Stourbridge · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Stourbridge workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is the historic glass-making town of the West Midlands, around 57,000 in the Dudley borough, home to the Glass Quarter and the last complete glassmaking cone standing in the world.
The signature trade is glass - the furnace, cutting and finishing work of the Glass Quarter, the Black Country engineering and metalworking, and the foundry and kiln trades - across the Mill Race Lane units and the Glass Quarter, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Stourbridge 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 Mill Race Lane units to the smaller Stourbridge 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 Stourbridge and across West Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Furnace-fume, glass-dust and acid-polish mist extraction across the glass-blowing, cutting and finishing studios of the Glass Quarter, the defining trade of the town, where fine dust and hydrofluoric vapour need capture at source.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the Black Country engineering and metalworking units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Fume, dust and heat extraction across the foundry and kiln units, where process fume needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Mill Race Lane and Glass Quarter units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Stourbridge 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 Halesowen College and the Corbett Outpatient Centre, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Stourbridge
We are out under Stourbridge's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A glassworks in Stourbridge had a furnace and glass-cutting extraction canopy pulling weak over a cutting bench, letting fine glass dust and acid-polish mist drift into the studio. We measured the capture at the bench and checked the ducting for leaks. It failed on the low capture and the mist breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The studio ran hydrofluoric acid polishing, so vapour monitoring and full chemical PPE were in place for the test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Stourbridge system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Mill Race Lane 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 Stourbridge line.
Where exposure is in question - a glass-making process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For most Stourbridge sites - from the Mill Race Lane 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 Stourbridge 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 Stourbridge duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Glass Quarter 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-making bay, an engineering and metalworking bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Mill Race Lane production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Mill Race Lane units, term-time access at the Stourbridge university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Mill Race Lane or a smaller Stourbridge workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Mill Race Lane unit will ask to see.
Glass-making, engineering and metalworking, foundry and kiln work, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and outpatient centre - the trades clustered around Mill Race Lane and Glass Quarter and across the wider West Midlands.
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 Stourbridge, but a Mill Race Lane fabrication shop and a Market Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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