Falmouth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Falmouth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Falmouth
Falmouth is a historic maritime town of around 22,000 on Cornwall's south coast, set on one of the deepest natural harbours in the world and home to Falmouth Docks, Pendennis Castle and the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.
The signature trade is marine - the ship repair and marine engineering of the docks, the superyacht building and refit, and the university and seaside hospitality - across the Tregoniggie Industrial Estate and Kernick Industrial Estate estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Falmouth 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 Tregoniggie Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Falmouth 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 Falmouth employers and others across Cornwall it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, blast-dust and paint-mist extraction across the graving docks and ship-repair bays, one of the largest complexes of its kind in the country, where welding, blasting and coating each need capture at source.
Styrene-vapour, sanding-dust and two-pack paint-mist extraction across the composite-lamination and refit bays of the superyacht yard, where the GRP work and spraying need capture proven.
Solvent-vapour, kiln-fume and canopy-grease extraction across the creative-campus workshops and the harbourside kitchens, where the print and ceramics benches and the cooklines each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Tregoniggie Industrial Estate and Kernick units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Falmouth 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 Falmouth Marine School and the Falmouth Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Falmouth
We are out under Falmouth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A superyacht refit yard in Falmouth had a resin-and-dust extraction over a composite-lamination and sanding bay pulling weak, letting styrene vapour and fine dust drift off the work. We measured the capture at the bench and checked the ducting and fan for losses. It failed on the low capture and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The bay laid up GRP composite, so the styrene monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Falmouth 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 Tregoniggie 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 Falmouth line.
Where exposure is in question - a ship repair and marine engineering 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.
For most Falmouth sites - from the Tregoniggie 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 Falmouth 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 Falmouth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Kernick 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 ship repair and marine engineering bay, a superyacht building and refit bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Falmouth 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Tregoniggie Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Falmouth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Tregoniggie Industrial Estate and Kernick Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cornwall.
Ship repair and marine engineering, superyacht building and refit, university and seaside hospitality, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the marine school and hospital - the trades clustered around Tregoniggie Industrial Estate and Kernick Industrial Estate and across the wider Cornwall.
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 Tregoniggie Industrial Estate or a smaller Falmouth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Tregoniggie 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.
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