Runcorn · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Runcorn workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Runcorn
Runcorn is a Cheshire town in Halton of around 61,000, one of the historic homes of the UK chemical industry and now an INEOS chlor-alkali hub on the Mersey.
The signature trade is chemicals - the chlor-alkali electrolysis of the INEOS plant, the petrochemicals and fine chemicals, and the pharmaceuticals and plastics - across the Whitehouse Industrial Estate and Manor Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Runcorn process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Whitehouse Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Runcorn units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Runcorn employers and others across Cheshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Vapour, mist and process-fume extraction across the chlor-alkali and chemical plants, the defining trade of the town, where corrosive process vapour needs capture at source under permit.
Vapour, mist and fume extraction across the petrochemical and fine-chemical units, where process vapour needs capture proven.
Solvent, dust and vapour extraction across the pharmaceutical and plastics lines, where process fume and dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Whitehouse Industrial Estate and Manor Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Runcorn 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 Halton General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Runcorn
We are out under Runcorn's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A chlor-alkali chemical plant in Runcorn had a local exhaust over a filter-press bay letting an acidic mist escape because a section of the branch ducting had corroded through. We ran the capture checks on the sound branches and logged the structural failure. It failed on the corroded duct and the mist breakthrough, and we handed the specification to a ducting contractor for the replacement run. It was a permit-to-work zone with a chlorine risk, so escape sets and gas monitoring were carried throughout.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Runcorn 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 Whitehouse 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 Runcorn line.
Where exposure is in question - a chemicals and chlor-alkali process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
Across most Runcorn sites - the Whitehouse 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 Runcorn 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 Runcorn duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Manor Park 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 chemicals and chlor-alkali bay, a petrochemicals and fine chemicals bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Chemicals and chlor-alkali, petrochemicals and fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and plastics, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Whitehouse Industrial Estate and Manor Park and across the wider Cheshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Runcorn 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Whitehouse Industrial Estate and Manor Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cheshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Whitehouse Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Runcorn university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Runcorn, but a Whitehouse Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Church Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Whitehouse Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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