Romford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Romford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Romford
Romford is the commercial heart of Havering in east London, a borough of around 262,000, with a Royal Charter market running since 1247 and one of the largest night-time economies in outer London.
The work is light industry and food - the metal fabrication and toolroom engineering, the food manufacturing and distribution, and the printing and packaging - across the Crow Lane and Rom Valley Way estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Romford 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 Crow Lane plant to the single-bench Romford units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Romford and the wider east London it is your evidence under COSHH.
Grinding, machining and weld-fume extraction across the light-engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers and distribution units, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Solvent-vapour, ink-mist and fume extraction across the print and packaging lines, where VOC vapour needs capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Crow Lane and Rom Valley Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Romford 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 Queen's Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Romford
We are out under Romford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A metal-fabrication workshop off Crow Lane in Romford had a downdraught grinding bench pulling weak because the collector hopper below it had filled solid with fine steel dust. We emptied the hopper, checked the filter had recovered and measured the capture across the bench grates. It failed at first on the choked collector and passed once cleared, the downdraught back at its design figure. Fine ferrous dust is a combustion risk in a full hopper, so the housekeeping was logged alongside the airflow.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Romford 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 Crow Lane 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 Romford line.
Where exposure is in question - a light engineering and metal fabrication 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.
For most Romford sites - from the Crow Lane 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 Romford 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 Romford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Rom Valley Way 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 metal 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.
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 Crow Lane or a smaller Romford workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Romford 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.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Crow Lane and Rom Valley Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider east London.
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 Romford, but a Crow Lane fabrication shop and a South Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Crow Lane 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 Crow Lane unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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