Local Exhaust Ventilation Plant (LEV)

The Regulations apply to all work activities where substances, which are potentially hazardous to health, are used or produced.

They were originally implemented in 1988, enforceable from 1989 and replace some fifty sets of previous legislation relating to specific industries and processes, with a flexible and all embracing approach to all work activities involving hazardous substances.

They have been revised on numerous occasions. However, the section of the Regulations concerning LEV in the workplace have remained unchanged.

Asbestos, lead, materials producing ionising radiation and substances below ground in mines are excluded from the Regulations as they are already adequately covered by existing legislation. Also excluded are substances hazardous solely due to their flammability or explosive nature or because they are kept at high or low temperatures of high pressure.

In essence, previous legislation has been embodied into the COSHH Regulations with certain additions, resulting in the requirement for all LEV, in a workplace controlling fumes vapours gases or dusts from processes, to be thoroughly examined and tested periodically. These periods vary from one month to six months and finally fourteen months dependent upon the process and usage.

Assessment

The basic requirement of the Regulations is that employers must assess the likelihood of risk to the health of their employees and others from exposure to hazardous substances arising from work activities

The Regulations state that following 1st January 1990 no work, which is liable to expose anyone to substances hazardous to health, shall be carried on unless an assessment has been made..

Except in all but the minor circumstances, it is envisaged that the assessment process will need to be documented to prove the methodology.

The responsibility for undertaking an assessment lies with the employer and cannot be delegated. However, this does not preclude the use of personnel both from inside and outside the organisation. Indeed, where air-sampling or biological monitoring is necessary for the assessment, recourse to outside specialists may be unavoidable.

Control

Assessment is the key to compliance but control is the essence of the COSHH Regulations.

The traditional hierarchy of control is clearly established in these Regulations i.e.

EXPOSURE - MUST BE PREVENTED
if not reasonably practicable it must be:
CONTROLLED BY METHODS other than by:
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT
if this is not reasonably practical
SUITABLE PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT MUST BE USED.

Personal Protective Equipment therefore becomes lower in the order than engineering or administrative control. Even so there are still situations where Personal Protective Equipment is the most appropriate form of control, as in, for example, exposures of short duration or maintenance operations.

Control Measures

Having assessed what substances likely to be hazardous to health are present, where they are present and risk of exposure to that hazard exists, the next stage required by the Regulations is the prevention or adequate control of that exposure.

Engineering controls are provided to control exposure, and LEV is a control strategy which figures prominently in the legislation.

In all cases where engineering control measures are provided to control exposure, they must be initially appraised then thoroughly examined and tested at specified intervals in order to ensure that the control measures are still performing as originally intended.

The results of each thorough examination and test should be compared with the initial appraisal carried out under Regulation 6 and the requirement of Regulation 7 with regard to control.

Where an initial appraisal has not been completed on LEV, no thorough examinations and tests can be completed.

The HSB Service

The Health & Safety Executive are actively policing the Regulations and prosecutions in the courts are being pursued along with the issue of prohibition/improvement notices.

Liability Insurers are insisting on compliance with the Regulations before renewing or incepting Employers Liability insurance's in some trades/industries. HSB Haughton have fully trained and qualified Engineers in place throughout the country to:

1. Carry out initial appraisals with laboratory analysis of samples.
2. Carry out periodic examinations of LEV Plant to prove the plant is still operating effectively.