Totton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Totton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Totton
Totton stands between the eastern edge of the New Forest and the River Test just west of Southampton, and was long celebrated as the largest village in England - a title it held until it took town status in 1974. On its doorstep, Eling Tide Mill has ground flour on the power of the twice-daily tide since the Domesday survey, one of the last working tide mills left anywhere in the country.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units of the Calmore Industrial Estate and the South Hampshire Industrial Park on Brunel Road, where Royal Mail, Howdens and ICS Cool Energy sit alongside dozens of smaller firms.
Wherever a Totton process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Calmore Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Totton workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Totton and the wider Hampshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and cooling-plant lines, from ICS Cool Energy on the Calmore Industrial Estate to the precision shops feeding the wider Southampton engineering cluster.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Totton's bakeries and food processors such as Harvest Fine Foods, in a town whose Eling Tide Mill has milled flour since the Domesday survey.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Totton joinery and kitchen makers, Howdens among them, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Calmore Industrial Estate and South Hampshire Industrial Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Totton 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 science labs at Totton College and local technical workshops, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Totton
We are out under Totton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A popular furniture spray shop in Totton had face velocity reading low across its paint booth, traced to a partly blocked filter on the unit. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. Capture came back within benchmark once the unsealed joint was sorted, backed by full test documentation. The job was scheduled for a Monday when the shop was closed.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Totton 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 Calmore 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 Totton 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
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.
On most Totton sites - the Calmore Industrial Estate 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 Totton 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 Totton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the South Hampshire Industrial 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Calmore Industrial Estate or a smaller Totton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Calmore Industrial Estate and South Hampshire Industrial Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
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 Calmore 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 Calmore Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Totton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Calmore Industrial Estate and South Hampshire Industrial Park and across the wider Hampshire.
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 Calmore Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
In its working past Eling Wharf on Southampton Water carried a tar distillery, a creosoting plant and chemical works alongside the saw mills, and Totton's air once hung with the fumes of that trade. Those industries have given way to the precision engineering, cooling and manufacturing firms clustered on the Calmore Industrial Estate, but every one of them still carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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