Stalybridge · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Stalybridge workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Stalybridge
Stalybridge sits on the River Tame at the eastern edge of Greater Manchester, one of the very first true factory towns of the Industrial Revolution, where a water-powered cotton mill turned in 1776 and a self-confident town grew up around the spindles. It is a place proud of its own firsts - the Stalybridge Old Band of 1809, reckoned the world's first civilian brass band, and the Buffet Bar that still pours real ale on the station platform.
Its working economy still runs on the engineering, food and fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units of the Rassbottom Industrial Estate and the Millbrook estate off Huddersfield Road.
Every Stalybridge 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 Rassbottom Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Stalybridge units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Stalybridge and across Greater Manchester it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and the machine shops off Stamford Street and the Rassbottom Industrial Estate, heirs to the Eagle Iron Works that once stood on Tame Street.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Stalybridge's bakeries and kitchens, and the brewing and bottling trades that the town's long real-ale reputation still supports.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at local cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Rassbottom and Millbrook units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Stalybridge 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 science rooms of Tameside's colleges and the local labs that need it, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Stalybridge
We are out under Stalybridge's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A well-known joinery workshop in Stalybridge had its tool capture hoods under-performing against benchmark, with a leaking flexible connection in the mix. I measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and went over the fan and filter. A tired filter turned out to be the weak link, and once it was sorted every point passed on re-test with the benchmark readings logged and reported. I flagged a worn part to the workshop manager for their maintenance records.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Stalybridge 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 Rassbottom 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 Stalybridge line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and 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.
For most Stalybridge sites - from the Rassbottom Industrial Estate 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 Stalybridge 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 Stalybridge duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Millbrook 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Rassbottom Industrial Estate and Millbrook Industrial Estate and across the wider Greater Manchester.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Rassbottom Industrial Estate and Millbrook Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Rassbottom Industrial Estate or a smaller Stalybridge workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Stalybridge, but a Rassbottom Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Melbourne 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 Rassbottom Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Rassbottom Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Stalybridge university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Stalybridge grew up around iron and machinery as much as cloth, and its engineering trade never wholly left - the Eagle Iron Works stood on Tame Street, and machine shops still work off Stamford Street and the Rassbottom Industrial Estate. Those shops throw off oil mist, weld fume and fine dust, and each one carries a duty to control what its work puts into the air. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures. From a lathe canopy to a downdraught bench, the airflow is measured and logged, not assumed.
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