Grays Thurrock · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Grays Thurrock workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Grays Thurrock
Grays is the main town of Thurrock, a Thames-side port on the Essex bank of the estuary east of London, and a place the chalk beneath it made famous - the quarries that fed the Portland cement works ran so deep that the Lakeside shopping centre now sits inside one of them at West Thurrock. Its Art Deco State Cinema on George Street, opened in 1938 and now Grade II* listed, still marks the skyline of the old town.
Its working economy runs on logistics, precision engineering and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units of the Globe Industrial Estate off Rectory Road and Thurrock Trade Park on Oliver Road, with the Port of Tilbury and the West Thurrock riverside plants close at hand.
Every one of those Grays Thurrock 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 Globe Industrial Estate units to the smaller Grays Thurrock 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 Grays Thurrock and the wider Essex it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres in the engineering units of the Globe Industrial Estate, where welding, engineering and light manufacturing have run since the factories went up there after the war.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food plants of Thurrock, an area whose Globe estate once bottled mineral water and packed corrugated cases, and whose riverside now handles a large share of London's imported food through the Port of Tilbury.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the timber and joinery firms on the Globe Industrial Estate, among them the hardwood merchants off Towers Road, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Globe Industrial Estate and Thurrock Trade Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at the bodyshops around Grays and West Thurrock. 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 science laboratories at Palmer's College and the healthcare sites serving Thurrock, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Grays Thurrock
We are out under Grays Thurrock's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A busy nail bar in Grays Thurrock had downdraught extraction on the nail stations that wasn't pulling as it should, traced to a worn fan impeller. We carried out a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, running smoke visualisation and checking the filter. Capture came back within benchmark once the tired filter was replaced, with a thorough examination and test certificate to prove it. We timed the visit for the school holidays while the salon was quiet.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Grays Thurrock system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Globe 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 Grays Thurrock line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing 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 Grays Thurrock sites, from the Globe Industrial Estate 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 Grays Thurrock 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 Grays Thurrock duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Thurrock Trade Park 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production 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 Grays Thurrock 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 Grays Thurrock, but a Globe Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Clarence Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Globe Industrial Estate and Thurrock Trade Park and across the wider Essex.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Globe Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Grays Thurrock 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 Globe Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Globe Industrial Estate and Thurrock Trade Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Essex.
Local knowledge
The chalk under Grays built an industry: by 1968 the Tunnel Cement works at West Thurrock was the largest cement plant in Western Europe, employing around 1,200 people, and the quarries kept working until 1976. That heavy-industry instinct still runs through the machine shops and fabrication units of the Globe Industrial Estate, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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