Didcot · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Didcot workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Didcot
Didcot, in Oxfordshire, is a fast-growing railway and former power-station town of around 32,000, home to the Great Western steam heritage of Didcot Railway Centre and the science campuses of Milton Park and Harwell.
The signature trade is science and rail - the science and advanced technology, the rail and engineering, and the logistics and food - across the Milton Park and Southmead Industrial Estate estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Didcot process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Milton Park plant to the single-bench Didcot units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Didcot employers and others across Oxfordshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fume-cupboard, cleanroom and process-extract testing across the laboratories of the science and life-science campuses near the town, where wet-chemistry benches and clean processes are examined to their safe working face under COSHH.
Weld-fume, grinding-dust and solvent-vapour extraction across the railway preservation sheds and rail-corridor depots, where the engineering and restoration work needs capture proven.
Battery-charging, forklift-exhaust and canopy-grease extraction across the A34 distribution units and the town-centre kitchens, where the charging bays and cooklines each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Milton Park and Southmead units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Didcot 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 the Didcot Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Didcot
We are out under Didcot's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A science-park laboratory near Didcot had a fume cupboard failing to hold its face velocity across the sash opening, letting solvent vapour drift back into the lab. We ran the face-velocity traverse across the sash, checked the alarm set-point and logged the containment fault. It failed on the low face velocity, and we specified the fan and control work. The bench ran wet chemistry, so the containment was examined to its safe working face before the work resumed.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Didcot system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Milton 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 Didcot line.
Where exposure is in question - a science and advanced technology 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 Didcot sites - the Milton 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 Didcot 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 Didcot duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Southmead 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 science and advanced technology bay, a rail and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Milton Park and Southmead Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Oxfordshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Milton Park units, term-time access at the Didcot university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Milton 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 Milton Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Science and advanced technology, rail and engineering, logistics and food, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Milton Park and Southmead Industrial Estate and across the wider Oxfordshire.
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 Didcot, but a Milton Park fabrication shop and a Broadway canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.