Watford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Watford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Watford
Watford is a Hertfordshire town of around 102,000, once the largest printing centre in Europe and next to Warner Bros Studios Leavesden.
The signature trade is print and film - the printing and print finishing of the town's Sun Printers and Odhams heritage, the film and set production around Leavesden, and the engineering - across the Colonial Way and Greycaine Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Watford process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Colonial Way units down to the smallest Watford workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Watford and the wider Hertfordshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Solvent, ink-mist and dust extraction across the print and finishing lines, a trade rooted in Watford's printing heritage, where VOC vapour and paper dust need capture at source.
Scenic-paint, solvent and wood-dust extraction across the set-build and scenic workshops around Leavesden, where paint vapour and dust need capture proven.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Colonial Way and Greycaine Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Watford 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 West Herts College and Watford General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Watford
We are out under Watford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A commercial printing and solvent ink wash-house in Watford had the floor-level slot hoods over a solvent washing trough disconnected from the overhead header duct. We re-attached the slip-joint header, secured the coupling with self-tapping screws and foil tape and checked the slot draw. It passed once reconnected, with the slot velocity at an excellent 1.1 metres per second to catch the heavy chemical vapour. The solvent smell was intense on arrival, so we ventilated first and worked in carbon-cartridge masks.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Watford system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Colonial 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 Watford line.
Where exposure is in question - a printing and print finishing 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.
For most Watford sites - from the Colonial Way 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 Watford 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 Watford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Greycaine Road 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 printing and print finishing bay, a film and set production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Colonial Way and Greycaine Road, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hertfordshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Watford 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.
Printing and print finishing, film and set production, engineering and manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Colonial Way and Greycaine Road and across the wider Hertfordshire.
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 Watford, but a Colonial Way fabrication shop and a St Albans Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Colonial Way units, term-time access at the Watford 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 Colonial Way production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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