Hounslow · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hounslow workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hounslow
Hounslow is a west London borough of around 288,000 built around Heathrow Airport and the Great West Road "Golden Mile" of Art Deco factories.
The heavy work is aviation and airport-scale food - the aircraft maintenance, cargo and airline catering around Heathrow, and the food manufacturing, logistics and engineering - across the Great West Road and Bath Road corridors, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Hounslow 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 Great West Road units to the one-bench Hounslow workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Hounslow and the rest of Greater London it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Solvent, paint and composite-dust extraction across the Heathrow aircraft-maintenance and MRO lines, where fume and dust need capture at source.
Steam, oil-mist and dust extraction across the airline-catering and food-manufacturing kitchens, where organic dust and vapour need capture proven.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the airport-perimeter logistics and cargo bays, where the maintenance work needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Great West Road and Bath Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Hounslow 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 Thames College and West Middlesex University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hounslow
We are out under Hounslow's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An airport catering facility in Hounslow had the overhead canopy grease filters completely blinded with solidified cooking grease, dragging the face-capture velocity right down. We soaked and cleaned the baffle filters in an on-site degreasing tank and measured the intake velocity across a nine-point grid. It passed after the deep filter clean, with the capture back to a stable 0.45 metres per second. It sat directly under an active flight path, so high-attenuation ear defenders were needed against the aircraft noise.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Hounslow 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 Great West 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 a Hounslow line.
Where exposure is in question - an aviation and aircraft services process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
On most Hounslow sites - the Great West Road 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 Hounslow 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 Hounslow duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Bath Road 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 aviation and aircraft services bay, an airline catering and food manufacturing 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 Great West Road and Bath Road, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater London.
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 Great West Road unit will ask to see.
Aviation and aircraft services, airline catering and food manufacturing, logistics and distribution, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Great West Road and Bath Road and across 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 Great West 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Great West Road units, term-time access at the Hounslow 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 Great West Road or a smaller Hounslow workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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