Monmouth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Monmouth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Monmouth
Monmouth is a market town of around 10,500 people set where the River Monnow meets the Wye, two miles inside the Welsh border. It grew around its Norman castle, the birthplace of Henry V, and remains Monmouthshire's historic county town.
Its working economy runs to vehicle servicing, joinery, precision engineering and food production, much of it grouped on the Wonastow Road Industrial Estate and the Singleton Court Business Park off Wonastow Road.
Each of those Monmouth 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 Wonastow Road Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Monmouth 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 Monmouth and the wider Monmouthshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Dust extraction and fine-filter LEV for the joinery and cabinet shops on the Wonastow Road estate. Hardwood dust is a hardwood-asthma and nasal-cancer hazard, so capture is tested at the tool, not just at the wall.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction at the precision engineering firms clustered on Wonastow Road. Fine metalworking-fluid mist reaches deep into the lungs, so we prove each capture rate against its face-velocity figure.
Flour-dust control for Monmouth's bakeries and food producers. Flour and improver dust is a leading cause of occupational asthma, so hoppers, sieves and mixing bays get local capture that is checked on a schedule.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Wonastow Road and Singleton Court units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Monmouth 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 Coleg Gwent and Nevill Hall Hospital at Abergavenny, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Monmouth
We are out under Monmouth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics workshop in Monmouth had face velocity across its soldering-bench extract tips reading low, traced to a worn fan impeller. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each tip and tightened a loose joint, then changed a tired filter and re-checked. All points passed on re-test once the filter was changed, and we logged and reported the benchmark readings.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Monmouth 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 Wonastow Road 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 Monmouth line.
Where exposure is in question - a woodworking and joinery process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
On most Monmouth sites - the Wonastow Road 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 Monmouth 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 Monmouth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Singleton Court 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 woodworking and joinery bay, an engineering and machining 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 Monmouth 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. 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 Wonastow Road Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Wonastow Road 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.
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 Wonastow Road Industrial Estate or a smaller Monmouth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Monmouth, but a Wonastow Road Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Monnow Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
woodworking and joinery, engineering and machining, bakeries and food production, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and labs and fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Wonastow Road Industrial Estate and Singleton Court Business Park and across the wider Monmouthshire.
Local knowledge
Monmouth Castle gave the town its most famous son: Henry V, born here in 1386 and later victor at Agincourt. The Norman keep still stands above Agincourt Square, proof that this has been a working, defended settlement for the better part of a millennium. The trades sheltered behind those walls have changed, but the duty of care has not: on the Wonastow Road and Singleton Court estates we test and certify local extraction so today's workers breathe clean air.
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