in Redcar had a weld-fume extraction arm on a monopile-welding bay drooping short of the seam because its internal spine had cracked. We clamped the arm to hold position, measured the capture at the tip and logged the mechanical fault. It passed on the airflow but failed on the arm's positioning integrity, so the hood could not be held over the weld. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the arm on the heavy-plate work.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Redcar 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 Kirkleatham Business Park 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 Redcar line.
Where exposure is in question - an offshore-wind and heavy fabrication 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 Redcar sites - from the Kirkleatham Business Park 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 Redcar 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 Redcar duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the South Tees 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. An offshore-wind and heavy fabrication bay, a chemicals and process industry bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Kirkleatham Business Park 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 Kirkleatham Business Park units, term-time access at the Redcar 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 Kirkleatham Business Park unit will ask to see.
Offshore-wind and heavy fabrication, chemicals and process industry, engineering and metal fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Kirkleatham Business Park and South Tees and across the wider Teesside.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Redcar 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 Redcar, but a Kirkleatham Business Park fabrication shop and a Regent Walk canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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