Kingston upon Thames · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Kingston upon Thames workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is a royal borough in south-west London of around 168,000, the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned, and home to Europe's largest Korean community at New Malden.
The work is light engineering and campus science - the trade and printing units, the riverside and final-mile logistics, and the university and hospital laboratories - across the Chapel Mill Road and Barwell estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Kingston upon Thames process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Chapel Mill Road plant to the single-bench Kingston upon Thames units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and 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 Kingston upon Thames and across south-west London it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the light-engineering and trade units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Solvent-vapour and mist extraction across the printing and finishing units, where ink and coating vapour need capture proven.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the riverside and distribution units, where the maintenance bays need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Chapel Mill Road and Barwell units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Kingston 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 science and aerospace-engineering labs of Kingston University and Kingston Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Kingston upon Thames
We are out under Kingston upon Thames's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A university engineering laboratory in Kingston had a fume cupboard on an aerospace-materials bench failing its face-velocity check because the sash counterbalance had slipped and the sash would not hold its safe working height. We reset the sash mechanism, re-ran the velocity traverse across the aperture and checked the alarm. It failed at first on the low and uneven face velocity and passed once the sash was held at the correct height, the readings back inside the safe band. Testing was booked into a teaching break so no students were in the lab.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Kingston upon Thames 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 Chapel Mill 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 Kingston upon Thames line.
Where exposure is in question - a light engineering and trade units 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 most Kingston upon Thames sites - from the Chapel Mill Road units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Kingston upon Thames 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 Kingston upon Thames duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Barwell Business 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 light engineering and trade units bay, a printing and finishing 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 Kingston upon Thames 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 Chapel Mill Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Chapel Mill Road or a smaller Kingston upon Thames workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Chapel Mill Road unit will ask to see.
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 Kingston upon Thames, but a Chapel Mill Road fabrication shop and a Clarence Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Chapel Mill Road units, term-time access at the Kingston upon Thames university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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