According to the HSE, many employers are unaware of the hidden dangers being posed to their staff by inadequate or poorly maintained LEV systems. Use this helpful checklist to understand how often you should have your LEV inspected and what you need to do to stay compliant.
Why LEV Testing is a Priority for Businesses
If you’re using LEV as a control for airborne contaminants like dust, mist, fume, vapour, or gas, you not only have an obligation as an employer to protect your staff against dangerous respiratory illness, but you also have extensive legal responsibilities as outlined in:
- The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
- The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as amended) (COSHH)
- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR)
And if using potentially explosive substances:
Failure to undergo LEV testing and show compliance with these regulations means putting your employees in a dangerous position and leaving your business vulnerable to fines, prosecution, and irreparable reputational damage.
Testing Frequency: How Often Should Your LEV System Be Inspected?
In order for your business to stay compliant, the HSE requires LEV system testing every 14 months as a minimum. More frequent LEV inspections are required for systems with wear and tear that could result in quicker degradation or for businesses that use the following processes:
- Blasting during metal casting cleaning: Monthly LEV test required
- Jute cloth manufacturing: Monthly LEV test required
- Dry grinding or polishing metal (excluding gold, platinum, iridium): Six-monthly LEV test required. Applies if done with powered tools for over 12 hours a week in a room.
- Casting non-ferrous metals (e.g. aluminium, copper) with dust or fumes: Six-monthly LEV test required. Covers foundry processes that release airborne contaminants.
If, for any reason, you miss a test or fall behind schedule, book in an inspection immediately and keep a record of why it was the test was missed and what remedial action was taken. Any processes relying on LEV systems as their main hazard control should cease operation until the system is tested and proven effective. Temporary alternatives like appropriate RPE may only be used if justified by risk assessment.
Finding an Engineer: Who is Competent to Test Your System?
A vital requirement under MHSWR and COSHH is competence. This means you must ensure that whoever is inspecting your system is a competent person with up-to-date knowledge, skills, and understanding of the job. Our highly experienced Vent Tech engineers can visit your site to conduct testing for you, or we can help to train up trusted members of your team so that they can carry out testing in-house.
What Else Do You Need to Do to Meet Local Exhaust Ventilation Regulations?
Along with testing, you’ll need to:
- Keep core documents safe: This includes your technical file, commissioning/baseline report, LEV logbook, and TExT reports (must be kept for 5 years).
- Ensure all LEV users are properly trained: Staff need to be up-to-speed on correct hood use, checking indicators, and actions to take if performance drops.
- Conduct routine checks: Carry out daily visual/indicator checks and weekly/monthly basic maintenance. Keep a log of these.
- Make performance easy to see: Fit airflow or pressure indicators, mark correct hood positions and setpoints, and label each hood with its ID and test dates.
- Reassess the system when things change: If you alter hoods, ducts, fans, filters, or the process, re-commission or re-test as needed.
- Stay aligned with COSHH and other duties: Prove exposure is controlled, add extra controls or monitoring if needed, consider DSEAR for combustible dusts/vapours, and dispose of waste and filters safely.
The Biggest Dangers of Failing to Test
According to the World Health Organisation, deaths from tracheal, bronchial, and lung cancers are on the rise and have become the sixth leading cause of death worldwide. These unsettling statistics remind us that the consequences of failing to test equipment go far beyond damage to reputation, hefty fines, or disrupted business.
Silicosis, occupational asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer are all very real risks. They are diagnosed in British workers every day, and we hear more and more of these tragic stories because workers’ LEV systems either failed to protect them or were not tested frequently enough to identify faults before irreversible harm occurred.
Due to the nature of occupational respiratory disease, exposure damage is cumulative and often symptomless in its early stages. This means employees will not necessarily feel unwell as the harm develops. Yet over months and years, the dust, fumes, and vapours that should have been captured can accumulate in lung tissue, causing permanent impairment that no medical intervention can fully reverse.
As an employer, it’s crucial that you don’t fall into the trap of treating LEV testing as simply an administrative formality. Those tests are there to ensure the primary control measure protecting your workforce from serious, life-limiting respiratory illness is functioning as intended. Staying on schedule means putting lives first.