In early March 2020, Bulgaria registered its first Covid-19 cases. Almost immediately, personal protection disinfectants became scarce. At the same time, the Bulgarian government announced strict protection measures, including regular disinfection of surfaces, for organizations that continued to operate.
As Bulgaria depended mainly on China for the supply of disinfectants and protective equipment, prices were up to 20 times higher than usual and the delivery of goods could take more than 45 days. Organizations that continued to operate faced the challenge of protecting their employees and following their governments’ guidelines. Zlatna Panega, Titan’s cement plant in Bulgaria, faced this situation too.
Our team in Zlatna Panega wanted to keep up the production of cement while abiding by the official measures, keeping our employees, contractors and visitors safe and protected. Therefore, a team, consisting of two chemical engineers, one employee from the health and safety department and one employee from procurement, took the initiative and proposed producing a disinfectant in the plant’s laboratory. After some research to evaluate the idea and two days to gather the ingredients, the chemical engineers, following the recipe of the World Health Organization, started producing the disinfectant. The disinfectant was distributed to all employees and to all contractors in the plant and around the locations of our operations to keep everyone safe.
