Horsham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Horsham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Horsham
Horsham is a West Sussex market town of around 50,000, built around the historic Carfax and the medieval Causeway, with a life-science heritage and a strong independent dining quarter.
The work is science and manufacturing - the life-science and laboratory heritage, the advanced manufacturing and engineering, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Foundry Lane and Redkiln Way estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Horsham 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 Foundry Lane units to the one-bench Horsham workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Horsham and the wider West Sussex it is your evidence under COSHH.
Fume-cupboard and local-exhaust testing across the life-science and laboratory units of the town's research heritage, where containment is examined to its safe face velocity.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Foundry Lane and Redkiln Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Horsham 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 local college and Horsham Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Horsham
We are out under Horsham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A life-science laboratory in Horsham had a fume cupboard on a research bench failing its face-velocity check because the extract fan belt had worn and slipped. We reported the low and uneven velocity, checked the sash and inspected the fan drive. It failed on the containment shortfall, and the belt and drive were repaired before a re-test brought it back inside the safe band. Strict lab-access controls were followed and the bench decontaminated before entry.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Horsham 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 Foundry Lane 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 Horsham line.
Where exposure is in question - a life science and laboratories 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 most Horsham sites - from the Foundry Lane 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 Horsham 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 Horsham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Redkiln Way 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 life science and laboratories bay, an advanced manufacturing and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Life science and laboratories, advanced manufacturing and engineering, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Foundry Lane and Redkiln Way and across the wider West Sussex.
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 Horsham, but a Foundry Lane fabrication shop and an East Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Horsham 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.
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 Foundry Lane production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Foundry Lane units, term-time access at the Horsham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Foundry Lane and Redkiln Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Sussex.
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