LEV Testing · Cambridge
From the science-park labs and biotech benches to the engineering and electronics shops, Cambridge workplaces raise fume, mist and dust that the law says must be controlled - and the control proven by a thorough examination and test.
Cambridge is the heart of Silicon Fen, where biotech, electronics and precision engineering fill the science parks around the city. Its industry gathers on the Cambridge Science Park and the parks about the city, where laboratories, electronics assembly and engineering units all raise something a worker should not breathe - laboratory vapour, solder fume, weld fume, oil mist, solvent or dust.
Local exhaust ventilation is what captures it at source, and the law does not take the control on trust. Under COSHH the extraction has to be thoroughly examined and tested at least every 14 months, measured against how it is used - not just switched on and assumed to work.
CNC and manual machining raises oil mist and metal dust at the enclosure and bench that has to be captured at source.
Flour, powders and steam need capture at the mixing and process points, from bakeries to production kitchens.
Saws, sanders and routers throw fine wood dust that has to be drawn off at the tool and the bench.
Weld fume and grinding dust need capture at the arm and booth, wherever steel is fabricated.
Bodyshop spray booths and prep bays carry paint mist and solvent vapour that the extraction has to hold and clear.
Fume cupboards, safety cabinets and dental and salon extraction all count as LEV and all fall due on the same clock.
Real jobs, described by sector and area - never by a client's name.
At a biotech laboratory on a Cambridge science park, a bank of fume cupboards and point extraction was due its statutory examination. We measured face velocity across the sash on each cupboard, checked the extract, the alarms and the point-capture arms, and reported the one cupboard running below the safe capture figure so it could be put right before certifying the rest.
At an electronics assembly unit near Cambridge, the solder-fume extraction over the hand-soldering and reflow benches had lost capture and fume was reaching the operators. We measured capture at each arm and bench, checked the ducting and the filter, and reported what needed putting right so it held its spec on a re-test.
Condition of hoods, ducting, filters and fan - the damage, blockage and wear that quietly drops performance.
Measured capture and face velocities at the working points, plus transport velocity and static pressure through the system.
The readings assessed against how the LEV should perform to actually control the exposure - not just whether the fan turns.
Where the process warrants it, sampling to confirm the control is keeping the substance out of the breathing zone.
A thorough examination and test under COSHH is a real assessment, not a rubber stamp. It is a structured examination of the system's condition, measurement of its actual performance, and an assessment of those readings against how the system should perform to control the exposure. It follows the HSE's guidance, HSG258, and ends in a report and a label.
We test to the HSE's guidance, HSG258, and the job ends in a report and a label on the plant: what was measured, what passed, what needs putting right, and the date the next test falls due.
We examine the condition of the hoods, ducting, filter and fan and how each is meant to control its process.
We measure capture and face velocities, transport velocity and static pressure at every key point.
The readings are judged against the design benchmark under HSG258, with a clear pass or fail on control.
The plant is labelled and you get the report and next-due date for your COSHH records.
At least every 14 months under COSHH Regulation 9 - and sooner for certain higher-risk processes. We set the right interval for what you run and put the next-due date on the label and the report.
A thorough-examination-and-test report against HSG258, a pass/fail on each point with any remedials listed, and a dated label on the plant showing when the next test falls due.
We set out exactly what failed and why - often a single reading such as static pressure or capture velocity - so it can be put right, and we re-test to confirm the control before certifying.
Yes - the science parks and the city estates and the city's units, and across Cambridge and the wider Cambridgeshire.
No - any LEV: welding fume arms, wood and grain dust systems, spray booths, mist extraction, fume cupboards, and dental and salon extraction all fall under the same duty and the same clock.
The Cambridge Science Park, launched by Trinity College in 1970, seeded the largest cluster of tech and biotech in Europe, and the labs and clean rooms ringing the city work with fume, solvent and solder every day. Every one carries a duty to control what its work throws off - and to prove it with a measured test.
We have carried out LEV thorough examination and testing to HSG258 since 2001, across Cambridgeshire and the UK. From a machine shop to a joinery, a spray booth or a lab fume cupboard, the job ends the same way: measured readings, a clear verdict, and a label whose next-due date you can rely on.
Tell us what you run and we will examine, measure, report and label it to HSG258 - across Cambridgeshire.
