Ilford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ilford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ilford
Ilford is a major town centre in the London Borough of Redbridge, a borough of around 310,000 on the Elizabeth line, with the heritage of the Ilford photographic works.
The work is light industry and food - the light engineering and fabrication, the food manufacturing and distribution of the area's large South Asian food sector, and the printing - across the Roden Street and Ley Street estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever an Ilford process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Roden Street units down to the smallest Ilford workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Ilford employers and others across Greater London it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the light-engineering units around Roden Street, the old Ilford photographic works and the former Ley Street Plessey site, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers and cash-and-carry warehouses of the Ilford Lane South Asian food sector, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Solvent, ink-mist and dust extraction across the commercial print and packaging units off Ley Street, where VOC vapour and paper dust need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Roden Street and Ley Street units off the North Circular. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ilford 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 local college and King George Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ilford
We are out under Ilford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A vehicle repair workshop in Ilford had a deep crush deformity midway along the overhead spring-reeled diesel exhaust extraction hose, choking the engine-gas flow. We spliced the crushed one-metre section out, fitted a rigid coupling sleeve and checked the overall volumetric flow. It failed on the severe internal restriction and we recommended a full replacement hose run for the heavy commercial vehicles. The workshop was working a fleet of Metropolitan Police vehicles, so every hand tool had to be logged in a site security book.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On an Ilford 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 Roden Street 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 Ilford 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
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 Ilford sites - the Roden Street 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 Ilford 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 Ilford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Ley Street 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 and distribution 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 and distribution, printing and packaging, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Roden Street and Ley Street and across the wider Greater London.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Roden Street and Ley Street, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater London.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Ilford 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.
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 Roden Street production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Roden Street unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Roden Street units, term-time access at the Ilford university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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