PALM's ANNOUNCEMENT - Personal Protective Equipment during a coronavirus epidemic for lift technicians and installers.
The functioning of the health care facilities, including infectious hospitals selected to receive coronavirus patients, depends on the smooth operation of the lift industry. In Poland, there are over 150,000 passenger lifts and vertical platforms currently in operation, which, according to regulations, must be maintained in 30-day cycles. This legal obligation related to the safety of citizens is carried out by lift companies. New devices are also being installed.
For enterprises from the lift industry to be able to safely carry out their tasks, employees of these enterprises must be equipped with Personal Protective Equipment (hereinafter PPE).
Depending on the severity of the infection with PPE coronavirus, they must include the products listed in § 4.1 of the Regulation of the Minister of Health of March 13, 2020 on the announcement of an epidemic emergency in the Republic of Poland (Journal of Laws 2020 item 433), in particular: safety goggles, TYVEK coveralls, FFP2 / FFP3 masks, surgical masks, shoe protectors, latex gloves, nitrile gloves and disinfectants hands, surfaces and rooms.
The above PPE is currently not available on the market, which is why we are appealing to the Minister of Health for the grant of some funds allocated to hospitals for health protection and safety of technicians of handling equipment at these facilities.
This can also be accomplished by the Minister of Health giving an order to the hospitals to provide the PPE to technicians who come to the facility for cyclical maintenance of handling equipment.
Such measures were taken in China and only in this way was the continuity and safety of handling equipment ensured at these facilities.
Examples of lift maintenance equipment in China are shown in the pictures below.
Technicians should also be briefly trained on site to use PPE.
The maintenance of passenger lifts in multi-family residential buildings at the resources of housing cooperatives and housing associations is a separate issue.
We believe that it should be imposed on the managers and administrators of these properties that they daily disinfect lift cabins, landing doors and lift call panels. The disinfection must be confirmed by appropriate entries in the files, as is the case in the toilets of a number of institutions or shopping malls.
We propose the publication by the Minister of Health of simple, legible graphics:
- How to prevent the virus from spreading in the elevator, e.g. cleaning buttons, handrails.
- What not to do, e.g. full filling of the elevator cabin with people.
PALM applied to the Minister of Health regarding Personal Protective Equipment - the full text of the letter to the Minister of Health can be read on our website stowdzwig.pl