Cardiff · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Cardiff workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital of Wales, a city of around 372,000, and its industry runs along the eastern belt from the fabrication units of Wentloog to the food and drink makers of Ocean Park.
The work clusters east of the centre - welding and fabrication across the Wentloog and Lamby Way estates, the bodyshops and machine shops, the brewing and bakery food producers, the print and joinery shops - alongside the teaching and research labs of the Heath Park hospital and university campus.
Each of those Cardiff 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 Wentloog units to the one-bench Cardiff workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Cardiff and the wider South Wales it is your evidence under COSHH.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Wentloog and eastern-belt fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Cardiff bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Flour-dust, steam and brewing extraction across the city's bakeries and drink producers, where organic dust and vapour need capture at source.
Solvent and mist extraction on the print and coating lines - vapour that a loaded filter stops holding.
Dust extraction on saws, sanders and routers. Hardwood dust is a known carcinogen; ductwork and filters are checked for capture and leakage.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the three universities and the University Hospital of Wales at Heath Park, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Cardiff
We are out under Cardiff's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A further-education college in Cardiff had an LEV system on its laser engraving and cutting machines that had not been serviced or logged in two years - the carbon filter was saturated and giving off a sweet, burnt-plastic smell. We ran the full fourteen-month thorough examination and test, measuring static pressure across the filter bed to check for breakthrough. It failed: the carbon bed had broken through and was letting the fumes straight back into the room. We had to book it carefully around the lecture timetable so it never disturbed the exams next door.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Cardiff 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 Wentloog 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 Cardiff line.
Where exposure is in question - a welding and fabrication process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Cardiff sites - the Wentloog 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 Cardiff 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 Cardiff duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Lamby Way 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 welding and fabrication bay, a vehicle body and paint bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Cardiff 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.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Wentloog and Lamby Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider South Wales.
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 Wentloog 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 Wentloog unit will ask to see.
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 Wentloog or a smaller Cardiff workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, food and drink manufacturing, printing and coating, woodworking, and the labs of the universities and the Heath Park hospital - the trades clustered around Wentloog and Lamby Way and across the wider South Wales.
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