Bath · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bath workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bath
Bath is an UNESCO World Heritage city in Somerset of around 100,000, famous for its Roman Baths, Georgian crescents and Bath Abbey.
The work is precision engineering and media - the precision engineering and manufacturing rooted in the town's crane-building and flow-control heritage, the publishing and print, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Locksbrook Road and Lower Bristol Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Bath processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Locksbrook Road units to the one-bench Bath workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Bath and the rest of Somerset it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the precision-engineering and flow-control units, a trade rooted in Bath's engineering heritage, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Solvent and ink-mist extraction across the publishing and print lines, where VOC vapour needs capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Locksbrook Road and Lower Bristol Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bath 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 the University of Bath and the Royal United Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bath
We are out under Bath's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A stone-mason and heritage sculpture studio in Bath had fine limestone dust blinding the baghouse shaker filters because the manual shaker linkage had come disconnected. We re-attached the linkage, pulsed the filters through and checked the face velocities at the bench hoods. It passed once repaired, with the transport velocity at a safe 20 metres per second in the main rigid branch. It was a vaulted basement studio with low historic stone ceilings, so low-clearance test gear was needed.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Bath system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Locksbrook Road 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 Bath line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
For the great majority of Bath sites, from the Locksbrook Road units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Bath 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 Bath duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Lower Bristol Road 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a publishing and print bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Bath, but a Locksbrook Road fabrication shop and a Milsom Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Locksbrook Road or a smaller Bath 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 Locksbrook Road unit will ask to see.
Precision engineering and manufacturing, publishing and print, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Locksbrook Road and Lower Bristol Road and across the wider Somerset.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Bath 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.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You do the work and we re-test, and on a Locksbrook Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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