Port Talbot · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Port Talbot workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Port Talbot
Port Talbot is a heavy-industry town of around 31,550 on the east side of Swansea Bay in South Wales, home to the largest steelworks in Britain and a deep-water tidal harbour handling ore carriers.
The signature trade is steel - the steel rolling and coating of the works, the heavy engineering and fabrication supply chain, and the chemicals and energy of the Baglan corridor - across the Baglan Energy Park and Baglan Industrial Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Port Talbot 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 Baglan Energy Park plant to the single-bench Port Talbot 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 Port Talbot employers and others across South Wales it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Acid-mist, oil-mist and weld-fume extraction across the hot and cold rolling mills, the pickling lines and the coating and galvanising bays of the steelworks, the defining trade of the town, where acid pickle and hot coating throw off mist and fume that need capture at source.
Weld-fume, grinding-dust and cutting-fume extraction across the fabrication and plant-maintenance shops of the steel supply chain, where metal fume and dust need capture proven.
Process-vapour, solvent-vapour and dust extraction across the chemical and energy units of the Baglan corridor, where process fume needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Baglan Energy Park and Baglan Industrial Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Port Talbot 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 Neath Port Talbot College and Neath Port Talbot Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Port Talbot
We are out under Port Talbot's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A steel rolling-and-coating line in Port Talbot had an acid-mist and oil-mist extraction over a pickling-and-galvanising bay pulling weak, letting mist drift off the strip. We measured the capture along the line and checked the mist-collector and ducting for losses. It failed on the low capture and the mist breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The line ran acid pickle and hot coating, so the mist and vapour monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Port Talbot 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 Baglan Energy Park 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 Port Talbot line.
Where exposure is in question - a steel rolling and coating 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.
For most Port Talbot sites - from the Baglan Energy Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Port Talbot 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 Port Talbot duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Baglan Industrial 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 steel rolling and coating bay, a heavy engineering and fabrication bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Baglan Energy Park and Baglan Industrial Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider South Wales.
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 Baglan Energy Park 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 a Baglan Energy Park 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 Baglan Energy Park or a smaller Port Talbot workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Steel rolling and coating, heavy engineering and fabrication, chemicals and energy, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Baglan Energy Park and Baglan Industrial Park 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 Port Talbot, but a Baglan Energy Park fabrication shop and a Station Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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