Wellington · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wellington workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wellington
Wellington is a Somerset market town of around 14,000 people, set below the Blackdown Hills seven miles south-west of Taunton, and a place whose name travelled the world - Arthur Wellesley took his title from it in 1809, and the 175-foot Wellington Monument, the tallest three-sided obelisk anywhere, still stands on the hills above the town to mark his victory at Waterloo.
Its working economy runs on textile finishing, bed and personal-care manufacturing and the engineering trades, much of it grouped in the units at Chelston Business Park and the neighbouring Wellington Business Park close to junction 26 of the M5.
Wherever a Wellington 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 Chelston Business Park units down to the smallest Wellington workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Wellington and across Somerset it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops across Chelston Business Park, where the engineering and aerospace-supply firms grouped by junction 26 of the M5 cut metal to close tolerance.
Steam canopies, flour-dust control and process extraction in the bakeries, food units and drink producers around Wellington, where airborne dust and vapour are captured at source before they reach the lungs.
Fibre-dust and finishing-fume extraction in the town's cloth and bedding trades, from the surviving Fox Brothers flannel weaving at Tonedale to the Relyon bed works that has employed hundreds here since it turned from wool merchanting to mattress making.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Chelston Business Park and Wellington Business 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 Wellington bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Filling-line and solvent extraction and fume-cupboard face-velocity testing at the personal-care and aerosol plant that made the first commercial UK aerosols in Wellington, and at the laboratories serving the town, to the containment the work demands.
On the ground in Wellington
We are out under Wellington's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An independent school science lab in Wellington had capture velocity at the fume cupboard sitting below benchmark, with a filter well overdue for replacement. We carried out a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, visualising with smoke and checking the filter. Once a worn impeller was sorted all points passed on re-test, and the certificate and readings went over by email. We fitted the visit around morning service so technicians weren't disturbed.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Wellington 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 Chelston Business 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 Wellington line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and aerospace process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Wellington sites - the Chelston Business Park 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 Wellington 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 Wellington duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Wellington Business 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 precision engineering and aerospace 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.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Wellington 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Chelston Business Park and Wellington Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Somerset.
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 Wellington, but a Chelston Business Park fabrication shop and a Mantle 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 Chelston Business 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 Chelston Business Park or a smaller Wellington workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Chelston Business Park units, term-time access at the Wellington university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Wellington made the first commercial aerosols in Britain in 1950, and the personal-care and aerosol works on the edge of town still fills fragrances, body care and deodorants by the hundred thousand. That process instinct carries through the town's engineering shops and bed and cloth works too, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and solvent 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.
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