Eltham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Eltham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Eltham
Eltham is a south-east London district in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, a borough of around 289,000, known for the Art Deco and medieval Eltham Palace.
The work is light industry and trades - the light engineering and fabrication, the food manufacturing, and the printing and joinery - across the Kimberley Road and Ravens Way units, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Eltham 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 Kimberley Road units to the one-bench Eltham 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 Eltham and across Greater London it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the light-engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Solvent, ink-mist and wood-dust extraction across the print and joinery workshops, where VOC vapour and dust need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Kimberley Road and Ravens Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Eltham 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 University of Greenwich Avery Hill campus and the Eltham diagnostic centre, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Eltham
We are out under Eltham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A classic-car restoration workshop in Eltham had a dual-hose vehicle exhaust extraction reel with a punctured rubber sleeve, leaking toxic fumes back into the mechanics' bay. We spliced the punctured half-metre section out, fitted a rigid sleeve connector and verified the total exhaust volumetric flow. It failed on the structural integrity and we recommended a full replacement hose run to meet the workspace standard. They were mid-way through an engine overhaul on a rare 1970s Jaguar E-Type during the inspection.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Eltham 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 Kimberley Road 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 an Eltham line.
Where exposure is in question - a light engineering and fabrication 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.
For the great majority of Eltham sites, from the Kimberley Road 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 Eltham 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 Eltham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Ravens Way 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 light engineering and fabrication bay, a food manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Light engineering and fabrication, food manufacturing, printing and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university campus and diagnostic centre - the trades clustered around Kimberley Road and Ravens Way and across the wider Greater London.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Kimberley Road and Ravens Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater London.
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 Kimberley Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Eltham 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.
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 Eltham, but a Kimberley Road fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Kimberley Road or a smaller Eltham workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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