Fume cupboards are some of most important pieces of equipment within cleanrooms. Undertaking periodic testing of fume cupboards LEV are essential when it comes to protecting your personnel from hazardous or noxious vapours, gases and dust produced inside fume cabinets.
Fume Cupboard Testing
Due to the toxic nature of many of the processes carried out within fume cupboards that the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) 2002 Regulations apply. These regulations impose a duty of care on employers to manage (and reduce wherever possible) the exposure of their employees to hazardous substances and, where it is not reasonably practicable to prevent exposure, to employ control measures to reduce it to an appropriate level. This is where fume cupboards come into play as they are a common means of partially containing hazardous chemicals and preventing their release into the workplace environment.
Typical Cleanroom Construction
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) requires all Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) systems, including fume cupboards, to be maintained in effective and efficient working order and they are also subject to inspection and mandatory fume cupboard testing and LEV testing every 14 months; however this may require more frequently testing when risk assessments have identified a high risk of exposure and/or works have been carried out to the fume cupboard or LEV system.
The COSHH Code of Practice 5th edition 2002 as well as the HSE publication ‘Maintenance, Testing and Examination of Local Exhaust Ventilation’ provide detailed guidance for employers to help ensure fume cupboard testing and maintenance is carried out as required by the regulations to demonstrate LEV is operating as it is designed to and that it is adequately controlling exposure to hazardous substances to minimise risk within the workplace environment.
I hope the above information was informative. If you would like some more information in regards to our cleanroom testing service please don’t hesitate to contact Darren directly on 07775623464.
APT Sound Testing provides clients with a reliable and proactive clean room testing service. If you would like to know more about our particulate testing service and/or HEPA filter testing service to cleanrooms, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@aptsoundtesting.co.uk.