Woolwich · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Woolwich workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Woolwich
Woolwich is the civic heart of the Royal Borough of Greenwich on the south bank of the Thames, home to the historic Royal Arsenal and now the Royal Arsenal Riverside regeneration.
The work is engineering and riverside trades - the metal fabrication rooted in the Royal Arsenal armament heritage, the food manufacturing, and the construction and rail trades of the Elizabeth line depot - across the Nathan Way and White Hart Depot estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Woolwich 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 Nathan Way plant to the single-bench Woolwich units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Woolwich and across Greater London it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, a trade rooted in the Royal Arsenal armament heritage, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers and catering kitchens, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Solvent, ink-mist and wood-dust extraction across the print and joinery workshops, where VOC vapour and dust need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Nathan Way and White Hart Depot units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Woolwich 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 local college and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Woolwich
We are out under Woolwich's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A vehicle body-repair shop in Woolwich had a smart-repair spray booth losing containment because the dry primary exhaust filters were caked in silver clearcoat. We replaced the blinded overspray filters, checked the fan-belt tension and mapped the face velocity across a nine-point grid. It failed at first on the clogged filters and passed cleanly once the fresh ones equalised the system pressure. The shop was working a fleet of Metropolitan Police vehicles, so an on-site tool manifest log was completed.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Woolwich 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 Nathan 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 Woolwich line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and metal 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.
On most Woolwich sites - the Nathan 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 Woolwich 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 Woolwich duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the White Hart Depot 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. An engineering and metal fabrication bay, a food manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Nathan Way or a smaller Woolwich workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Nathan Way units, term-time access at the Woolwich 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 Nathan Way 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 Nathan Way unit will ask to see.
Engineering and metal fabrication, food manufacturing, printing and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Nathan Way and White Hart Depot and across the wider Greater London.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Nathan Way and White Hart Depot, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater London.
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