South Shields · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for South Shields workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
South Shields
South Shields is a South Tyneside town at the mouth of the Tyne, in a borough of around 148,000, famous for the Ocean Road curry mile and the birthplace of the modern lifeboat.
The heavy work is marine and offshore - the marine and offshore engineering of the Tyne, the fabrication and welding, and the food and manufacturing trades - across the Bede Industrial Estate and Simonside Industrial Estate, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those South Shields 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 Bede Industrial Estate units to the one-bench South Shields workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across South Shields and the rest of Tyne and Wear it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the marine and offshore-engineering units of the Tyne, where metal fume and coating vapour need capture at source.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and steel-fabrication units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Vapour, dust and mist extraction across the chemical and manufacturing plants, where process vapour needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Bede Industrial Estate and Simonside Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at South Shields 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 South Tyneside College and the South Tyneside District Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in South Shields
We are out under South Shields's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A marine-engine rebuilding workshop in South Shields had the saturated secondary carbon filters on a solvent parts washer letting a sweet VOC odour bypass into the assembly room. We measured the differential pressure across the multi-stage filter box and checked for breakthrough with a PID VOC detector. It failed on total carbon-filter saturation and gas breakthrough, even though the basic airflow spec was met. We ran the test during a scheduled midday machine-maintenance window to keep out of production.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a South Shields 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 Bede 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 South Shields line.
Where exposure is in question - a marine and offshore engineering 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.
Across most South Shields sites - the Bede 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 South Shields 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 South Shields duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Simonside Industrial Estate 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 marine and offshore engineering bay, an engineering and fabrication bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Bede Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Marine and offshore engineering, engineering and fabrication, chemicals and manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Bede Industrial Estate and Simonside Industrial Estate and across the wider Tyne and Wear.
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 South Shields, but a Bede Industrial Estate fabrication shop and an Ocean Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Bede Industrial Estate and Simonside Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Tyne and Wear.
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 Bede 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 Bede Industrial Estate or a smaller South Shields workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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