Dartford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Dartford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Dartford
Dartford is a Kent borough of around 117,000 at the Dartford Crossing, with the Thames Gateway logistics parks and a papermaking heritage dating to England's first paper mill.
The work is engineering, logistics and print - the engineering and fabrication, the distribution parks of the Thames Gateway, and the paper and print - across the Crossways Business Park and Questor estates, with the bodyshops and food producers between them.
Each of those Dartford 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 Crossways Business Park units to the one-bench Dartford workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Dartford and the rest of Kent it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the Thames Gateway distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture proven.
Solvent, ink-mist and dust extraction across the paper and print lines, a trade rooted in Dartford's papermaking heritage, where VOC vapour and paper dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Crossways Business Park and Questor units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Dartford 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 North Kent College and Darent Valley Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Dartford
We are out under Dartford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A chemical storage and packing depot in Dartford had a drum-venting extraction arm failing to catch solvent vapour because the main balancing damper had seized completely shut. We freed the seized mechanism with penetrating lubricant, released the control handle and balanced the branch flow. It passed once the damper was freed, with the face capture at an optimal 0.85 metres per second. It was a high-risk zone, so non-sparking brass tooling and intrinsically safe test instruments were used.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Dartford 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 Crossways 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 Dartford line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and metal fabrication process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
For the great majority of Dartford sites, from the Crossways Business Park units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Dartford 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 Dartford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Questor 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 engineering and metal fabrication 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Crossways Business Park units, term-time access at the Dartford 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 Dartford, but a Crossways Business Park fabrication shop and a Lowfield Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Engineering and metal fabrication, logistics and distribution, paper and print, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Crossways Business Park and Questor and across the wider Kent.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Crossways Business Park and Questor, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Kent.
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 Crossways Business Park unit will ask to see.
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 Crossways 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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