Taunton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Taunton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, around 62,000, in the heart of cider country, home to Somerset County Cricket at the County Ground.
The work is engineering and food - the precision engineering and advanced manufacturing, the food and drink and cider manufacturing, and the aerospace-adjacent trades - across the Blackbrook Business Park and Priorswood Industrial Estate, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Taunton 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 Blackbrook Business Park units to the one-bench Taunton 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 Taunton and the wider Somerset it is your evidence under COSHH.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the precision-engineering and advanced-manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food, drink and cider producers of Somerset's cider country, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the electronics and technical units, where fume needs capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Blackbrook Business Park and Priorswood Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Taunton 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 the University Centre Somerset and Musgrove Park Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Taunton
We are out under Taunton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics assembly facility in Taunton had saturated primary filter beds causing extreme system backpressure and critically low face velocity. We measured the capture velocities on all the localised soldering arms and logged the filter pressure differentials. It failed on the filter binding, and we recommended a specialist contractor for the large-scale filter overhaul and waste disposal. It was a strict cleanroom, so anti-static ESD clothing and an air shower were mandatory before entry.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Taunton system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Blackbrook Business Park 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 Taunton line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing 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 Taunton sites - the Blackbrook Business Park 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 Taunton 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 Taunton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Priorswood Industrial Estate 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 precision engineering and manufacturing 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.
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 Blackbrook Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Taunton, but a Blackbrook Business Park fabrication shop and an East Street 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 Blackbrook Business Park or a smaller Taunton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Blackbrook Business Park units, term-time access at the Taunton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, electronics and defence, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university centre and hospital - the trades clustered around Blackbrook Business Park and Priorswood Industrial Estate and across the wider Somerset.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Blackbrook Business Park and Priorswood Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Somerset.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.