Penzance · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Penzance workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Penzance
Penzance is the westernmost major town in Cornwall, strung along the curve of Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount rising from the water offshore. It is a fishing and tourism town whose landmarks run from the Art Deco Jubilee Pool - the UK's largest seawater lido, opened for King George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935 and now geothermally heated - to the Grade I Egyptian House on Chapel Street and the harbour gateway to the Isles of Scilly.
Its working economy turns on fishing, marine trades and tourism, with the general engineering, manufacturing and food-and-drink firms grouped in the units at Long Rock Industrial Estate and Eastern Green on the A30 approach beside the heliport.
Every Penzance 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 Long Rock Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Penzance 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 Penzance employers and others across Cornwall it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on lathes and machining centres across the Long Rock Industrial Estate units and the boatyard engineering that keeps the Newlyn fleet and the Isles of Scilly logistics running.
Steam canopies, ice-plant rooms and flour-dust control in Penzance and Newlyn, where W. Stevenson and Sons, Falmouth Fish Selling and the shellfish merchants process one of England's largest fish landings, alongside the town's bakeries.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Penzance cabinet shops, boat joiners and the fit-out trades on the Long Rock and Eastern Green estates, capturing hardwood and MDF dust at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Long Rock Industrial Estate and Eastern Green units and the Newlyn marine fabrication shops. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Penzance bodyshops on Long Rock and Eastern Green. 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 Penwith College and West Cornwall Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Penzance
We are out under Penzance's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
At a town-centre school in Penzance, the science lab fume cupboards weren't drawing as they should, which came down to a duct joint that had never sealed properly. We ran a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, running smoke to visualise the pull and checking the filters. Once the loose joint was made good, the cupboards met their control standard and we issued the full test paperwork. Before leaving we gave the lab manager a few pointers on keeping the system clear between visits.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Penzance system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Long Rock 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 Penzance line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and marine trades 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.
Across most Penzance sites - the Long Rock Industrial Estate plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Penzance 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 Penzance duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Eastern Green 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 marine trades 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.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Long Rock Industrial Estate and Eastern Green, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cornwall.
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 Long Rock Industrial Estate or a smaller Penzance 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 Long Rock Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Penzance, but a Long Rock Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Market Jew Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
precision engineering and marine trades, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Long Rock Industrial Estate and Eastern Green and across the wider Cornwall.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Long Rock Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Penzance university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Newlyn, joined to Penzance along the bay, is the largest fishing port in England by value of catch, and the fleet that works out of it depends on the boatyards, engineers and chandlers ashore. That marine and precision-engineering instinct still runs through the machine shops on the Long Rock Industrial Estate, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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