Maintenance & systems
Extraction only protects people if the people using it know how. Under COSHH Regulation 12 an employer must give information, instruction and training to anyone working with a hazardous substance - and for LEV that means teaching operators how to position it, switch it on, read its indicators and report a fault, before they start.
The short answer
Extraction only protects people if the people using it know how. Under COSHH Regulation 12 an employer must give information, instruction and training to anyone working with a hazardous substance - and for LEV that means teaching operators how to position it, switch it on, read its indicators and report a fault, before they start.
The detail
The best-designed extraction fails if it is used wrongly, and most misuse is simply not knowing. COSHH Regulation 12 places a legal duty on the employer to provide suitable and sufficient information, instruction and training to everyone liable to be exposed to a hazardous substance. For LEV that is not a general safety talk - it is specific, practical instruction in how this system controls this hazard, and what the operator must do to keep it working.
Positioning comes first, because it is where control is most often lost. Operators need to understand that capture velocity falls away sharply with distance, so the source has to sit inside the hood's effective zone and the captor arm has to be moved to follow the work. Training should show, at the machine, what good and poor positioning look like, and why a hood a short distance too far away stops protecting them even though the fan sounds fine.
Then the everyday operating detail: switching the system on before work starts and leaving it running long enough afterwards, not defeating or bypassing it, and reading the airflow indicator so they know it is actually extracting. Operators should be taught what a normal reading looks like and what a dropped one means, so the gauge becomes information they act on rather than a dial they ignore.
Finally, fault reporting. Staff need to know what a failing system looks and sounds like - a flag that has fallen, a filter gauge in the red, a new vibration or a change in the fan's note - and to have a clear, blame-free route to report it the same day. Training that ends with people knowing how to raise a problem, and confident that it will be acted on, is what keeps small faults from becoming exposures.
What it means for you
Timing matters as much as content. Training must be given before an employee starts working with the hazardous substance, not squeezed in during a first busy week once they are already exposed. It should be repeated when the substance, process or equipment changes, after any incident, and periodically as a refresher so the knowledge stays live rather than fading after induction.
Keep a record of who was trained, on what and when. Lack of training documentation is one of the most common triggers for enforcement action, and a signed, dated record is simple evidence that the Regulation 12 duty has been met. It also lets you see at a glance whose refresher is due, so the programme does not quietly lapse.
Well-trained operators are the cheapest control measure a business has. They position hoods correctly, run the system as intended, spot faults early and report them, doing every day the things no annual test can do. Investment in clear, practical, well-timed training pays back as steadier control, fewer failures and a workforce that understands why the extraction matters.
The service behind the guide
Sibling guides
Why capture depends on positioning · Building a maintenance schedule that holds up · The true cost of lung disease claims
Questions
Yes. COSHH Regulation 12 requires employers to give information, instruction and training to anyone liable to be exposed to a hazardous substance, which includes how to use the LEV that controls it.
How to position hoods and captor arms in the capture zone, how to start up and run the system properly, how to read its airflow indicators, and how to spot and report a fault the same day.
Before the employee starts working with the substance - not during their first week. It should be refreshed when the substance, process or equipment changes, after an incident, and periodically.
There is no fixed statutory interval. Good practice is to refresh whenever risks or processes change and periodically - commonly every one to three years, more often for higher-risk work.
Yes. Keep a signed, dated record of who was trained and on what. Missing training records are a common trigger for enforcement, and the record shows the Regulation 12 duty has been met.
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