Harlow · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Harlow workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Harlow
Harlow is a post-war Essex new town of around 93,000, master-planned by Frederick Gibberd as a sculpture town and now part of the London-Stansted-Cambridge science corridor.
The signature work is science and defence - the pharmaceuticals and life-science labs, the electronics and defence engineering, and the advanced manufacturing and food - across the Pinnacles and Templefields estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Harlow 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 Pinnacles units to the one-bench Harlow 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 Harlow and across Essex it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Solvent, fume-cupboard and containment extraction across the public-health science campus and contract-research labs, where reagent vapour and dust need capture at source.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the defence-electronics lines, where fume needs capture proven.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Pinnacles and Templefields units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Harlow bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the Templefields food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On the ground in Harlow
We are out under Harlow's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A glass processing and tempering facility in Harlow had the high-vacuum suction cups on an automatic edge-grinding line failing to catch the fine glass particulate because the inline multi-cyclone separator was full. We emptied the glass-dust collection hopper, cleaned the primary vortex tube and verified the suction with a digital manometer. It passed once emptied, with the capture back to a solid 14 kilopascals at the grinding wheel. The sharp glass cullet meant Kevlar-reinforced sleeves and heavy-duty goggles throughout.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Harlow 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 Pinnacles 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 Harlow line.
Where exposure is in question - a pharmaceuticals and life-science labs 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.
Across most Harlow sites - the Pinnacles plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Harlow 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 Harlow duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Templefields 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 pharmaceuticals and life-science labs bay, an electronics and defence bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Pharmaceuticals and life-science labs, electronics and defence, advanced manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and food manufacturing - the trades clustered around Pinnacles and Templefields and across the wider Essex.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Harlow 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 Pinnacles units, term-time access at the Harlow university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Pinnacles or a smaller Harlow workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Harlow, but a Pinnacles fabrication shop and a Broad Walk canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Pinnacles unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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