Gloucester · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Gloucester workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Gloucester
Gloucester built Britain's first jet aircraft - the Gloster E.28/39 flew in 1941 on Frank Whittle's engine - and the Gloster Aircraft Company at Hucclecote turned out Hurricanes and Meteors by the thousand. That aerospace pedigree still anchors the city's landing-gear, propeller and precision-engineering firms, a working population of around 132,000 wrapped around the historic Victorian docks.
The work is aerospace and engineering - the landing-gear and propeller lines of the Gloucestershire aerospace cluster that grew from Gloster Aircraft, the joinery and fabrication shops, and the dockside food producers - across Gloucester Business Park and the Waterwells estate at Quedgeley, with the bodyshops and print units threaded between them.
Each of those Gloucester 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 Gloucester Business Park units to the one-bench Gloucester workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Gloucester and the rest of Gloucestershire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Machining, grinding and surface-treatment extraction on the aerospace lines, where fine metal dust, mist and process fume need capture at source.
Dust extraction on the saws, sanders and routers of the joinery and shopfitting units around Waterwells and the docks, where hardwood dust is a known carcinogen and every run of ductwork is checked for capture and leakage at the tool.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Gloucester bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the University of Gloucestershire laboratories, the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital pathology suites and the materials-test benches of the aerospace supply chain, each held to the containment its work demands.
On the ground in Gloucester
We are out under Gloucester's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A woodworking and joinery shop in Gloucester had a wall-mounted sander extraction unit with its dust bag in upside down, restricting the airflow and letting fine dust build up around the motor. We re-seated the filter bag properly, cleared the accumulated dust and measured the face capture velocity at the sanding hood. It passed once corrected, with a steady 1.4 metres per second. The shop restores vintage church pews, so it was careful work around delicate antique oak near the test area.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Gloucester 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 Gloucester Business Park 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 Gloucester line.
Where exposure is in question - an aerospace and advanced engineering process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
Across most Gloucester sites - the Gloucester Business Park 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 Gloucester 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 Gloucester duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Waterwells 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. An aerospace and advanced engineering bay, a woodworking and joinery bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Aerospace and advanced engineering, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, food and drink manufacturing, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Gloucester Business Park and Waterwells and across the wider Gloucestershire.
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 Gloucester Business Park unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Gloucester Business Park and Waterwells, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Gloucestershire.
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 Gloucester, but a Gloucester Business Park fabrication shop and a Northgate Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Gloucester 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 Gloucester Business Park or a smaller Gloucester workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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