Ossett · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ossett workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ossett
Ossett is a market town of around 22,000 people in the Wakefield district of West Yorkshire, set on the ridge between Wakefield and Dewsbury, its skyline crowned by the 226-foot spire of Holy Trinity Church that has marked the town since 1865. It grew rich on a trade few places anywhere could match - the shoddy and mungo mills that made Ossett a world centre for turning old wool rags back into new cloth.
Its working economy still runs on engineering, fabrication and food and drink, much of it grouped in the industrial units off Owl Lane and Kingsway and in the converted mills at Healey New Mills.
Each of those Ossett 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 Owl Lane units to the one-bench Ossett workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Ossett employers and others across West Yorkshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Coolant-mist and oil-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, from Hartwell Manufacturing's Ossett works, machining and fabricating from an 80,000 square foot base since 1974, to the smaller precision shops around Owl Lane.
Steam canopies, CO2 control and flour-dust capture in Ossett's bakeries and at the town's real-ale breweries, including Ossett Brewery at Healey, whose fermenting and bottling halls carry the same ventilation duty as any production floor.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Ossett cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the tool before it can reach the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Owl Lane and Healey New Mills units, where firms like Spurr Fabrications, Ossett Fabrications and TH Fabrications cut and weld structural steel. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ossett 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 science rooms of the town academies and the local technical and testing labs, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ossett
We are out under Ossett's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The press-side extraction at an Ossett print shop was under-performing against the benchmark, with a leaking flexible connection to blame. I carried out a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, smoke visualisation and a filter check. Capture came back inside the benchmark once the slipping belt was put right, and I logged and reported the readings. Photos and a hygiene certificate went into their compliance records.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On an Ossett 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 Owl Lane 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 an Ossett line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and machining 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 Ossett sites - the Owl Lane 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 Ossett 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 Ossett duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Healey New Mills 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 machining 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 Owl Lane units, term-time access at the Ossett 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 an Owl Lane production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 an Owl Lane unit will ask to see.
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 Owl Lane or a smaller Ossett workshop needs for their COSHH file.
precision engineering and machining, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Owl Lane and Healey New Mills and across the wider West Yorkshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Ossett 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
Ossett's fortune was built on the rag machine - the toothed 'devils' and grinding engines that Heavy Woollen towns used to tear old wool coats and clippings back into loose fibre for respinning. The air those machines threw off was so thick that workers spoke of shoddy fever, a warning of what unchecked dust does to the lungs. That engineering instinct still runs through the town's machine shops and fabrication works around Owl Lane and Healey New Mills, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work produces. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard the regulations set, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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