Wembley · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wembley workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wembley
Wembley is a north-west London district in Brent, a borough of around 340,000, built around Wembley Stadium and one of Europe's largest regeneration schemes at Wembley Park.
The work is light industry and food - the machine-shop engineering and metal fabrication of the First Way and Fulton Road units below the arch, the sweet-making and spice-house food packing of the Ealing Road food trade, and the printing - across the First Way and Mount Pleasant estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Wembley processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the First Way units to the one-bench Wembley workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Wembley employers and others across Greater London it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Grinding dust, machining mist and weld fume caught at the benches of the light-engineering units off Olympic Way, where metal particulate and coolant mist have to be drawn from the working point before they carry into the shop.
Steam, sugar and spice particulate lifted off the lines of the Ealing Road sweet-makers, food producers and wholesale packers, where the fine organic dust carries both a respiratory and a combustion risk.
Solvent and ink-mist extraction over the press and finishing lines, where the VOC vapour has to be captured at the machine and the extract rate proven against the print load.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the First Way and Mount Pleasant units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Wembley 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 nearby university campus and Northwick Park Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Wembley
We are out under Wembley's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An industrial catering hub kitchen in Wembley had the grease-trap drainage channel on a large island canopy completely blocked, so liquid fat was dripping near the cooking line. We cleared the blockage out of the canopy channels, cleaned the impellers and measured the duct transport velocities. It passed conditionally on airflow, but we issued an immediate hygiene and fire-hazard remediation order for the ductwork. It sits a short way from the stadium, so the visit was planned around a major concert to dodge the traffic gridlock.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Wembley 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 First 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 Wembley line.
Where exposure is in question - a light engineering and 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.
Across most Wembley sites - the First Way plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Wembley 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 Wembley duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Mount Pleasant 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 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.
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 First Way unit will ask to see.
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 Wembley, but a First Way fabrication shop and an Ealing Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Light engineering and fabrication, food manufacturing and distribution, printing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university campus and hospital - the trades clustered around First Way and Mount Pleasant and across the wider Greater London.
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 First Way or a smaller Wembley workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Wembley 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.
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 First 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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