St Helens · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for St Helens workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
St Helens
St Helens is a Merseyside borough of around 183,000, the historic home of Pilkington glass, which is still made in the town.
The signature trade is glass - the Pilkington glass manufacturing - alongside chemicals, engineering and fabrication, across the Sherdley Business Park and Gerards Park estates, with the bodyshops and food producers between them.
Every one of those St Helens 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 Sherdley Business Park units to the smaller St Helens 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 St Helens and across Merseyside it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Dust and furnace-fume extraction across the Pilkington glass lines, a trade rooted in the town's glass-making history, where mineral dust and hot fume need capture at source.
Vapour, dust and mist extraction across the chemical and coating plants, where process vapour needs capture proven.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Sherdley Business Park and Gerards 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 St Helens 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 St Helens College and St Helens Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in St Helens
We are out under St Helens's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A glass-fibre manufacturing and cutting line in St Helens had the high-vacuum extraction nozzles on a fibre-shearing machine heavily abraded, with holes bleeding suction pressure. We wrapped the compromised nozzles with high-tensile vulcanised sealing tape as a temporary fix and measured the total branch volumetric flow. It failed on structural integrity and we flagged the nozzle assembly for full replacement given the abrasive wear. The airborne glass fibre was aggressive, so full Tyvek coveralls and heavy nitrile inner gloves were worn.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a St Helens 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 Sherdley 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 St Helens line.
Where exposure is in question - a glass manufacturing 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 St Helens sites - the Sherdley Business Park 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 St Helens 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 St Helens duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Gerards 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 glass manufacturing bay, a chemicals bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Glass manufacturing, chemicals, engineering and fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Sherdley Business Park and Gerards Park and across the wider Merseyside.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a St Helens 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 St Helens, but a Sherdley Business Park fabrication shop and a Bridge 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 Sherdley Business Park or a smaller St Helens workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Sherdley Business Park units, term-time access at the St Helens 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 Sherdley Business Park unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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