Camborne · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Camborne workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Camborne
Camborne, in Cornwall, is a town of around 20,000 at the heart of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, birthplace of the engineer Richard Trevithick and home of the historic Holman engineering works, anchoring the Camborne-Redruth conurbation.
The signature trade is engineering and minerals - the mining-engineering and advanced manufacturing, the minerals and mining revival, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Pool Industrial Estate and Barncoose Industrial Estate estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Camborne 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 Pool Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Camborne workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Camborne employers and others across Cornwall it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and coolant-aerosol extraction across the mining-engineering and precision units carrying the town's Holman heritage, where metal fume and mist need capture at source.
Dust, acid-mist and assay-lab extraction across the mineral-processing and assay units of the tin and lithium revival, where fine mineral dust and acid mist need capture proven.
Oven-fume, steam and canopy-grease extraction across the pasty bakeries and food producers, a distinctive Cornish trade, where the ovens and cooklines need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Pool Industrial Estate and Barncoose units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Camborne 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 Cornwall College and the Camborne Redruth Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Camborne
We are out under Camborne's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A mining-engineering works in Camborne had a weld-fume and machining extraction hood over a fabrication bay pulling weak because a branch damper had corroded part-shut. We freed the damper, re-ran the capture check at the bench and measured the branch flow. It failed at first on the low capture and passed once it was reset, the fume drawn cleanly off the work. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the hood.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Camborne 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 Pool Industrial Estate 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 Camborne line.
Where exposure is in question - a mining-engineering and advanced manufacturing 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 Camborne sites - from the Pool Industrial Estate 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 Camborne 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 Camborne duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Barncoose Industrial Estate 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 mining-engineering and advanced manufacturing bay, a minerals and mining revival bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Pool Industrial Estate or a smaller Camborne workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Mining-engineering and advanced manufacturing, minerals and mining revival, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Pool Industrial Estate and Barncoose Industrial Estate and across the wider Cornwall.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Camborne 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 Pool Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Pool Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Pool Industrial Estate and Barncoose Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cornwall.
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