Slough · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Slough workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Slough
Slough is home to the largest industrial estate in single private ownership in Europe - around 500 businesses and 17,000 jobs on the Slough Trading Estate.
The work is on the trading estate - the food and drink manufacturing, the pharma and R&D, one of Europe's largest data-centre clusters, and the fabrication, print and bodyshops - across the Slough Trading Estate and the Langley business park, with distribution feeding all of it.
Every one of those Slough 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 Slough Trading Estate units to the smaller Slough 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 Slough and the wider Berkshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Dust, steam and mist extraction across the estate's food and drink producers, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
Fume-cupboard and containment extraction across the pharma and R&D units, where capture at source is the whole control measure.
Battery-room and generator extraction on the data-centre power systems, where hydrogen and exhaust fume must be cleared from the space.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the estate's 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 Slough bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Solvent, mist and fume-cupboard extraction on the print and R&D lines, where vapour needs capture at source.
On the ground in Slough
We are out under Slough's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A data-centre battery-backup facility in Slough had the hydrogen-gas extraction canopy over its charging racks running dead - the secondary inline spark-proof fan had seized on a failed motor bearing. We confirmed the complete loss of static pressure and did a mechanical check on the fan housing. It failed outright: zero airflow, which lets hazardous hydrogen build up during charge cycles. The whole job was done in an absolute silence zone to protect the sensitive telecom kit nearby.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Slough 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 Slough Trading Estate 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 Slough line.
Where exposure is in question - a food and drink manufacturing 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.
On most Slough sites - the Slough Trading Estate 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 Slough 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 Slough duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Langley 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 food and drink manufacturing bay, a pharma and r&d bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Slough, but a Slough Trading Estate fabrication shop and a Farnham Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Slough Trading Estate units, term-time access at the Slough university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Slough Trading Estate 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 Slough Trading Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Slough Trading Estate or a smaller Slough workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Slough Trading Estate and Langley, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Berkshire.
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