London · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for London workshops, production sites and the Heathrow estates, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
London
London trades on offices, but it still makes, services and finishes things at scale - and most of that work sits in the west, where the capital's industrial capacity is concentrated.
Park Royal, spread across Ealing, Brent and Hammersmith, is the largest industrial estate in the UK - around 1,700 businesses and more than 40,000 jobs, from food and drink manufacturing to engineering, print and the creative trades. Follow the A40 and the Grand Union Canal west and the pattern continues out to the Heathrow belt, where roughly 80,000 people work and the Colnbrook and Poyle estates handle air cargo, aircraft servicing and the maintenance trades that keep an airport running.
The rest of the capital fills in the gaps - the railway arches of Bermondsey and Vauxhall, the light-industrial pockets of Hackney Wick and the Old Kent Road, and the vehicle workshops on practically every high street. Wherever a process puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, the same COSHH duty applies: control exposure at source, and have the local exhaust ventilation that does it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test that LEV across all of it.
By sector
If a process at your site captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and it is your evidence under COSHH. These are the systems we examine most across London.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Park Royal units and the Colnbrook and Heathrow estates. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic, so extraction is no longer optional and the test record matters.
Oil-mist extraction on machining centres at London engineering and precision shops. Mist collectors clog quietly; a measured face velocity is the only way to prove they still capture.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at London bodyshops and dealer workshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Dust extraction on saws, sanders and routers in London joinery and shopfitting shops. Hardwood dust is a known carcinogen; ductwork and filters are checked for capture and leakage.
Flour-dust and process extraction across the Park Royal food-and-beverage cluster and the capital's bakeries and production kitchens - high-output sites where dust and fume control is easy to overlook.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for London's universities, teaching hospitals and clinical labs, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in London
We are out under London's extraction every week. The proof that matters is not a stock photo - it is the jobs we have actually done here.
On an industrial estate at Colnbrook, on Heathrow's western edge, we were called to an off-site airport maintenance company whose three separate LEV systems had not been tested in years - no records, no commissioning data, and an HSE visit expected. Given the nature and location of the site, we completed NDAs and proved DBS clearance before going in. We carried out a full thorough examination and test of all three systems and expedited the reporting; they passed with a short list of basic remedial repairs, and we pointed the client to a specialist contractor to close those out.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. 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 — 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.
Where exposure is in question, sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For most London sites 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.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, plain-English actions.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the wall.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at intervals no greater than 14 months, with some higher-risk processes more often. A Park Royal food plant, a Colnbrook aircraft-maintenance bay and a Hackney joinery shop can each sit on a different interval, so we set the right one for every system we test.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is about kitchen grease and fire risk. We carry out both across London, but a Park Royal welding bay and a Soho kitchen canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
The manufacturing, fabrication and food production at Park Royal, the maintenance and logistics trades around Heathrow, Colnbrook and Poyle, plus vehicle workshops, joinery and shopfitting, print and coating, and the engineering and science labs of the universities and teaching hospitals.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, with the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling. It is the evidence a London duty-holder needs for their COSHH records and the document an HSE inspector will ask to see.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You carry out the work and we re-test; we will not pass a system that does not control exposure properly.
Yes. We test across west London's industrial estates and the Heathrow logistics corridor, and workshops, university and hospital labs throughout the capital and the surrounding Home Counties.
Yes. We plan testing around shift patterns at the production and logistics sites, term-time access at the universities, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never has to stop the line.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.