Strood · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Strood workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Strood
Strood stands on the northwest bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point, the westernmost of the five Medway Towns and the gateway across the water to Rochester, its castle and its cathedral. The Romans laid Watling Street on a causeway up Strood Hill and threw the first stone bridge across the river here, and the crossing has carried London-to-Dover traffic ever since.
Its working economy runs on engineering, fabrication, print and food production, most of it concentrated on the Medway City Estate, a purpose-built industrial park of some six hundred businesses on the Frindsbury Peninsula, and along the units off Commercial Road.
Every one of those Strood 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 Medway City Estate units to the smaller Strood 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 Strood and the wider Kent it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops across the Medway City Estate, whose six hundred-odd firms include a heavy weighting of manufacturing and engineering on the Frindsbury Peninsula.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, food producers and cold-chain units on the Medway City Estate and the industrial premises off Commercial Road, where extraction keeps airborne product and heat under control.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Strood cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the marine, structural and general fabricators on the Medway City Estate. Since the HSE reclassification in 2019, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Strood bodyshops and the vehicle specialists on the estate. 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 MidKent College and the laboratories and clinical spaces serving Medway Maritime Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Strood
We are out under Strood's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A privately owned fabrication shop in Strood had airflow at its bench capture hoods down on the last test, pointing to a partly blocked filter on the unit. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. The welding bench extract arms passed on re-test, backed by full test documentation. The foreman kept us going with tea through the morning.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Strood 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 Medway City 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 Strood line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and 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.
For most Strood sites - from the Medway City Estate 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 Strood 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 Strood duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Frindsbury Peninsula 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production 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 Medway City Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Strood 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Medway City Estate units, term-time access at the Strood university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Strood, but a Medway City Estate fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Medway City Estate and Frindsbury Peninsula, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Kent.
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 Medway City Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Local knowledge
The Knights Templar held a manor at Strood from 1159, and the stone Temple Manor that still stands off Knight Road was raised around 1240 to lodge dignitaries travelling Watling Street between London and the continent. That trading crossroads grew into an industrial one, and today the Medway City Estate on the Frindsbury Peninsula carries six hundred engineering, fabrication and manufacturing firms in its place. Every one of them has a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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