11. Maintenance of engineering control measures
11.1 General principles
11.1.1. Engineering control measures should be thoroughly examined and tested at suitable or specified intervals to ensure that they are continuing to perform as originally intended. The intervals and content of the thorough examination should be in accordance with national laws or criteria specified in national or international standards approved or recognised by the competent authority, and should be specified as part of the control measures outlined in Chapter 6 (Operational control measures), taking into account the extent of the risk in the event of failure of the control measure.
11.1.2. The results of each thorough examination and test should be compared with the assessment of risks and control measures outlined in Chapter 6 (Operational control measures). Any defects disclosed as a result of the examination or test should be remedied as soon as possible or within such time as the examiner directs.
11.1.3. A suitable record of each thorough examination should be kept.
11.2 Local exhaust ventilation
11.2.1. As an example of the content of the thorough examination and test, the examination and test for local exhaust ventilation (LEV) should provide correctly the information listed below:
(a) name and address of the employer responsible for the plant;
(b) identification and location of the LEV plant, and the process and hazardous chemicals concerned;
(c) date of last thorough examination and test;
(d) conditions at time of test: normal production or special conditions (e.g. maximum use);
(e) information about the LEV plant which shows:
- its intended operating performance for controlling the hazardous chemicals;
- whether the plant still achieves the same performance;
- if not, the repairs required to achieve that performance;
(f) methods used to make judgements in respect of (e) (ii) and (e) (iii) above (e.g. visual, pressure measurements, air flow measurements, dust lamp, air sampling, filter integrity tests);
(g) date of examination and test:
(h) name, designation and employer of the person carrying out the examination and test;
(i) signature or authentication of the person carrying out the examination and test;
(k) details of repairs to be carried out - to be completed by the employer responsible for the LEV plant.
11.2.2. The effectiveness of repairs carried out should be ascertained by a retest.
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