Frome · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Frome workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Frome
Frome is one of the oldest towns in Somerset, a place built on wool and cloth that from around AD 950 to 1650 was reckoned larger than Bath, its fortune made by the fulling mills strung along the River Frome. Today it is known instead for its fiercely independent character - the cobbled climb of Catherine Hill, the medieval leat still running down Cheap Street, and a monthly market that draws thousands into the streets.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units of the Marston Trading Estate - the largest industrial estate in the old Mendip district - and the Vallis Mills Trading Estate off the Radstock Road.
Wherever a Frome 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 Marston Trading Estate units down to the smallest Frome workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Frome and the rest of Somerset it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, from firms like Keyford Precision Engineering on the Marston Trading Estate, whose work feeds the aerospace, defence and nuclear sectors and demands mist captured at the tool.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Frome's bakeries and food producers, on the Marston Trading Estate that grew up around the town's dairy trade after the war.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Frome cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Marston Trading Estate and Vallis Mills units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Frome 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 Frome Community Hospital and the science rooms of Frome College, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Frome
We are out under Frome's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A traditional cabinet maker's in Frome had airflow at its tool capture hoods fallen since the last test, pointing to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with the leaking connection. Capture came back within benchmark once the connection was sorted, and we produced a compliance report for the HSE file. The job was scheduled for a bank holiday when the unit was closed.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Frome 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 Marston Trading 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 Frome line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing 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.
On most Frome sites - the Marston Trading Estate units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Frome 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 Frome duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Vallis Mills Trading 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production 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 Frome, but a Marston Trading Estate fabrication shop and a Cheap Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Marston Trading Estate and Vallis Mills Trading Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Somerset.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Marston Trading Estate units, term-time access at the Frome university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Marston Trading Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Marston Trading Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Marston Trading Estate or a smaller Frome workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
The Marston Trading Estate was laid out on the south-west edge of Frome after the Second World War and expanded through the 1990s, growing into the largest industrial estate in the old Mendip district and home to engineering firms like Keyford Precision Engineering. That precision-engineering instinct still runs through the town's machine shops and their aerospace, defence and nuclear work, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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