Aberdare · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Aberdare workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Aberdare
Aberdare stands where the Rivers Dare and Cynon meet at the head of the Cynon Valley, a town that grew from a scatter of farms into one of the great steam-coal centres of South Wales. In 1861 it hosted the first modern National Eisteddfod, and it remains a heartland of Welsh choral tradition and language.
Its working economy today runs on engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Aberaman Park Industrial Estate south of the town and the far larger Hirwaun Industrial Estate at the head of the valley.
Wherever an Aberdare 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 Aberaman Park Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Aberdare workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Aberdare and the rest of Rhondda Cynon Taf it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops, across the engineering SMEs at Aberaman Park Industrial Estate and the manufacturers on Hirwaun Industrial Estate at the top of the Heads of the Valleys.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food producers of the Cynon Valley, where dust and vapour are drawn off at source before they reach the line.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Aberdare 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 Aberaman and Hirwaun estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Aberdare 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 science rooms at Coleg y Cymoedd and the healthcare labs serving the valley, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Aberdare
We are out under Aberdare's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A long-established bakery in Aberdare had its dough mixer hoods under-performing against benchmark, down to a leaking flexible connection. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the hoods, sorted the loose joint and re-checked each point. The flour-handling extraction passed on re-test, backed by a signed report. We worked a single overnight shift so the bakery could open as normal.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Aberdare 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 Aberaman Park Industrial 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 an Aberdare 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 the great majority of Aberdare sites, from the Aberaman Park Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Aberdare 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 Aberdare duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Hirwaun Industrial Estate 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.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Aberaman Park Industrial Estate and Hirwaun Industrial Estate and across the wider Rhondda Cynon Taf.
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 Aberaman Park Industrial Estate or a smaller Aberdare workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Aberdare, but an Aberaman Park Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Canon Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 an Aberaman Park Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Aberaman Park Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Aberdare university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Aberaman Park Industrial Estate and Hirwaun Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Local knowledge
Ironworks were raised at Llwydcoed and Abernant either side of 1800, and in 1827 Matthew Wayne, once of the Cyfarthfa works at Merthyr, built the Gadlys Ironworks with its blast furnaces, forges and rolling mills. When the Waynes turned to the high-calorific Four-foot steam coal in the 1830s, Aberdare became a furnace town of dust, fume and coking heat. That engineering instinct still runs through the machine shops and fabrication units on the Aberaman and Hirwaun estates, and every one carries 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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