Rhyl · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Rhyl workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Rhyl
Rhyl sits on the North Wales coast at the mouth of the River Clwyd, a town of around 25,000 people that grew from an obscure fishing village into one of the most fashionable watering places in Britain. When the Chester and Holyhead Railway reached it in 1848 the crowds followed, and by 1895 the Marine Lake had opened as the only saltwater lake in Wales, the centrepiece of a classic working-class seaside resort for Merseyside and the North West.
Behind the promenade its working economy runs on precision engineering, food and drink and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park at Kinmel Bay and the Marsh Road Industrial Estate close to the harbour.
Wherever a Rhyl 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 Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park units down to the smallest Rhyl 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 Rhyl and the wider Denbighshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and grinding shops, from precision engineers like Avva Precision and Merlin Abrasives at Tir Llwyd to the light-manufacturing units along Marsh Road.
Steam canopies and dust control in the town's bakeries and at food producers such as PlantEx at Tir Llwyd, where natural colours, flavours and extracts are milled and processed.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Rhyl cabinet shops 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 Tir Llwyd and Marsh Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Rhyl 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 engineering and science workshops at Coleg Llandrillo Rhyl campus and the outpatient facilities at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Rhyl
We are out under Rhyl's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A busy Rhyl blacksmith's forge had capture velocity at some bench hoods dropping below benchmark, with a slipping fan drive belt behind it. We logged benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and cleared the blocked filter. One point failed initially on the slipping belt and passed after remedial work, and we produced a compliance report for the HSE file. The visit ran on a Sunday while the workshop was closed.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Rhyl system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Tir Llwyd Enterprise 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 Rhyl 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
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 Rhyl sites - the Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park 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 Rhyl 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 Rhyl duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Marsh Road 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.
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 Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park and Marsh Road Industrial Estate and across the wider Denbighshire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park and Marsh Road Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Denbighshire.
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 Rhyl, but a Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park fabrication shop and a Bodfor Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Tir Llwyd Enterprise 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 Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park or a smaller Rhyl workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Tir Llwyd Enterprise Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Local knowledge
The Chester and Holyhead Railway reached Rhyl in 1848, and Robert Stephenson's coastal line turned an obscure fishing hamlet into one of Britain's busiest resorts within a generation. The engineering trade that grew up behind the seafront now works out of the units at Tir Llwyd and Marsh Road, where precision shops like Merlin Abrasives and Avva Precision cut and grind to fine tolerances. Every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.