Southend-on-Sea · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Southend-on-Sea workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea has the longest pleasure pier in the world, a seaside city of around 181,000 with a busy airport and aircraft-maintenance base.
The work is aviation and seaside industry - the aircraft maintenance at London Southend Airport, the mass catering and food manufacturing, and the engineering and electronics - across the Aviation Way and Temple Farm estates, with the fabrication and bodyshops between them.
Each of those Southend-on-Sea 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 Aviation Way units to the one-bench Southend-on-Sea workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Southend-on-Sea and across Essex it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Fume, paint and hydraulic-mist extraction on the MRO and aircraft-maintenance lines at the airport, where coating fume and vapour need capture at source.
Dust, steam and mist extraction across the seaside food producers and commercial kitchens, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
Solder-fume, oil-mist and dust extraction on the engineering and electronics lines, where fine dust and fume need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Aviation Way and Temple Farm units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Southend 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 South Essex College and Southend University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Southend-on-Sea
We are out under Southend-on-Sea's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A secondary school in Southend-on-Sea had three of its four ducted chemistry fume cupboards failing containment - the exhaust fans had been wired backwards during recent roof work and were running in reverse. We ran face-velocity smoke testing and sash balance checks and found the fan spinning the wrong way on the roof deck. It failed on the flow reversal, and we advised the facilities manager to swap the electrical phases straight away. We had a tight window between the morning classes and the afternoon exams.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Southend-on-Sea 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 Aviation Way 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 Southend-on-Sea line.
Where exposure is in question - an aircraft maintenance 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.
Across most Southend-on-Sea sites - the Aviation Way 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 Southend-on-Sea 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 Southend-on-Sea duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Temple Farm 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. An aircraft maintenance bay, a food manufacturing and catering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Aviation Way units, term-time access at the Southend-on-Sea university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Southend-on-Sea, but an Aviation Way fabrication shop and a Golden Mile 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 an Aviation Way unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Southend-on-Sea 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 an Aviation Way production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Aviation Way and Temple Farm, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Essex.
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