The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) require the maintenance and thorough examination and testing of control measures at specific intervals to ensure the control measures are always effective. Controls mean more than just the hardware (LEV and/or RPE) but also safe systems of work, provision of an RPE programme and supervision.

You should make sure that all controls measures are maintained:

·   in an efficient state

·   in efficient working order

·   in good repair and in clean condition

LEV Maintenance – The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations requires local exhaust ventilation systems to be maintained to a standard suitable for their purpose. If routine maintenance is neglected extract efficiency will deteriorate and mechanical parts could be liable to fail.

Every employer who provides Local Exhaust Extraction equipment to control substances hazardous to health (or COSHH), such as fine dust, wood dust, fume etc., has a legal requirement to examine and test the equipment in order to comply with Regulation 9 of the COSHH Regulations.

The main benefit of servicing your LEV equipment is that the system is less likely to break down and will have a higher chance of passing its annual COSHH test, which can, in turn, lead to expensive downtime where manufacturing processes cannot take place because they are too dangerous without properly functioning extraction.

Compliance LEV Testing engineers are P601, P602 & P604 & W201 qualified and testing is carried out in accordance with the COSHH 2002 regulations and HSG 258. We carry out a full visual examination including extraction hoods, ducting, filter units, fans and discharge arrangements to identify any potential defects.  Measurements are taken as appropriate:

·        Hood face velocities and static pressures.

·        Duct velocities and static pressures.

·        Static pressure across filter unit.

·        Static pressure across fan.

·        Discharge stack velocity.

Compliance LEV check the ability of the system to control the hazardous substance using dust lamp tests, smoke tests or light-scattering laser photometer.  If your system meets the key criteria we issue a ‘satisfactory’ notification in the LEV test report.

Compliance LEV supply a comprehensive report on the LEV system performance along with any recommendation for any action required. For new or previously undocumented systems we will provide a user manual and logbook as part of the Comprehensive package. Where a system is deemed ‘unsatisfactory’ during testing, Compliance LEV will work with you to establish a cost-effective compliant solution