Exeter · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Exeter workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Exeter
Exeter is a cathedral city of around 138,000 and a national centre for weather and climate science, home to the Met Office headquarters.
The work is science and light industry - the environmental and university research labs, the food and drink producers, the aircraft maintenance at the airport, and the fabrication and bodyshops - across Marsh Barton and the Sowton estate, one of the largest trading estates in the South West.
Every one of those Exeter 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 Marsh Barton units to the smaller Exeter workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Exeter and the rest of Devon it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Fume-cupboard and containment extraction across the environmental and university research labs, where capture at source is the whole control measure.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
Fume, sanding and paint extraction on the aircraft-maintenance lines at Exeter Airport, where coating fume and composite dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Marsh Barton and Sowton units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Exeter 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 the University of Exeter and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Exeter
We are out under Exeter's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A dental laboratory in Exeter had fine plaster and acrylic dust getting past a benchtop grinding cowl - the flexible hose under the desk had split. We replaced the damaged ducting section and measured the capture velocity on a hot-wire anemometer. It passed once the hose was renewed, with a safe capture velocity of 0.6 metres per second. It was a very quiet clinic, so we booked the test over lunchtime to keep clear of patient treatments nearby.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On an Exeter system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Marsh Barton 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 an Exeter line.
Where exposure is in question - a science and research labs 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 the great majority of Exeter sites, from the Marsh Barton 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 Exeter 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 Exeter duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Sowton 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 science and research labs 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Marsh Barton units, term-time access at the Exeter 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 Marsh Barton or a smaller Exeter 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 Exeter, but a Marsh Barton fabrication shop and a Fore Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Marsh Barton and Sowton, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Devon.
Science and research labs, food and drink manufacturing, aircraft maintenance, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the fume cupboards of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Marsh Barton and Sowton and across the wider Devon.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Exeter 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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