Bristol · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bristol workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bristol
Bristol is the largest city in the South West, and its advanced-engineering base - aerospace, EV and offshore among it - is worth over 2.7 billion pounds.
The heavy work sits north and west - the aerospace and composites of Filton where the Airbus wings are built, the offshore-wind and EV fabrication, and the food and modular-housing manufacturers across the Avonmouth Severnside enterprise area - with the bodyshops, joinery and labs filling the estates between.
Every Bristol process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Filton plant to the single-bench Bristol units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Bristol and the rest of West of England it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
On-torch, sanding and bonding extraction across the Filton aerospace and composites units, where carbon-fibre dust and resin fume need capture at source.
Fume arms and downdraught benches on the offshore-wind and general fabrication lines. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bristol bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Spray and dust extraction on the modular-housing and joinery lines - hardwood and MDF dust, a known carcinogen, checked for capture and leakage.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the Avonmouth food and drink producers, where organic dust is a health and combustion risk.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the two universities, Southmead and the Bristol Royal Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bristol
We are out under Bristol's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An industrial bakery in Bristol had a canopy hood over the flour-dispensing station with a crust of encrusted flour dust inside the duct intake, and the direct-drive fan belt was slipping. We measured capture velocity at the hood face and the transport velocity in the duct - and had to keep cleaning the hot-wire probe as the flour built up on it. It passed conditionally, but we flagged the internal ductwork hard for a deep clean, because settled flour dust is a real dust-explosion risk. The whole bay was ATEX-rated, so it was tested on spark-proof, intrinsically safe kit.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Bristol 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 Filton 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 Bristol line.
Where exposure is in question - an aerospace and composites process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
For most Bristol sites - from the Filton 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 Bristol 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 Bristol duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Avonmouth 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 composites bay, a welding and fabrication 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 Bristol, but a Filton fabrication shop and a Wapping Wharf 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 Filton or a smaller Bristol workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Aerospace and composites, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, modular housing and joinery, food and drink manufacturing, and the labs of the universities and hospitals - the trades clustered around Filton and Avonmouth and across the wider West of England.
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 Filton 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 Bristol 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.
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 Filton unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.