Wakefield · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wakefield workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wakefield
Wakefield is a West Yorkshire cathedral city, the heart of a district of around 353,000, at the centre of the Rhubarb Triangle and the M1 and M62 logistics belt.
The work is logistics and manufacturing - the rail-connected distribution of the motorway belt, the food and drink manufacturing, and the engineering and metalworking of the old coalfield - across the Calder Park and Normanton estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Wakefield 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 Calder Park units to the one-bench Wakefield workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Wakefield and across West Yorkshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the rail-connected distribution parks of the M1 and M62 belt, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic and sugar dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and metalworking units, a trade rooted in the district coalfield, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Calder Park and Normanton units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Wakefield 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 Wakefield College and Pinderfields Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Wakefield
We are out under Wakefield's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A rail-connected distribution park in Wakefield had a battery-charging bay with the overhead hydrogen-vent extraction running weak because a flexible connector had pulled off the trunking above the racks. We reconnected the ducting, ran a smoke test over the charging shelves and measured the extract rate at the roof. It failed on the disconnected run and passed once resealed, the vent flow back above the design figure. The bay ran a large fleet of automated pallet trucks, so we cordoned the aisle and worked to the site traffic plan.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Wakefield 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 Calder 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 Wakefield line.
Where exposure is in question - a logistics and distribution process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
On most Wakefield sites - the Calder 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Normanton 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 logistics and distribution bay, a food and drink manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Logistics and distribution, food and drink manufacturing, engineering and metalworking, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Calder Park and Normanton Industrial Estate and across the wider West Yorkshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Wakefield 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.
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 Calder 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Calder Park and Normanton Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Yorkshire.
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 Wakefield, but a Calder Park fabrication shop and a Westgate 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 Calder Park or a smaller Wakefield workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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