Phoenix Journal · LEV & Air Quality
Heat tempts a workshop into worse habits - doors flung open, operators stepping back from the process - and both can pull the LEV out of the position where it captures fume.
A workshop that welds, cuts or grinds runs hot in summer, and that heat does more than make the work uncomfortable - it makes controlling the fume harder at exactly the moment it matters most. As temperatures climb, the instinct is to throw open doors and shutters and to move away from the heat of the process, but both responses can pull operators and airflow out of the position where the local exhaust ventilation actually captures fume. Preparing workshop extraction for summer is about making sure the control that protects people's lungs keeps working when the conditions are working against it.
The health stakes are not in doubt. Since 2019, following the International Agency for Research on Cancer's confirmation that mild steel welding fume causes lung cancer, the HSE has treated all welding fume as carcinogenic, with local exhaust ventilation or respiratory protection required for every welding task - indoors or out, mild steel or stainless. Fume is not a nuisance to be tolerated on a hot day; it is a carcinogen to be captured at source, and a summer that tempts a workshop into worse habits is a summer that raises exposure.
Getting ahead of it means both keeping the LEV performing and staying on the right side of the statutory testing that proves it does.
The statutory clock
Under COSHH Regulation 9, an LEV system must have a thorough examination and test - a TExT - at least every fourteen months, carried out by a competent, impartial examiner to a recognised standard such as BOHS P601. But fourteen months is a statutory maximum, not a default that suits every process. Higher-risk work listed in COSHH Schedule 4, including welding fume and wood dust, typically needs testing every six months because of the known links to lung and nasal cancer. Treating fourteen months as the automatic interval for a welding shop is a common and serious compliance error.
Summer is where the timing catches people out, because workshop shutdowns and holidays cluster in it. The sensible move is to book the examination proactively - at eleven or twelve months for an annual system, or around five for a six-monthly one - so a test never lapses over a summer break, and so any remedial work is found and fixed before the system is leaned on through the hot months. Keep the test records for at least five years, and health surveillance records, where exposure requires them, for forty.
Between statutory tests, the system still needs watching. Daily user checks on filter condition, airflow indicators and hose integrity catch the gradual decline - and degraded ductwork, the most common cause of LEV underperformance found at examination, rarely announces itself. A system booked in early and checked daily is one that keeps protecting people through the summer, not one that is discovered to have failed at the next test.
More than a fan
A common misconception is that installing an extraction system solves the fume problem, when in truth the hardware is only as good as its positioning and use. Capture velocity falls away fast with distance - double the gap between the hood and the weld and you need four times the airflow to pull the fume in - so a hood parked a little too far away, or an operator standing in the plume, defeats even a well-specified system. What it actually takes to manage welding fume properly, beyond the purchase, is set out in how to manage welding fume beyond just buying extraction. The control is in the using, not the owning.
The upside
It is worth remembering that the case for well-run LEV is not only about avoiding disease and enforcement - it is about a workshop that is a better place to work and, measurably, more productive. Air thick with fume and heat slows people down, raises sickness absence and drives good workers away; air kept clean does the opposite. The connection between the quality of the air in a workshop and the output of the people in it is explored in the link between air quality and workshop productivity. Preparing the extraction for summer protects both the lungs and the livelihood of the place.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, an LEV thorough examination and test is required at least every fourteen months - but that is a maximum, not a default. Higher-risk processes in COSHH Schedule 4, including welding fume and wood dust, typically need testing every six months. Treating fourteen months as automatic for a welding shop is a common compliance error.
Heat tempts workshops into habits that defeat the extraction - flinging doors open and stepping back from the hot process - which pulls airflow and operators out of the capture zone. Summer shutdowns also cluster, so LEV tests can lapse over a holiday. Booking the examination early, at eleven to twelve months, leaves margin to fix anything before the heat.
Yes. Since 2019, following the IARC's confirmation that mild steel welding fume causes lung cancer, the HSE treats all welding fume as carcinogenic, requiring LEV or respiratory protection for every welding task - indoors or out, mild or stainless steel. Capture velocity of 0.5 to 1.0 m/s is needed at the weld, within the operator's breathing zone.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Welding fume is carcinogenic and LEV must be proven to control it. Phoenix carries out COSHH-compliant thorough examination and testing to HSG258 - book ahead of the shutdown season.