Bournemouth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bournemouth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth sits on seven miles of Poole Bay beaches, a town of around 196,000 with an aerospace cluster at its airport and a large financial-services base.
The heavy work is at the airport - the aerospace manufacturing and aircraft maintenance, the composites, bonding and paint, and the marine and general fabrication - across the Aviation Park and Nuffield estates, with the bodyshops and food producers of the conurbation around them.
Wherever a Bournemouth 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 Aviation Park units down to the smallest Bournemouth workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Bournemouth employers and others across Dorset it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fume, sanding, bonding and paint extraction on the aerospace and MRO lines at the airport, where composite dust and coating fume need capture at source.
Resin-fume and sanding extraction on the GRP and composite units of the conurbation, where composite dust needs capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bournemouth bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Dust, steam and solvent extraction across the food and print producers, where organic dust and vapour need capture at source.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Bournemouth University and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bournemouth
We are out under Bournemouth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A marine fibreglass hull manufacturer in Bournemouth had the styrene-vapour extraction wall filters completely saturated with cured gel-coat resin, and the face pressure had dropped away. We ran a 16-point hot-wire anemometer grid across the filter face and checked the fan-belt tension. It failed on restricted airflow - the face velocity was down to 0.18 metres per second against a 0.5 design target. The fumes were intense enough that it was a full-face respirator on organic-vapour cartridges throughout.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Bournemouth 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 Aviation Park 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 Bournemouth line.
Where exposure is in question - an aerospace and aircraft maintenance 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.
Across most Bournemouth sites - the Aviation Park 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 Bournemouth 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 Bournemouth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Nuffield 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. An aerospace and aircraft maintenance bay, a marine composites bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 an Aviation Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Aviation Park units, term-time access at the Bournemouth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Aviation Park or a smaller Bournemouth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Bournemouth, but an Aviation Park fabrication shop and a Charminster canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 an Aviation Park unit will ask to see.
Aerospace and aircraft maintenance, marine composites, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, food manufacturing and print, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Aviation Park and Nuffield and across the wider Dorset.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.