Bootle · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bootle workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bootle
Bootle is the administrative centre of Sefton on Merseyside, home to the Port of Liverpool and the Royal Seaforth container docks.
The heavy work is port and dockside - the container and bulk-cargo handling and warehousing of the Port of Liverpool, the engineering and fabrication, and the chemical and food trades - across the Dunnings Bridge Road and Bridle Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Bootle 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 Dunnings Bridge Road units to the one-bench Bootle 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 Bootle and the rest of Merseyside it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the container-handling and warehousing units of the Port of Liverpool, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Grinding, machining and weld-fume extraction across the engineering and steel-fabrication units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Vapour, dust and steam extraction across the chemical and food producers, where process vapour and organic dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Dunnings Bridge Road and Bridle 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 Bootle 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 Hugh Baird College and Aintree University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bootle
We are out under Bootle's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A container chemical-washing depot in Bootle had the floor-level slot hoods over a drum-washing trough running with the main exhaust fan in reverse after an electrical refit. We verified the reversed wiring phase at the local isolator and documented the lack of capture with smoke sticks. It failed on the flow reversal, which was actively blowing volatile solvent fume back up into the workers' breathing zone. It was a high-risk Seveso site, so non-sparking brass tooling and intrinsically safe measurement gear were used.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Bootle system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Dunnings Bridge 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 Bootle line.
Where exposure is in question - a port and dockside logistics 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.
For the great majority of Bootle sites, from the Dunnings Bridge 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 Bootle 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 Bootle duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Bridle 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 port and dockside logistics bay, an engineering and fabrication bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Dunnings Bridge Road unit will ask to see.
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 Dunnings Bridge Road or a smaller Bootle workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Dunnings Bridge Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Bootle 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.
Port and dockside logistics, engineering and fabrication, chemicals and food manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Dunnings Bridge Road and Bridle Road and across the wider Merseyside.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Dunnings Bridge Road units, term-time access at the Bootle university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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