Pontefract · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Pontefract workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Pontefract
Pontefract is a historic West Yorkshire market town of around 30,000 people whose name has stamped the world's liquorice for centuries - the Pontefract cake, a round black sweet pressed with the town's castle emblem since 1612 and still made here by Haribo, successor to the apothecary George Dunhill who first added sugar to medicinal liquorice in 1760.
Its working economy runs on engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units on the All Saints Industrial Estate off Baghill Lane and the Tanshelf Industrial Estate on Colonels Walk.
Wherever a Pontefract 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 All Saints Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Pontefract workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Pontefract and the wider West Yorkshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machines and lathes in the engineering shops on the All Saints and Tanshelf estates, capturing the fine mist at the tool before it reaches the operator.
Steam canopies and sugar-dust and starch-dust control in the confectionery and food plants that grew from Pontefract liquorice trade, the town Haribo still presses its Pontefract cakes in.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Pontefract cabinet shops, window makers 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 town's fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Pontefract 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 New College Pontefract and Pontefract General Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Pontefract
We are out under Pontefract's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The weld-fume arms at a small MOT garage in Pontefract were under-performing against benchmark, the culprit a slipping fan drive belt. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the exhaust extraction points, sorted a loose joint and re-checked each one. The LEV passed on re-test across the weld-fume arms, with the readings and a report left for the file. We timed the job for half-term while the workshop was quiet.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Pontefract 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 All Saints 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 Pontefract 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
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.
For the great majority of Pontefract sites, from the All Saints 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 Pontefract 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 Pontefract duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Tanshelf Industrial Estate 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.
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 All Saints 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 All Saints Industrial Estate and Tanshelf Industrial Estate and across the wider West Yorkshire.
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 All Saints Industrial Estate or a smaller Pontefract 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 Pontefract, but an All Saints Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Market Place canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the All Saints Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Pontefract university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around All Saints Industrial Estate and Tanshelf Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Yorkshire.
Local knowledge
Pontefract's working economy has long turned on making things, from the coalfield pits that once ringed the town - the Prince of Wales Colliery worked here until 2002 - to the engineering and confectionery plants on its industrial estates today. Firms working metal, wood and food on sites like the All Saints and Tanshelf estates all throw off mist, fume and dust that has to be captured at source. Every one of them carries a legal duty to control what its processes release. 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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