Hull · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hull workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hull
Hull is the anchor of the Humber offshore-wind cluster - Siemens Gamesa's blade factory at Alexandra Dock drew over 490 million pounds and 1,000 jobs - and it still works metal, chemicals and fish across the docks.
The heavy work is on the water - the offshore-wind blade manufacturing at Alexandra Dock with its resin, composite and grinding processes, the dock and ship-repair engineering, the Humber chemical and process plants, and the seafood and food processors - with the fabrication and welding shops feeding all of it.
Every Hull process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Alexandra Dock plant to the single-bench Hull units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Hull and the wider East Yorkshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Resin-fume, grinding and sanding extraction on the blade-manufacturing lines at Alexandra Dock, where composite dust and vapour need capture at source.
Fume and dust extraction in the dock and ship-repair fabrication units across the ABP estate.
Vapour and mist extraction on the Humber process lines - corrosive fume that quietly eats a duct from the inside.
Extraction over the seafood and food-processing lines, where the city's fishing heritage still runs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the heavy-engineering units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the University of Hull and Hull Royal Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hull
We are out under Hull's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A spice grinding and packing plant in Hull had a canopy over a chilli-powder blending station with oily spice dust baked onto the extraction impellers, throwing the fan out of balance. We measured the duct transport velocity and static pressure and looked at the impeller blades on an endoscope camera. It passed mechanically, but we flagged it hard for a chemical clean to get the combustible oil build-up off. The airborne capsaicin was fierce - the whole test was done in full-face respirators.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Hull system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Alexandra Dock 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 Hull line.
Where exposure is in question - an offshore wind and composites 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.
On most Hull sites - the Alexandra Dock 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 Hull 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 Hull duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the King George Dock 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 offshore wind and composites bay, a ports and dock engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Offshore wind and composites, ports and dock engineering, chemicals and process, food processing, welding and fabrication, and the labs of the university and hospitals - the trades clustered around Alexandra Dock and King George Dock and across the wider East Yorkshire.
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 an Alexandra Dock production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Hull 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 Alexandra Dock or a smaller Hull workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Alexandra Dock and King George Dock, the university and hospital labs, and the wider East Yorkshire.
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 an Alexandra Dock unit will ask to see.
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