Portsmouth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Portsmouth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is Britain's only island city and its most densely populated - around 208,000 people on Portsea Island - and the Royal Navy's home port.
The heavy work is on the water - the ship repair and naval engineering at the Portsmouth naval base, the defence and combat-systems shipbuilding, and the aerospace and space-systems work - with the fabrication, bodyshops and test labs of the Farlington and Voyager Park estates around them.
Each of those Portsmouth 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 Farlington units to the one-bench Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth and the wider Hampshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Fume and grinding extraction across the ship-repair and naval units at the Portsmouth base, where heavy welding fume needs capture at source.
On-torch and downdraught extraction on the defence and combat-systems fabrication lines. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Machining, bonding and fume extraction on the aerospace and space-systems lines, where fine dust and vapour need capture proven.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Portsmouth bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Resin-fume and sanding extraction on the GRP and composite units, where composite dust needs capture at source.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the University of Portsmouth and Queen Alexandra Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Portsmouth
We are out under Portsmouth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A maritime heritage restoration workshop in Portsmouth had a fixed wood-dust extraction system on an antique bandsaw with a leaking collection-bag seal on the main woodchip separator. We ran duct transport-velocity checks and used a high-intensity beam to spot the dust escaping from the separator seals. It failed on high particulate emission into the workers' breathing zone. The team were restoring 18th-century ship timbers, so the dust carried old paint layers of unknown content - handled with real care.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Portsmouth 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 Farlington 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 Portsmouth 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
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
On most Portsmouth sites - the Farlington 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 Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Voyager Park 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 defence and shipbuilding bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Farlington 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 Farlington units, term-time access at the Portsmouth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Farlington unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Portsmouth 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 Farlington or a smaller Portsmouth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Marine and naval engineering, defence and shipbuilding, aerospace and space systems, vehicle body and paint, marine composites, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Farlington and Voyager Park and across the wider Hampshire.
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