Hertford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hertford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, a market town of around 26,000 people built where four rivers - the Lea, the Beane, the Rib and the Mimram - run together on the edge of the Lea valley. It is a place with deep roots: the first national synod of the English church met here in 673, and the Norman castle whose brick gatehouse still stands was a royal residence where the young Elizabeth I spent part of her childhood.
Its working economy runs on light engineering, food and drink and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units along Mead Lane and at Foxholes Business Park and Caxton Hill on the edge of the town.
Each of those Hertford 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 Mead Lane Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Hertford 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 Hertford and the wider Hertfordshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and lathes, in the light-engineering shops that have worked the Mead Lane and Hertford Industrial Estate units since the town first drew engineering trade off the river.
Steam canopies and grain-dust control in the town's bakeries and at McMullen's Brewery, the family brewery founded in 1827 and still brewing in the centre of Hertford.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Hertford 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 Mead Lane and Foxholes units. Since the HSE reclassification of 2019, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Hertford 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 schools, colleges and laboratory units around Hertford and Hertford Heath, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hertford
We are out under Hertford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A refurbished ceramics studio in Hertford had airflow at its dust capture hoods fallen since the last test, pointing to a filter well overdue for replacement. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with the debris in the ducting. The LEV passed on re-test across the cutting bench hoods, with a thorough examination and test certificate to match. We handed the foreman a short photo report for their insurance file.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Hertford 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 Mead Lane 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 Hertford 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
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 the great majority of Hertford sites, from the Mead Lane 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 Hertford 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 Hertford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Foxholes 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Mead Lane Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Hertford university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Mead Lane 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.
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 Mead Lane Industrial Estate and Foxholes Business Park and across the wider Hertfordshire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Mead Lane Industrial Estate and Foxholes Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hertfordshire.
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 Mead Lane Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Hertford 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.
Local knowledge
The Addis toothbrush and houseware works on Ware Road was one of Hertford's biggest employers for generations, moulding and finishing plastic in the town until the factory finally closed in 1996. That engineering instinct still runs through the light-industrial shops along Mead Lane, and every one of them 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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