Whitehaven · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Whitehaven workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Whitehaven
Whitehaven is a Georgian planned town on the Cumbrian coast, laid out on a grid by the Lowther family from the 1660s to ship coal out to Ireland - one of the first planned towns in Britain after London. By the 18th century its harbour was among the busiest ports in the country, and in 1778 it was the last place on English mainland soil to be raided by a hostile force, when John Paul Jones rowed ashore to burn the packed shipping.
That deep-water, coal and shipbuilding heritage has given way to a working economy built around the nuclear industry at nearby Sellafield and its supply chain, much of it grouped in the units and laboratories at Westlakes Science and Technology Park and the yards at Moresby Parks.
Wherever a Whitehaven process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Westlakes Science and Technology Park units down to the smallest Whitehaven workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Whitehaven employers and others across Cumbria it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres across the Sellafield nuclear supply chain and the precision shops feeding Westlakes Science and Technology Park, where components are turned to fine tolerances shift after shift.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in West Cumbria's bakeries and food producers, from the town-centre bakehouses to the units that supply the harbourside cafes and pubs.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Whitehaven 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 Moresby Parks yards and the fabrication units serving the decommissioning trade. Since the HSE reclassification of 2019, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Whitehaven bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined against its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the research laboratories and technical companies at Westlakes Science and Technology Park, where nuclear and environmental science demands proven containment.
On the ground in Whitehaven
We are out under Whitehaven's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Face velocity across the downdraught nail benches at a small Whitehaven hair salon was reading low, traced to a slipping fan drive belt. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the extract nozzles, cleared the debris from the ducting and re-checked each point. The system met control standards once the blocked filter was dealt with, and we issued a full LEV report for the COSHH file. The work was booked for a bank holiday while the studio was closed.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Whitehaven 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 Westlakes Science and Technology 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 Whitehaven 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 the great majority of Whitehaven sites, from the Westlakes Science and Technology Park units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Whitehaven 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 Whitehaven duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Moresby Parks 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.
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 Westlakes Science and Technology Park unit will ask to see.
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 Westlakes Science and Technology Park and Moresby Parks and across the wider Cumbria.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Whitehaven 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.
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 Westlakes Science and Technology Park 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 Westlakes Science and Technology Park or a smaller Whitehaven 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 Whitehaven, but a Westlakes Science and Technology Park fabrication shop and a Lowther Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Local knowledge
West Cumbria's engineering now turns on the nuclear industry, with the huge Sellafield site down the coast and its supply chain filling the units and laboratories at Westlakes Science and Technology Park. That precision-engineering instinct runs through the town's machine shops and technical firms, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures. From a fume cupboard at Westlakes to an oil-mist unit on a lathe, the test is the same - proven capture, on paper.
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