The Health and Safety at Work Act and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (C.O.S.H.H.) states that employers must assess the risks to their workers from hazardous substances – dusts, fumes, vapours, etc. – and decide what measures to use to protect their health.
This means that if you work in certain industries that produce potentially harmful dust or fumes, then an employer must have some sort of extraction system installed in the workplace. The system must draw dust and harmful particulates from the air through a filter that first captures and separates the matter and then discharges purified air back into the workplace.
LEV Examples
- Flour dust extraction systems for factories and mills
- Vehicle exhaust extraction systems for garages and testing centres
- Furnace and fire extraction systems
- Chemical vapour extraction systems for labs and chemical manufacturing
- Welding fume extraction systems for manufacturing
- Solder fume extraction systems for factories
- Wood waste and dust extraction systems for timber manufacturing and woodworking
Local exhaust ventilation (LEV) is one such engineering control measure and the law states that an employer must maintain LEV system performance and should also arrange a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months. The employer needs to know whether or not an examination has been done or when it’s due, and so do supervisors and operators so that they continue to provide the necessary protection.
COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health)Â LEV testing not only should be carried out every 14 months, but the records have to be kept for at least 5 years. In addition, employers should have information on the installed LEV system to confirm it provides adequate protection, which should be kept for the life of the equipment.
What exactly is a LEV inspection?
It is a check that your LEV is still working as effectively as originally intended and is helping to protect your employees’ health. It involves a thorough examination of equipment including hoods, filters and ducts, measurement of the technical performance using the appropriate equipment and assessment of the effectiveness of the LEV system.
As an employer, you have a duty of care to protect your employees from harmful contaminants in the workplace. This means providing the safest workplace conditions as reasonably practicable. Book you COSHH LEV Test with Western Air Ducts.
