Lancing · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Lancing workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Lancing
Lancing is a large coastal village of around nineteen thousand people in the Adur district of West Sussex, strung along the shore between Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea at the mouth of the River Adur. It is a place with a famous skyline - the vast Gothic Revival chapel of Lancing College, the largest school chapel in the world, stands high on the Downs above the village and can be seen for miles along the coast.
Its working economy still turns on engineering, fabrication and food production, most of it gathered on Lancing Business Park and along Commerce Way - the second largest business area in West Sussex, built on the site of the former Southern Railway carriage works.
Every Lancing 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 Lancing Business Park plant to the single-bench Lancing units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Lancing employers and others across West Sussex it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres at the Commerce Way shops, from Sussex Precision Engineering and Newnham Engineering to Ruhrpumpen, whose Lancing plant builds heavy-duty process pumps.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, kitchens and food units on Lancing Business Park, where airborne dust and vapour are captured before they settle or ignite.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Lancing 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 Lancing Business Park units, from Taurus Engineering to the pipe and sheet-metal fabricators on Marlborough Road. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Lancing bodyshops and refinishers. 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 medical-device and instrument makers around the estate, including the surgical-equipment manufacturer Eschmann, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Lancing
We are out under Lancing's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The tool capture hoods at a popular Lancing joinery workshop were under-performing against benchmark, with a leaking flexible connection to blame. We checked static pressure, cleared a worn impeller and re-tested each point against benchmark. The saw and sander hoods all passed on re-test. We logged and reported the benchmark readings, and gave the workshop manager a few pointers on keeping things clear between visits.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Lancing 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 Lancing 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 Lancing 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.
For most Lancing sites - from the Lancing Business Park 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 Lancing 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 Lancing duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Commerce 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 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.
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 Lancing Business Park or a smaller Lancing workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Lancing Business Park unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Lancing Business Park and Commerce Way, the university and hospital labs, and 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 Lancing, but a Lancing Business Park fabrication shop and a Penhill Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Lancing Business Park units, term-time access at the Lancing university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Lancing Business Park and Commerce Way and across the wider West Sussex.
Local knowledge
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway laid out its wagon and carriage works on the fields west of the village from 1908, and under the Southern Railway Lancing became the place where the company's carriage underframes were built and its bogie stock renovated; at its closure in the 1960s it still employed over sixteen hundred people. That engineering instinct never left the site, which is now Lancing Business Park, packed with precision shops, pump-builders and fabricators. Every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws into the air. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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