Southampton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Southampton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Southampton
Southampton is the UK's cruise capital - the port handled a record 3 million passengers in 2024 - and a working city of around 249,000.
The heavy work is on the water - the ship repair and superyacht build along the docks, the marine and composite boatbuilding, and the port and food-distribution operations - with the fabrication, bodyshops and university labs of the Nursling and Millbrook estates around them.
Each of those Southampton 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 Nursling units to the one-bench Southampton workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Southampton employers and others across Hampshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fume and grinding extraction across the ship-repair and workboat-build units along the docks, where heavy welding fume needs capture at source.
Resin-fume, laminating and spray extraction on the GRP and superyacht 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 Southampton bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Extraction and dust control across the port-linked food and drink handling and distribution operations.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the two universities and Southampton General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Southampton
We are out under Southampton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A port grain-storage silo complex in Southampton had the dust-suppression extraction at the main conveyor drop-point losing 35% of its static pressure - an inspection hatch had been left unsealed. We fitted a new gasket to seal the hatch, ran a full pitot-tube airflow traverse and measured the static pressure. It passed once the seal was renewed, with the transport velocity back up to 21 metres per second to stop the dust settling. It was an ATEX Zone 20 area, so it was all done on non-sparking brass tools and intrinsically safe gear.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Southampton 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 Nursling 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 Southampton line.
Where exposure is in question - a marine and port 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.
For the great majority of Southampton sites, from the Nursling 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 Southampton 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 Southampton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Millbrook 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 port 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.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Nursling and Millbrook, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Southampton 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.
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 Nursling 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 Southampton, but a Nursling fabrication shop and a Bevois Valley canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Nursling or a smaller Southampton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Marine and port engineering, marine composites and boatbuilding, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, food and drink distribution, and the labs of the universities and hospital - the trades clustered around Nursling and Millbrook and across the wider Hampshire.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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