Sutton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Sutton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Sutton
Sutton is a south London borough of around 210,000, home to the London Cancer Hub - the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden - and to the site of Henry VIII's lost Nonsuch Palace at Cheam.
The signature work is life science - the laboratories and fume cupboards of the London Cancer Hub, the pharma and biotech, and the light engineering and printing - across the Kimpton Park Way and Restmor Way estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Sutton 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 Kimpton Park Way plant to the single-bench Sutton 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 Sutton and the wider south London it is your evidence under COSHH.
Fume-cupboard and local-exhaust testing across the research and drug-discovery laboratories of the London Cancer Hub, the defining work of the borough, where containment is examined to its safe face velocity.
Solvent, vapour and mist extraction across the pharma and biotech units, where process vapour needs capture proven.
Machining, solder-fume and solvent extraction across the light-engineering and printing units, where dust, fume and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Kimpton Park Way and Restmor 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 Sutton 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 Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Sutton
We are out under Sutton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A cancer-research laboratory in Sutton had a row of fume cupboards on a drug-discovery bench where one was failing its containment because the extract fan belt had worn and slipped. We reported the low face velocity, checked the sash and inspected the fan drive. It failed on the containment shortfall, and we scheduled the belt and drive repair before a re-test brought it back inside the safe working band. Strict lab-access and decontamination protocols were followed and all instruments wiped down on entry and exit.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Sutton 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 Kimpton Park Way 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 Sutton line.
Where exposure is in question - a life science and laboratories process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
On most Sutton sites - the Kimpton Park Way 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 Sutton 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 Sutton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Restmor 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 life science and laboratories bay, a pharma and biotech bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Sutton 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.
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 Kimpton Park Way or a smaller Sutton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Kimpton Park Way and Restmor Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider south 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 Sutton, but a Kimpton Park Way fabrication shop and a Cheam Village canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Kimpton Park Way units, term-time access at the Sutton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Life science and laboratories, pharma and biotech, light engineering and printing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the research institute and hospital - the trades clustered around Kimpton Park Way and Restmor Way and across the wider south London.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.