Lowestoft · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Lowestoft workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Lowestoft
Lowestoft is the most easterly town in the UK, a Suffolk coastal port of around 71,000 whose harbour and PowerPark have become the operations base for the offshore wind farms of the southern North Sea.
The signature trade is offshore energy and fishing - the offshore-wind support of the PowerPark, the frozen-food and seafood processing, and the marine and offshore fabrication - across the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate and Riverside Business Centre estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Lowestoft 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 South Lowestoft Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Lowestoft units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Lowestoft and across Suffolk it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Resin-vapour, weld-fume and blade-grinding extraction across the turbine-servicing and composite-repair bays of the PowerPark, the defining trade of the port, where styrene vapour and dust need capture at source.
Steam, fish-oil aerosol and freezer-plant condensate extraction across the filleting, cooking and freezing lines of the frozen-food and seafood producers, where the process moisture loads the ductwork and needs capture proven.
Grinding-dust, weld-fume and cutting-fluid-mist extraction across the vessel-repair and steel-fabrication units of the inner harbour, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate and Riverside units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Lowestoft 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 East Coast College and Lowestoft Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Lowestoft
We are out under Lowestoft's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An offshore-energy support unit in Lowestoft had a resin-and-solvent extraction over a turbine-blade repair bay pulling weak, letting styrene vapour drift off the composite work. We measured the capture at the bench and checked the ducting and fan for losses. It failed on the low capture and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The bay laid up GRP composite, so the styrene monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Lowestoft 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 South Lowestoft Industrial Estate 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 Lowestoft line.
Where exposure is in question - an offshore wind and energy support 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 Lowestoft sites - from the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate 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 Lowestoft 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 Lowestoft duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Riverside Business Centre 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 energy support bay, a fishing and frozen-food processing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Lowestoft university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Lowestoft 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 South Lowestoft Industrial Estate or a smaller Lowestoft workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 South Lowestoft Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Lowestoft, but a South Lowestoft Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a London Road North canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 South Lowestoft Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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