Reading · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Reading workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Reading
Reading is the commercial heart of the Thames Valley - a technology corridor with more than 56,000 tech professionals across Berkshire - and a working town of around 175,000.
The work is high-tech and light industrial - the semiconductor, electronics and pharma R&D of the business parks, the food and drink producers of a town once built on beer and biscuits, and the fabrication, bodyshops and print units - across Green Park and the Theale estates.
Every one of those Reading processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Green Park units to the smaller Reading workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Reading and the wider Berkshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Fume-cupboard and wet-bench extraction across the cleanrooms and electronics units, where acid-etch and solvent fume need tight containment.
Fume-cupboard and containment extraction across the R&D labs, where capture at source is the whole control measure.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Reading 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 University of Reading and the Royal Berkshire Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Reading
We are out under Reading's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A semiconductor cleanroom in Reading had the acid-etching wet-bench exhaust throwing false readings up to the control room - the static-pressure sensor had drifted out of calibration. We cross-checked the duct static pressure against a calibrated reference manometer and ran hot-wire anemometer checks at the exhaust slots. The physical airflow was fine, but it failed on the faulty instrumentation, which is the sort of thing that hides a real problem later. It was an ISO Class 5 cleanroom, so it was full gowning, sticky mats and an air shower before we could even get to the bench.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Reading 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 Green 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 Reading line.
Where exposure is in question - a semiconductor and electronics process, say - 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.
On most Reading sites - the Green Park 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 Reading 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 Reading duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Theale 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 semiconductor and electronics bay, a pharma and life-sciences bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Green Park unit will ask to see.
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 Green Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Semiconductor and electronics, pharma and life-sciences, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Green Park and Theale and across the wider Berkshire.
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 Reading, but a Green Park fabrication shop and an Oxford Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Green Park units, term-time access at the Reading 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 Reading 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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