Plymouth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Plymouth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Plymouth
Plymouth is Britain's Ocean City, home to around 264,000 people and to Devonport, the largest naval base in Western Europe.
The heavy work is on the water - the ship and submarine refit at Devonport Royal Dockyard, the marine and defence engineering, the composite and GRP boatbuilding, and the fish and seafood processing - with the fabrication, bodyshops and marine-science labs of the Langage and Estover estates around them.
Each of those Plymouth 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 Devonport units to the one-bench Plymouth workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Plymouth and the wider Devon it is your evidence under COSHH.
Fume and grinding extraction across the ship and submarine refit units at Devonport, where heavy welding and cutting fume need capture at source.
Resin-fume, sanding and spray extraction on the GRP and carbon-fibre boatbuilding lines, where composite dust and vapour need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Plymouth bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Extraction over the fish and seafood-processing lines at Cattedown, where the city's fishing trade still runs.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the University of Plymouth, Derriford Hospital and the marine-science labs, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Plymouth
We are out under Plymouth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A naval dockyard maintenance facility in Plymouth had a spray-extraction wall for marine anti-fouling paint with a failing exhaust-fan motor - it was drawing too much current and overheating. We ran a face-velocity matrix across the filter banks, checked the fan casing temperature with an infrared thermometer and inspected the drive belts. It failed on the electrical and mechanical motor fault, which was close to shutting the system down. Being an MoD site, the background checks and clearance had to be logged well in advance.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Plymouth 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 Devonport 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 Plymouth line.
Where exposure is in question - a marine and naval engineering 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 Plymouth sites - the Devonport 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Langage 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 marine and naval engineering bay, a marine composites and boatbuilding 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 Devonport or a smaller Plymouth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Plymouth, but a Devonport fabrication shop and a Mutley Plain canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Plymouth 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.
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 Devonport 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 Devonport units, term-time access at the Plymouth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Devonport and Langage, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Devon.
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