Barnstaple · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Barnstaple workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Barnstaple
Barnstaple is the largest town in North Devon with around 34,000 residents, claims to be the oldest borough in England, and centres on its Victorian Pannier Market beside the River Taw and the Long Bridge.
The signature trade is manufacturing and healthcare - the pharmaceutical and medical-device production, the precision and filtration engineering, and the food and drink and kitchen-equipment manufacturing - across the Pottington Industrial Estate and Roundswell Business Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Barnstaple process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Pottington Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Barnstaple workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Barnstaple and across Devon it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Solvent-vapour, tablet-coating fume and fume-cupboard extraction across the pharmaceutical and medical-device lines, a major employer of the town, where process solvents and coatings need capture under containment.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and grinding-dust extraction across the filtration and flue-system engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Steam, brewing-vapour and finishing-fume extraction across the food, brewing and commercial-kitchen-equipment makers, where cooking fume and process vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Pottington Industrial Estate and Roundswell units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Barnstaple bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Petroc college and the North Devon District Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Barnstaple
We are out under Barnstaple's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pharmaceutical plant in Barnstaple had a fume-cupboard-and-solvent extraction over a tablet-coating line failing to hold its face velocity, letting solvent vapour drift back into the room. We ran the face-velocity traverse across the sash, checked the alarm set-point and logged the containment fault. It failed on the low face velocity, and we specified the fan and control work. The line handled coating solvents, so the containment was examined to its safe working face.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Barnstaple system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Pottington Industrial Estate units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on a Barnstaple line.
Where exposure is in question - a pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
Across most Barnstaple sites - the Pottington Industrial Estate plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Barnstaple site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Barnstaple duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Roundswell Business Park floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturing bay, a precision and filtration engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Pottington Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Barnstaple university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Barnstaple, but a Pottington Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Pottington Industrial Estate and Roundswell Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Devon.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Barnstaple workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at Pottington Industrial Estate or a smaller Barnstaple workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a Pottington Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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