PPS Wins Major Slice of £56m Fire & Rescue Service Programme

A significant part of a £56m contract placed by the fire and rescue service for England and Wales for the supply of public decontamination response technology has been awarded to Professional Protection Systems. PPS will be responsible for supplying some 160 mass decontamination units to key locations throughout England and Wales, putting a 10 year total care package alongside them.

The contract includes the supply of accessories with the units, service and maintenance . According to PPS MD Mark Whitcher this is one of the most comprehensive and best thought out programmes of its kind that he has encountered anywhere in the world.

Whitcher should know as his company exports to 38 countries with a real spectrum of customers –from the Pittsburgh children’s hospital to the Japanese Defence Forces. In December 2001 the company won a major NHS contract to equip hospitals and ambulance services with the UK’s first standard decontamination shower based on PPS’s own core decontamination product, an inflatable shower unit.

The mass decontamination units being supplied by PPS under the new contract represent a radical departure from the inflatable concept in order to accommodate fire and rescue service requirement for a decontamination facility which can treat large numbers of casualties at speed. . They are mechanical and work on a patented articulating frame technology sourced by PPS in the USA. They can be made ready for action within five to 15 minutes and are so designed as to remain absolutely stable even in wind conditions of 50 mph

Each structure is capable of handling 200 ambulant casualties per hour. Operation is in three stages. Undress is followed by shower, wash and rinse followed by drying and dressing. These new PPS units have many other features including lighting, warm air heating, hot water supply , contaminant containment systems and the capacity to provide separate male and female facilities.

To avert the build up of gas or vapours a continuous flow of thermostatically controlled air is moved through the unit. All floor services have an anti-slip finish and are manufactured from recycled plastics materials. These inhibit contaminant growth and development and can easily be cleaned.

The first units have already been strategically deployed around the country. Full deployment will follow during the remainder of the year.

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