Scunthorpe · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Scunthorpe workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe is a North Lincolnshire steel town of around 82,000, the Industrial Garden Town, home to some of the last blast furnaces in England.
The defining work is steel - the blast-furnace and coke plant, the heavy engineering and fabrication, and the chemical and process trades - across the Foxhills and Skippingdale estates, with the bodyshops and food producers between them.
Every one of those Scunthorpe 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 Foxhills units to the smaller Scunthorpe 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 Scunthorpe and across Lincolnshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Furnace-fume, grinding and slag-dust extraction across the blast-furnace, coke and heavy-engineering lines, the defining trade of the steel town, where heavy metal fume and dust need capture at source.
Weld-fume and grinding extraction across the fabrication and stockholding units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Vapour, dust and mist extraction across the chemical and process plants, where process vapour needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Foxhills and Skippingdale units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Scunthorpe 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 North Lindsey College and Scunthorpe General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Scunthorpe
We are out under Scunthorpe's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An integrated steelworks in Scunthorpe had a high-temperature canopy over a slag-sampling station losing airflow because soot and slag had crusted onto the internal fan blades. We isolated the extraction fan, scraped the caked impellers down and measured the overall volumetric flow. It passed after the impeller clean, with the flow at 105 percent of the minimum design standard. It was a severe environment, so full blast-furnace-spec fire-retardant PPE and a personal multi-gas monitor were worn.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Scunthorpe 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 Foxhills 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 Scunthorpe line.
Where exposure is in question - a steel and heavy engineering process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For most Scunthorpe sites - from the Foxhills 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 Scunthorpe 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 Scunthorpe duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Skippingdale 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 steel and heavy engineering bay, a metal fabrication bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Steel and heavy engineering, metal fabrication, chemicals and process, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Foxhills and Skippingdale and across the wider Lincolnshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Scunthorpe 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 Foxhills units, term-time access at the Scunthorpe university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Foxhills and Skippingdale, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lincolnshire.
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 Scunthorpe, but a Foxhills fabrication shop and an Ashby 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 Foxhills or a smaller Scunthorpe workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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