Like all, the team at Mera Chemicals were left shocked and horrified as the Covid 19 pandemic swept the globe. We watched with alarm as supermarket shelves were stripped bare by panicked shoppers and the supply chain for basic hygiene products was almost decimated. It was obvious that the health and medical fraternity would soon face a similar crisis. As industrial chemists, we had the skills, expertise and capacity to be part of the solution.
With an overwhelming and critical need for hospital grade sanitiser we diverted our manufacturing capacity to meet that need. However, it wasn’t as simple as flicking a switch, changing a recipe and making hospital grade sanitiser as well as our usual products that keep the doors open of businesses across Australia. In order to comply with the TGA’s standards for hospital grade classification- and to be able to kill 99.9% of germs- we needed a product that would contain 80% of ethanol as a minimum. The ethanol required at the volume required isn’t easy to source. The Government were aware of this and prioritised the critical supply of ethanol for the purpose of manufacturing sanitiser for medical fields. We set to work transforming our manufacturing plant to safely and effectively get hospital grade sanitiser made, bottled and out the door to the essential services who so desperately need it to keep working with some of our country’s most vulnerable citizens.
We know a lot of distilleries have pitched in to create sanitiser for consumers, however few have been able to create a product with 80% ethanol to meet the high volume needed by the health sector- higher than any other time in history. After speaking with the Australian Medical Association about their requirements, we discovered that to support essential services- health care centres, medical clinics, aged care facilities and the like- our product needed to be nothing less than hospital grade and had to be manufactured on a massive scale to support Australian health and essential workers. Without the correct level of ethanol, people simply aren’t sufficiently protected.
Completely rejigging and restructuring a chemical manufacturing plant is no mean feat- our team have worked around the clock to meet the needs of our community in this shocking and unparalleled time. It’s been intense, to put it mildly, but we are proud to have played our part in helping keep health facilities open and health professionals safely working. At last count, we have supplied upwards of 80,000 litres of hospital grade sanitiser to medical clinics, aged care facilities, health care centres and police stations across Australia.
For more information about our hospital grade sanitiser, please contact us on on 03 9311 4244 or email us at info@merachemicals.com.au
Dr John Stavrakis
Owner, Founder & Lead Chemist
BSc(Hon), PhD (Organic Chemistry)