Abergavenny · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Abergavenny workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Abergavenny
Abergavenny is a market town of around 10,800 people in Monmouthshire, long known as the Gateway to Wales. It sits ringed by three mountains, the Sugar Loaf, the Blorenge and the Skirrid, at the point where the lowlands give way to the Brecon Beacons.
Its working trades run from joinery and engineering to farm and plant repair, much of it clustered on the Mill Street and Nantgavenny estates. Wherever those trades cut, weld or spray, local exhaust ventilation is what keeps the air legal.
Every Abergavenny 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 Mill Street plant to the single-bench Abergavenny 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 Abergavenny and across Monmouthshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Extraction on saws, sanders and routers at Abergavenny joinery shops working oak and other hardwoods. Hardwood dust is a recognised cause of nasal cancer, so shrouds and ducted collectors are tested to keep airborne dust below the workplace limit.
Mist and fume capture over lathes, mills and grinders in the town's engineering units. Metalworking-fluid mist and fine metal dust are drawn off at source, and the extraction is checked against its rated performance.
Weld bays and service pits serving Monmouthshire's farm and plant fleet, where repair work throws fume and engine exhaust into enclosed sheds. Fume arms and tailpipe extraction pull it clear so mechanics are not breathing it.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Mill Street and Nantgavenny units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Abergavenny 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 King Henry VIII School and Nevill Hall Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Abergavenny
We are out under Abergavenny's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A machine shop in Abergavenny had lost control at the CNC machines, with the mist-extraction hoods affected by a worn fan impeller. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the machine tool enclosures, changed the tired filter and dealt with the impeller, then re-checked each point. The LEV passed on re-test across the mist-extraction hoods, and we issued full test documentation.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Abergavenny system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Mill Street 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 Abergavenny line.
Where exposure is in question - a joinery and woodworking process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
On most Abergavenny sites - the Mill Street 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 Abergavenny 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 Abergavenny duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Nantgavenny 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 joinery and woodworking bay, an engineering and machine shops 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 Mill Street unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Abergavenny 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.
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 Abergavenny, but a Mill Street fabrication shop and a Cross Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Mill Street and Nantgavenny, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Monmouthshire.
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 Mill Street or a smaller Abergavenny workshop needs for their COSHH file.
joinery and woodworking, engineering and machine shops, agricultural and plant workshops, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and labs and fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Mill Street and Nantgavenny and across the wider Monmouthshire.
Local knowledge
Beneath Abergavenny's streets lie the remains of Gobannium, a Roman fort raised around AD 55 on the road between Usk and Brecon, its name traced to a Celtic root meaning the river of the blacksmiths. Metal has shaped this valley ever since, and metal still throws the hazards LEV exists to catch. We design, install and test local exhaust ventilation for the town's workshops, from weld fume to wood dust and oil mist, logging each result against its control figure.
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