Fareham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Fareham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Fareham
Fareham is a Hampshire town on the Solent between Portsmouth and Southampton, around 42,000, home to the Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus and the source of the Fareham Red brick used to build the Royal Albert Hall.
The signature trade is marine and aerospace - the marine engineering and boatbuilding of the Solent, the aerospace and advanced manufacturing of the Daedalus enterprise zone, and the electronics and precision engineering - across the Standard Way and Speedfields Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Fareham 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 Standard Way units to the smaller Fareham 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 Fareham and the rest of Hampshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Weld-fume, resin-vapour and grinding extraction across the marine-engineering and boatbuilding units of the Solent, where metal fume and composite vapour need capture at source.
Machining-mist, weld-fume and coating extraction across the aerospace and advanced-manufacturing units of the Daedalus enterprise zone, where fine dust and fume need capture proven.
Solder-fume, solvent and machining-mist extraction across the electronics and precision-engineering units, where fume and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Standard Way and Speedfields 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 Fareham 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 Fareham College and the Queen Alexandra Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Fareham
We are out under Fareham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A marine-engineering workshop on Standard Way in Fareham had a weld-fume extraction arm on a hull-fabrication bay drooping short of the work because its internal spine had cracked. We clamped the arm to hold position, measured the capture at the tip and logged the mechanical fault. It passed on the airflow but failed on the arm's positioning integrity, so the hood could not be held over the weld. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the arm.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Fareham 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 Standard Way 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 Fareham line.
Where exposure is in question - a marine engineering and boatbuilding 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.
Across most Fareham sites - the Standard Way plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Fareham 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 Fareham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Speedfields 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 marine engineering and boatbuilding bay, an aerospace and advanced manufacturing 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 Fareham 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.
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 Standard Way or a smaller Fareham 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 Standard Way production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Marine engineering and boatbuilding, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, electronics and precision engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Standard Way and Speedfields Park and across the wider Hampshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Standard Way units, term-time access at the Fareham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Standard Way and Speedfields Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
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