Thornton Cleveleys · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Thornton Cleveleys workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Thornton Cleveleys
Thornton Cleveleys sits on the Fylde coast just north of Blackpool, a conurbation of the old village of Thornton and the seaside town of Cleveleys that grew up around its promenade and the Blackpool tramway and is home to some thirty thousand people. Its most famous landmark is the vast ICI Hillhouse chemical works, once one of the largest chlorine and fluoropolymer plants in the country, whose site still anchors the local economy today.
Its working economy runs on high-performance polymers, chemicals and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at the Hillhouse International site and the Red Marsh Industrial Estate at Thornton.
Each of those Thornton Cleveleys 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 Hillhouse International units to the one-bench Thornton Cleveleys workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Thornton Cleveleys employers and others across Lancashire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and compounding lines, from Victrex, which makes its PEEK high-performance polymer at Hillhouse, to the precision shops that feed the wider Fylde coast manufacturers.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and seaside catering kitchens of Thornton Cleveleys, where dust and vapour are drawn off at source before they reach the air staff breathe.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the joinery and cabinet shops on the Red Marsh Industrial Estate, 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 Hillhouse International and Red Marsh units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Thornton Cleveleys 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 chemical laboratories at Hillhouse, where AGC Chemicals Europe and Victrex run their analytical and research benches, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Thornton Cleveleys
We are out under Thornton Cleveleys's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The nail-station extraction at an independent Thornton Cleveleys hair salon wasn't pulling as it should, down to a filter well overdue for replacement. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the extract nozzles, sealed a leaking connection and re-checked each point. Capture came back within benchmark once the tired filter was swapped, and we left a signed report. We booked the work for the salon's weekly closed day.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Thornton Cleveleys 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 Hillhouse International 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 Thornton Cleveleys line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and polymer manufacturing 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.
For most Thornton Cleveleys sites - from the Hillhouse International 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 Thornton Cleveleys 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 Thornton Cleveleys duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Red Marsh 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 polymer 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Hillhouse International units, term-time access at the Thornton Cleveleys university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Hillhouse International 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 Hillhouse International or a smaller Thornton Cleveleys workshop needs for their COSHH file.
precision engineering and polymer manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Hillhouse International and Red Marsh Industrial Estate and across the wider Lancashire.
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 Thornton Cleveleys, but a Hillhouse International fabrication shop and a Victoria Road West canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Hillhouse International and Red Marsh Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
Local knowledge
ICI began acquiring the Hillhouse and Burn Hall works at Thornton in 1941, and at its peak the plant made close to ninety thousand tonnes of chlorine a year, later turning it into Fluon PTFE and other polymers. That chemical heritage lives on across the Hillhouse International site, where Victrex compounds its PEEK high-performance polymer and AGC Chemicals Europe still works the fluoropolymer line. Wherever solvents, dusts and fumes are handled, local exhaust ventilation is the barrier that keeps them out of workers' lungs. We test and certify LEV to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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