Bridgwater · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bridgwater workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bridgwater
Bridgwater is a Somerset town of around 41,000 on the River Parrett, home of the largest illuminated carnival in Europe and the supply base for the Hinkley Point C nuclear project nearby.
The signature trade is energy and food - the nuclear and energy supply chain of Hinkley Point C, the food and drink manufacturing, and the advanced manufacturing of the Gravity smart campus - across the Woodlands Business Park and Express Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Bridgwater processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Woodlands Business Park units to the smaller Bridgwater workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Bridgwater employers and others across Somerset it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, grinding and coating extraction across the nuclear and energy supply-chain units serving Hinkley Point C, where metal fume and vapour need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Machining, weld-fume and coating extraction across the advanced-manufacturing units of the Gravity smart campus, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Woodlands Business Park and Express Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bridgwater 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 Bridgwater and Taunton College and Bridgwater Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bridgwater
We are out under Bridgwater's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A juice-manufacturing plant in Bridgwater had a steam-and-mist extraction canopy over a bottling line pulling weak because the ducting above it had partly collapsed. We ran the capture checks on the sound sections and logged the structural failure. It failed on the collapsed duct and the mist breakthrough, and we specified the replacement run. The line ran at volume, so the test was fitted around a scheduled production changeover.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Bridgwater system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Woodlands Business 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 Bridgwater line.
Where exposure is in question - a nuclear and energy supply chain 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 most Bridgwater sites - from the Woodlands Business Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Bridgwater 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 Bridgwater duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Express 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 nuclear and energy supply chain bay, a food and drink manufacturing 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 Woodlands Business Park unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Woodlands Business Park units, term-time access at the Bridgwater university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Bridgwater 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.
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 Bridgwater, but a Woodlands Business Park fabrication shop and a Fore Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Woodlands Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Nuclear and energy supply chain, food and drink manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Woodlands Business Park and Express Park and across the wider Somerset.
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