Hove · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hove workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hove
Hove is the Regency western half of Brighton and Hove, a city of around 277,000, known for its seafront beach huts and its Palmeira and Brunswick squares.
The work is light industry and food - the engineering and light manufacturing, the food and drink manufacturing and breweries, and the print and studios - across the Newtown Road and Sackville estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Hove 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 Newtown Road units to the one-bench Hove 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 Hove and the rest of East Sussex it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and light-manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Steam, CO2 and mist extraction across the food producers and breweries, where process vapour and organic dust need capture proven.
Solvent and ink-mist extraction across the print and finishing lines, where VOC vapour needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Newtown Road and Sackville units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Hove 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 city colleges and the Royal Sussex County Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hove
We are out under Hove's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A bespoke jewellery workshop in Hove had the extraction box over a polishing lathe struggling because the precious-metal recovery tray beneath it had overflowed with fine rouge compound and dust. We emptied the dense recovery drawer, cleaned the internal mesh screen and measured the capture velocity at the buffer wheels. It passed once the tray was cleared, with the airflow at 1.55 metres per second. The recovered dust held traceable gold and platinum, which the client logged and retained for refining.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Hove 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 Newtown Road 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 Hove line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and light manufacturing 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.
On most Hove sites - the Newtown Road 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 Hove 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 Hove duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Sackville 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. An engineering and light manufacturing bay, a food and drink 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 Hove 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. 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 Newtown Road 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 Newtown Road 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 Newtown Road units, term-time access at the Hove university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Newtown Road and Sackville Trading Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider East Sussex.
Engineering and light manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, print and finishing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the city college and hospital labs - the trades clustered around Newtown Road and Sackville Trading Estate and across the wider East Sussex.
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