The company Nebula Biocides GmbH, which is a spin-off of the Leibniz Institute in Greifswald, Department of Plasma Research and Technology (INP), has developed and constructed a new type of disinfection system that allows up to 18 people to disinfect their hands simultaneously. The device could thus be used at railway stations, in schools, at airports and in hospitals if the company had a licence. However, means and procedures are not yet available because the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) has not been able to evaluate the hand disinfection device for over a year due to „limited capacities“, as one of the managing directors, Ansgar Schmidt-Bleke, reported to the medical journal. According to the Greiswalder researchers, the active substance could act within 30 seconds against bacterial spores and viruses, which are both persistent and resistant at the same time. However, the basis of the disinfectant is not alcohol. Therefore, the new agent is much cheaper and non-flammable as well as biodegradable. However, the ministries of the federal states have taken up the innovative idea of the scientists and are currently examining a rapid deployment in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The novel system has even already been awarded a prize in the Healthcare Industry 2020 ideas competition organised by the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Therefore, the managing directors Jörn Winter and the aforementioned Ansgar Schmidt-Bleke ask themselves why the fast-acting disinfectant has not yet been used in this form and why the evaluation process in the corona crisis takes so long when rapid action is required.
