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COVID-19: ANECPLA creates council of experts

27/03/2020

Spanish association ANECPLA has created a Council of Experts to advise on the fight against coronavirus/

The Council is made up of experts from the environmental health sector and will offer advice and good practices to disinfect all types of public spaces.

This initiative is the latest addition of ANECPLA's protocol for fighting coronavirus that has been launched in recent weeks.

The council's aim is to offer support and advice to public authorities, as well as social actors who need it (from organisations to private institutions). This Council will provide answers and solutions to questions and queries related to the disinfection of surfaces as one of the essential actions to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 among citizens. 

The idea, explains Sergio Monge, president of ANECPLA, "is to disseminate the best procedures and requirements that need to be met by professionals when disinfecting surfaces in contact with COVID-19". Now more than ever, these disinfection tasks are essential, but to be truly effective, they must be carried out professionally and thoroughly, as Monge recalls that "the virus can remain active for up to several days on certain surfaces".  

In the same vein, Monge also points out that many member companies have already started to work and have begun to operate in the so-called COVID-19 "hot spots", such as hospitals, old people's homes or supermarkets. Director General of ANECPLA, Milagros Fernández de Lezeta, said "This is a fundamental task that acts as an essential firewall to stop the escalation of COVID-19 infections. Without it, this crisis would risk falling into a cycle that lasts longer than expected" 

The Council of Experts is made up of professional technicians from environmental health companies, laboratory managers, specialists in occupational risk prevention, waste management, and more. "At this time, when there is an urgent need to limit the spread of the virus in Spain and beyond, we are providing the means and resources to the communities that need it most", explains the president of ANECPLA, "we want to make the experience and knowledge of our professionals and collaborators available to those organisations that require. This ranges from technical consultations to advice on procedures for action, and anything else that they need".

"The many ways in which COVID-19 can spread are currently still being researched" points out Fernández de Lezeta, "however there are certain precautions that today are of the utmost importance to take. The environmental health sector is key to avoiding problems related to disinfection and management of harmful organisms, which pose a threat to other industries, such as the food industry and the health sector". He recalls that in the past, the sector was a key partner for national authorities during epidemics such as Ebola. "We are aware of the serious role we have to play in this crisis and we would be happy to offer our help and put our experience at the service of any institution that needs it for the protection of the health of Spanish citizens", says Sergio Monge.

The initiative to create this Council of Experts in the face of the current health crisis is in addition to the protocol for action against COVID-19 recently launched by ANECPLA. This is an overview document aimed at guaranteeing the correct execution of disinfection work and ensuring that all workers involved in these tasks take extreme precautions by using the relevant personal protection equipment and taking appropriate measures. The protocol can be downloaded from the ANECPLA website and is constantly reviewed in light of developments and new information that becomes available. 

Last but not least, ANECPLA would like to underline their gratitude for the enormous work that, beyond environmental health professionals, is also being done by sectors such as health, security, transport or the food industry, and many more. "Each and every one of them deserves to be highlighted, both individually and collectively. ANECPLA is deeply grateful to each and every one of them", concludes Monge. 

Read the original article (Spanish) here.

 

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