Swansea · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Swansea workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Swansea
Swansea is the second city of Wales, a city of around 238,000 that was once the world centre of copper smelting - Copperopolis.
The heavy work is metals and energy - the steel and metals corridor east of the city, the petrochemical and energy testing labs, the welding and fabrication shops, and the carbon and food manufacturers - across the Llansamlet enterprise park and the Fforestfach estates, with the university science labs alongside.
Wherever a Swansea 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 Llansamlet units down to the smallest Swansea workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Swansea employers and others across South Wales it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fume and grinding extraction across the steel and metals units, where heavy metal fume needs capture at source.
Vapour and fume-cupboard extraction on the petrochemical and energy testing lines, where volatile samples demand tight containment.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Fforestfach and enterprise-park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Dust and fume extraction on the carbon, graphite and materials lines, where fine particulate needs capture proven.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the food producers on the enterprise park, where organic dust is a health and a combustion risk.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Swansea University and Morriston Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Swansea
We are out under Swansea's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A petrochemical testing laboratory in Swansea had a fume-cupboard bypass grille blocked with cardboard - a technician had covered it to stop a draught - which shoved the face velocity up to 1.2 metres per second and set up turbulence inside the hood. We took the obstruction out, measured the face velocity at several sash heights and ran a smoke containment test. It passed once the cardboard was gone and the turbulence settled. The lab handles volatile refinery samples, so zero-ignition rules were enforced across the floor.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Swansea 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 Llansamlet 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 Swansea line.
Where exposure is in question - a steel and metals 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 Swansea sites - the Llansamlet 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 Swansea 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 Swansea duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Fforestfach 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 and metals bay, a petrochemical and energy bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Swansea, but a Llansamlet fabrication shop and a St Helen's Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Llansamlet or a smaller Swansea workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Swansea 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Llansamlet units, term-time access at the Swansea university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Llansamlet 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 Llansamlet production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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