Do I need an LEV thorough examination and test?
If extraction is provided to control employee exposure to a substance hazardous to health, it is likely to sit within the COSHH maintenance and examination regime. The answer depends on what it captures and why it exists, not simply its size.
Check my situationUse a source-control threshold
Ask whether work creates a hazardous airborne contaminant, whether the equipment captures it close to the source, and whether that control is relied on to keep exposure adequately controlled. A yes to all three is a strong indicator that LEV examination duties are relevant.
- Include wood and stone dust, welding fume, spray mist, vapours and process-generated contaminants.
- Include equipment integrated into tools, portable extractors, booths and cabinets where they provide source capture.
- Check unusual Schedule 4 processes and any shorter interval already set by a competent person.
What to do next: Inventory each system and extraction point, find the last TExT report and compare its due date with the current date. If there is no report, obtain competent scoping rather than treating a recent service invoice as examination evidence.
Strong indicators
Dust or fume is visibly generated, a hood or nozzle is positioned near the process, workers rely on the extraction rather than respiratory protection alone, or a COSHH assessment names LEV as a control. These are procurement indicators, not a substitute for exposure assessment.
- Welding and thermal-cutting fume
- Machining or sanding wood and board
- Grinding, polishing or cutting mineral and metal materials
- Spraying, coating, mixing or laboratory containment
Commonly missed systems
Employers often inventory the main fan and filter but omit each connected hood, on-tool extraction, portable units, microbiological cabinets or small solder fume extractors. HSE expressly treats on-tool extraction as LEV.
The examiner still needs to decide whether each item falls within the duty and which test method is appropriate. The buyer’s job is to disclose the equipment rather than pre-filter it out.
When the answer may genuinely be no
General comfort ventilation that does not capture a hazardous contaminant at source may not be LEV. A system may also be redundant and formally isolated. Those facts should be established and documented rather than inferred from low usage or small size.
Even where a statutory LEV TExT is not the right service, other COSHH, maintenance, workplace-ventilation or equipment duties can still apply.