Merthyr Tydfil · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Merthyr Tydfil workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town of around 59,000 at the head of the South Wales Valleys, once the iron-making capital of the world, home to the great Cyfarthfa and Dowlais ironworks and crowned by Cyfarthfa Castle.
The signature trade is food and manufacturing - the meat and food processing, the advanced manufacturing and engineering, and the logistics and distribution - across the Penygarnddu Industrial Estate and Pentrebach estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Merthyr Tydfil 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 Penygarnddu Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Merthyr Tydfil units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Merthyr Tydfil employers and others across South Wales it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Steam, chill-store condensate and boning-hall extraction across the abattoir, boning and cooking halls of the largest meat plant in Wales, a major employer of the town, where the process moisture and heat load the ductwork and need capture at source.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and grinding-dust extraction across the engineering and advanced-manufacturing units carrying the town's ironworking heritage, where metal fume and dust need capture proven.
Battery-charging, forklift-exhaust and weld-fume extraction across the A470 distribution parks of Pentrebach and Rhydycar, where the maintenance bays and charging areas need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Penygarnddu Industrial Estate and Pentrebach units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Merthyr Tydfil 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 College Merthyr Tydfil and the Prince Charles Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Merthyr Tydfil
We are out under Merthyr Tydfil's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A meat-processing plant in Merthyr Tydfil had a steam-and-chill extraction over a boning-and-cooking hall pulling weak because the ducting above it had loaded with fat and condensate. We ran the capture checks on the sound sections and logged the fouling. It failed on the restricted duct and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the clean and remedial run. The hall ran chilled with heavy wash-down, so the humidity load on the ductwork was logged alongside the airflow.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Merthyr Tydfil 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 Penygarnddu 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 Merthyr Tydfil line.
Where exposure is in question - a meat and food processing 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 Merthyr Tydfil sites - the Penygarnddu Industrial Estate 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 Merthyr Tydfil 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 Merthyr Tydfil duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Pentrebach 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 meat and food processing bay, an advanced manufacturing and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Penygarnddu Industrial Estate or a smaller Merthyr Tydfil workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Penygarnddu Industrial Estate and Pentrebach, the university and hospital labs, and the wider South Wales.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Merthyr Tydfil 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.
Meat and food processing, advanced manufacturing and engineering, logistics and distribution, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Penygarnddu Industrial Estate and Pentrebach and across the wider South Wales.
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 Merthyr Tydfil, but a Penygarnddu Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Pontmorlais canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Penygarnddu 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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