Hemel Hempstead · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hemel Hempstead workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a Hertfordshire new town in Dacorum, around 96,000, home to the vast Maylands Business Park and the Grand Union Canal at Boxmoor.
The work is engineering and logistics-scale manufacturing - the engineering and manufacturing, the aerospace and defence work, and the electronics and print - across the Maylands Business Park and Boundary Way estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Hemel Hempstead 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 Maylands Business Park units to the one-bench Hemel Hempstead 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 Hemel Hempstead and across Hertfordshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and manufacturing units on Maylands, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Machining, weld-fume and coating extraction across the aerospace and defence engineering units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Solder-fume, solvent and conformal-coating extraction across the electronics lines, where fume needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Maylands Business Park and Boundary 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 Hemel Hempstead 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 West Herts College and Hemel Hempstead Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hemel Hempstead
We are out under Hemel Hempstead's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics and wave-soldering facility in Hemel Hempstead had a multi-arm tip-extraction system straining because the primary carbon filter module had a blown rubber seal, letting air bypass the filter medium. We fitted a new perimeter compression seal, re-seated the carbon block and logged the system differential pressures. It passed once the seal was renewed, with a PID detector confirming zero VOC bypass into the cleanroom. The whole floor was an ESD-protected zone, so grounding heel straps and static-dissipative coats were worn.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Hemel Hempstead 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 Maylands 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 Hemel Hempstead line.
Where exposure is in question - an 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.
Across most Hemel Hempstead sites - the Maylands Business Park 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 Hemel Hempstead 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 Hemel Hempstead duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Boundary 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. An engineering and manufacturing bay, an aerospace and defence bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Engineering and manufacturing, aerospace and defence, electronics and soldering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Maylands Business Park and Boundary Way and across the wider Hertfordshire.
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 Maylands Business Park or a smaller Hemel Hempstead workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Maylands Business Park units, term-time access at the Hemel Hempstead university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Hemel Hempstead 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 Hemel Hempstead, but a Maylands Business Park fabrication shop and a Marlowes canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Maylands 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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