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Donations of H2O2 and ready-to-use hand sanitizers have been made by Solvay to help health care workers combat COVID-19
Brussels, April 7, 2020 – Over the past few weeks, Solvay's Peroxides unit has been able to make considerable donations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to more than 200 hospitals, pharmacies and companies in Belgium, enabling them to produce more than 150,000 liters of hand sanitizer from this contribution – a critical need by health professionals.
Solvay also donated hydrogen peroxide to the Belgian Civil Protection, who are now producing 15,000 liters per day for use by emergency services, such as police and firefighters.
Furthermore, Solvay's headquarters in Neder-Over-Hembeek received its own authorization to produce formulated hand sanitizers, a product not normally supplied directly by Solvay, in order to help during this exceptional period. So far, more than 4,000 liters of hand sanitizer have been produced by its laboratories and are being donated to local health facilities to alleviate the serious shortage currently faced by its workers.
“Solvay has been extremely responsive and reactive in answering our call for hydro-alcoholic solution when we were in desperate need," said Philippe Leroy, CEO of CHU Saint Pierre. "We could sense that they were willing to help out of pure solidarity.”
“We were able to set up a production hall on our Neder-Over-Hembeek site in record time to meet these urgent needs and the teams have been incredibly solution-oriented in doing so," explained Solvay's president of its Peroxides unit Georges Crauser. "We are still expanding our reach to hospitals and pharmacies all over the country, bearing in mind that we first aimed at the smaller, more exposed entities and then fulfill the needs of larger organizations.”
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are effective in preventing the spread of the virus, as the primary channel of transmission appears to be through contact between the hands and mouth. The WHO official formulation for hand sanitizer calls for a small amount of 3% H2O2 which is added for an initial biological decontamination. H2O2 is efficient in combating germs, including bacteria and viruses.
The unit's head of purchasing, Jérémie Cappellano, added: “We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our different partners Brenntag, Tereos, Univar Solutions, Arpadis and Corden Pharma for managing to deliver key raw materials such as Ethanol, Iso Propanol and Glycerin, to ensure our capacity to produce more hydro alcoholic solution.”
Solvay has undertaken similar donations in other parts of the world hit by the crisis where the Group is present. Donations of hydrogen peroxide were first made in February in China and were followed by donations to local communities and authorities in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, the U.S., Thailand and Vietnam.
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About SolvaySolvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 24,100 employees in 64 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet plan crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €10.2 billion in 2019. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels (SOLB) and Paris and in the United States, where its shares (SOLVY) are traded through a Level I ADR program. Learn more at www.solvay.com. |
