Salisbury · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Salisbury workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Salisbury
Salisbury is a Wiltshire cathedral city, around 40,000, home to the tallest church spire in Britain and the best-preserved 1215 Magna Carta, with Stonehenge and the defence science of Porton Down nearby.
The work is science and food - the defence and life-science laboratories, the food and drink manufacturing, and the electronics and precision engineering - across the Churchfields Industrial Estate and Old Sarum estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Salisbury 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 Churchfields Industrial Estate units to the smaller Salisbury workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Salisbury and across Wiltshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Fume-cupboard and local-exhaust testing across the defence and life-science laboratories of the area, where containment is examined to its safe face velocity.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Solder-fume, machining-mist and solvent extraction across the electronics and precision-engineering units, where fume and mist need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Churchfields Industrial Estate and Old Sarum units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Salisbury 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 Wiltshire College and Salisbury District Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Salisbury
We are out under Salisbury's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A defence-science laboratory near Salisbury had a fume cupboard on a materials bench failing its face-velocity check because the extract fan belt had worn and slipped. We reported the low and uneven velocity, checked the sash and inspected the fan drive. It failed on the containment shortfall, and the belt and drive were repaired before a re-test brought it back inside the safe band. Strict site-access and decontamination controls were followed and all instruments wiped down on entry and exit.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Salisbury 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 Churchfields 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 Salisbury line.
Where exposure is in question - a defence and life-science laboratories process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For the great majority of Salisbury sites, from the Churchfields Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Salisbury 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 Salisbury duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Old Sarum Business 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 defence and life-science laboratories bay, a food and drink manufacturing 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 Churchfields Industrial Estate and Old Sarum Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Wiltshire.
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 Salisbury, but a Churchfields Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Catherine Street 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 Churchfields Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Churchfields 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Churchfields Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Salisbury university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Churchfields Industrial Estate or a smaller Salisbury workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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