Poole · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Poole workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Poole
Poole sits on one of the world's largest natural harbours, a Dorset town of around 150,000 and home to the luxury-yacht builder Sunseeker.
The heavy work is on the water - the luxury-yacht and boatbuilding with its composite lay-up, resin, gelcoat and joinery, the marine engineering and repair around the port, and the food and fabrication units - across the Nuffield and Fleets Corner estates.
Every one of those Poole processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Nuffield units to the smaller Poole workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Poole employers and others across Dorset it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Resin, gelcoat, sanding and spray extraction on the composite yacht and boatbuilding lines, where styrene vapour and composite dust need capture at source.
Fume and grinding extraction across the boat-repair and marine-engineering units around the port, where welding fume needs capture proven.
Dust extraction on the yacht joinery saws, sanders and routers. Hardwood dust is a known carcinogen; ductwork and filters are checked for capture and leakage.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Nuffield and Fleets Corner units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Poole bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Dust, steam and fume-cupboard extraction across the food producers and labs, where organic dust and vapour need capture at source.
On the ground in Poole
We are out under Poole's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A luxury-yacht joinery workshop in Poole had its floor sweep-up extraction chutes jammed shut - large wooden offcuts had wedged into the blast-gate slide tracks. We dislodged the timber, freed the gates and verified the transport velocity in the branch line. It passed once the jam was cleared, with the velocity up to 22 metres per second to keep the chips moving. It was a huge seaside facility, so there was a lot of walking between the isolated dust collectors.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Poole system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Nuffield 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 Poole line.
Where exposure is in question - a marine and yacht building 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.
On most Poole sites - the Nuffield 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 Poole 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 Poole duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Fleets Corner 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 yacht building bay, a marine engineering and repair bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Poole, but a Nuffield fabrication shop and an Ashley Cross 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 Nuffield unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Nuffield and Fleets Corner, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Dorset.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Nuffield units, term-time access at the Poole 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 Poole 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.
Marine and yacht building, marine engineering and repair, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the food producers and labs - the trades clustered around Nuffield and Fleets Corner and across the wider Dorset.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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