Canvey Island · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Canvey Island workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Canvey Island
Canvey Island is a reclaimed island town in the Thames estuary in Castle Point, Essex, around 40,000, drained by Dutch engineers, hit by the 1953 flood, and home to the oil and gas terminals that made it Oil City.
The signature trade is energy and engineering - the oil, gas and petrochemical storage of the estuary terminals, the logistics of the Thames Gateway, and the engineering and marine trades - across the Charfleets Industrial Estate and Northwick Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Canvey Island processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Charfleets Industrial Estate units to the smaller Canvey Island workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Canvey Island and the wider Essex it is your evidence under COSHH.
Vapour-recovery, mist and process-fume extraction across the fuel and gas storage terminals of the estuary, where fuel vapour needs capture at source under permit in ATEX zones.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the Thames Gateway distribution units, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture proven.
Grinding, weld-fume and paint extraction across the engineering and marine-trade units, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Charfleets Industrial Estate and Northwick Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Canvey Island 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 local college and Basildon University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Canvey Island
We are out under Canvey Island's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A bulk-fuel storage terminal on Canvey Island had a vapour-recovery and local-exhaust system on a tanker-loading gantry letting a fuel vapour escape because a section of the branch ducting had corroded through. We ran the capture checks on the sound branches and logged the structural failure. It failed on the corroded duct and the vapour breakthrough, and we handed the specification to a ducting contractor. It was an ATEX-rated zone with a fuel-vapour risk, so non-sparking tools and intrinsically safe instruments were used throughout.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Canvey Island 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 Charfleets 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 Canvey Island line.
Where exposure is in question - an oil, gas and petrochemical storage 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 Canvey Island sites - from the Charfleets Industrial Estate 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 Canvey Island 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 Canvey Island duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Northwick Road 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 oil, gas and petrochemical storage bay, a logistics and distribution bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Charfleets Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Canvey Island 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Charfleets Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Canvey Island university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Oil, gas and petrochemical storage, logistics and distribution, engineering and marine trades, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Charfleets Industrial Estate and Northwick Road and across the wider Essex.
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 Canvey Island, but a Charfleets Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Furtherwick Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Charfleets Industrial Estate and Northwick Road, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Essex.
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