Worthing · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Worthing workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Worthing
Worthing is a West Sussex seaside town of around 111,000, one of the largest in the county, with its pier, a long retirement community and a major GSK antibiotics plant.
The standout work is pharmaceuticals - the GSK antibiotics manufacturing - alongside precision engineering, electronics, and food and drink production, across the Dominion Way and Decoy Farm estates, with the bodyshops and workshops between them.
Each of those Worthing 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 Dominion Way units to the one-bench Worthing 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 Worthing and across West Sussex it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Solvent, dust and fume-cupboard extraction across the antibiotic-manufacturing and packaging lines, where active-ingredient dust and vapour need capture at source.
Machining, solder-fume and grinding extraction across the precision-engineering and electronics units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Dominion Way and Decoy 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 Worthing 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 Worthing college campus and Worthing Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Worthing
We are out under Worthing's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An independent commercial laundry in Worthing had its tumble-dryer lint extraction line choked with a massive fibre build-up blocking the secondary external louver shutter. We cleared the compressed lint obstruction from the exterior louvers and measured the static exhaust pressures. It passed once the blockage was cleared, with the airflow back to the manufacturer's specification. The plant ran hot, so the test was carried out in an early-morning cooling window before full production.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Worthing 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 Dominion 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 Worthing line.
Where exposure is in question - a pharmaceutical 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.
For most Worthing sites - from the Dominion Way units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Worthing 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 Worthing duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Decoy 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. A pharmaceutical manufacturing bay, a precision engineering and electronics bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Worthing 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.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing, precision engineering and electronics, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Dominion Way and Decoy Farm and across the wider West Sussex.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Dominion Way and Decoy Farm, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Sussex.
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 Worthing, but a Dominion Way fabrication shop and a Montague Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Dominion Way production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Dominion Way or a smaller Worthing workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.