LEV Testing · Oxford
From the Cowley car plant and its supply chain to the university labs and engineering shops, Oxford workplaces raise fume, mist and dust that the law says must be controlled - and the control proven by a thorough examination and test.
Oxford makes as well as teaches - the Mini has rolled off the line at Cowley for a century, and a whole supply chain of engineering and finishing works with it. Its industry gathers at Cowley and on the trade estates about the city, alongside the university and hospital labs, where vehicle, engineering and science units all raise something a worker should not breathe - weld fume, oil mist, solvent, paint spray, laboratory vapour or wood 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 vehicle-supply engineering unit near Cowley in Oxford, the weld-fume arms and mist extraction over the machining had lost capture and fume was reaching the operators. We measured capture at each point, checked the ducting and the filter, and found a fan below duty and a loaded filter dragging the run. We set out the remedial action, and re-tested to confirm the control before certifying.
At a university research laboratory in Oxford, a bank of fume cupboards was due its statutory examination. We measured face velocity across the sash on each, checked the extract and the alarms, and reported the one cupboard running below the safe capture figure so it could be put right before certifying the rest.
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.
The point of a thorough examination and test is to prove the extraction still controls the exposure - so we measure it, we do not eyeball it. Condition, capture and face velocities, transport velocity and static pressure are checked against the design intent under HSG258, and the result is written up and labelled on the plant.
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 inspect the system's condition - hoods, ducting, filter and fan - and identify how it is meant to control each process.
We take the readings: capture and face velocities, duct transport velocity and static pressure at the key points.
We assess the readings against the benchmark and set out clearly whether the system is controlling the exposure.
The system is labelled with the test result and next-due date, and you get the report for your COSHH file.
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 Cowley and the city trade estates and the city's units, and across Oxford and the wider Oxfordshire.
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.
Cowley has built cars since Morris started there in 1913, and BMW's Mini plant still stamps, welds and paints on the same ground, feeding a supply chain of precise engineering across the city. That making instinct, alongside the university's labs, carries a duty to control the fume, mist and dust the 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 Oxfordshire 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 Oxfordshire.
