Hereford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hereford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city on the River Wye, around 62,000, home to the world's largest cider works and to the Mappa Mundi and Chained Library at its cathedral.
The signature trade is cider and food - the cider and food-and-drink manufacturing, the poultry and meat processing, and the defence and advanced manufacturing - across the Rotherwas Industrial Estate and Skylon Park, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Hereford 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 Rotherwas Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Hereford 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 Hereford and the rest of Herefordshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
CO2, steam and mist extraction across the cider mills and food-and-drink producers, the defining trade of the world's largest cider town, where fermentation gas and organic dust need capture at source.
Steam, mist and dust extraction across the poultry and meat-processing lines, where process vapour and dust need capture proven.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the defence and advanced-manufacturing units of the Skylon Park enterprise zone, where fume and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Rotherwas Industrial Estate and Skylon Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Hereford 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 NMITE and Hereford County Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hereford
We are out under Hereford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A cider-making plant in Hereford had a CO2 and steam extraction canopy over a fermentation and bottling hall running weak because a flexible duct had pulled off the trunking above the line. We reconnected the ducting, ran a smoke test over the line and measured the extract rate. It failed on the disconnected run and passed once resealed, the vapour flow back above the design figure. The hall handled fermenting cider at scale, so CO2 monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Hereford 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 Rotherwas 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 a Hereford line.
Where exposure is in question - a cider and food and drink manufacturing 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.
For most Hereford sites - from the Rotherwas Industrial Estate units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Hereford 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 Hereford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Skylon 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 cider and food and drink manufacturing bay, a poultry and meat processing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Hereford, but a Rotherwas Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a High Town canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Hereford 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.
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 Rotherwas Industrial Estate or a smaller Hereford workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Rotherwas Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Cider and food and drink manufacturing, poultry and meat processing, defence and advanced manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the engineering institute and hospital - the trades clustered around Rotherwas Industrial Estate and Skylon Park and across the wider Herefordshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Rotherwas Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Hereford university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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