Chapeltown · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Chapeltown workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Chapeltown
Chapeltown sits in the north of Sheffield, an old ironstone and colliery township in the parish of Ecclesfield that grew up around Newton Chambers and its Thorncliffe works - the firm that gave the world Izal disinfectant and medicated toilet paper, and built the Churchill tanks that rolled out of Warren Lane in the Second World War.
Its working economy still leans on precision engineering, fabrication and food production, much of it now grouped in the units at Thorncliffe Park and the Smithy Wood Business Park beside Junction 35 of the M1.
Wherever a Chapeltown 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 Thorncliffe Park units down to the smallest Chapeltown workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Chapeltown and the wider South Yorkshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and grinders, from the rail engineering of Mechan to the machine shops and heating-equipment makers that grew up on the Thorncliffe Park estate where Newton Chambers once cast iron.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, butchers and food units around Chapeltown and Smithy Wood, where airborne dust and steam are captured at source before they settle.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Chapeltown joinery and cabinet shops, 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 Thorncliffe Park and Smithy Wood units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Chapeltown bodyshops off Station Road and Warren Lane. 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 laboratories and quality-control units on Thorncliffe Park, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Chapeltown
We are out under Chapeltown's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
At an independent school in Chapeltown the woodwork room extraction hoods had capture velocity readings under benchmark, with a partly blocked filter behind it. I took benchmark readings, visualised the capture at each hood and dealt with an unsealed joint. Once a worn impeller was put right every point passed on re-test, and the certificate and readings went over by email. I fitted the whole visit around changeover so the staff were never disturbed.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Chapeltown 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 Thorncliffe Park 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 Chapeltown 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
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.
Across most Chapeltown sites - the Thorncliffe Park 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 Chapeltown 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 Chapeltown duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Smithy Wood Business Park 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 Thorncliffe Park and Smithy Wood Business Park and across the wider South Yorkshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Chapeltown 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 Thorncliffe Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Thorncliffe Park and Smithy Wood Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider South Yorkshire.
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 Thorncliffe Park 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 Chapeltown, but a Thorncliffe Park fabrication shop and a Mortomley Lane canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Local knowledge
George Newton and Thomas Chambers leased the Thorncliffe valley in 1793 and lit the first blast furnace at their ironworks in 1795, building a firm that by 1900 employed close to eight thousand people making everything from cast-iron pipes to the Churchill tanks later assembled at Warren Lane. That engineering instinct never left Chapeltown, and the machine shops and fabricators now on Thorncliffe Park carry the same duty to control the mist, fume and dust their 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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