Alcohol locks are causing concern among bus drivers

Bus drivers are more than four times more likely than other professions in Sweden to suffer from corona. It is also one of the groups with the most infections. And among bus drivers that SVT spoke to, there is a growing concern that the alcolocks required to be able to start the bus can be a source of infection. The bus driver uses a nozzle and blows out air into the measuring device, the same measuring device that his colleagues before and after him blow out into.

- A lot of people are worried. The younger ones may not care, but very many older people who have diabetes, are overweight or otherwise feel that covid can hit them harder and they would be happy if they could turn off the alcolock during the pandemic, says Robert Alf, bus driver in Stockholm.

Despite the concerns, no measures have been taken in Sweden to pause the requirement for alcolocks in bus traffic in the country. Elsewhere, a different assessment has been made. In Norway, for example, the government decided immediately at the beginning of the pandemic to remove the alcohol lock requirement, and this is something that continues to apply in Norway.

In Sweden, the responsibility for limiting the risk of infection lies with the employer.

- We have had a close dialogue with the manufacturer. If you use a personal nozzle and follow the instructions, they are safe, says Karin Nilsson Malmén, who is communications director at Keolis, employer for bus drivers in Stockholm.

In contact with the manufacturer Alcolock, which manufactures alcolocks for buses in Stockholm, they write in an email reply that it is important to have a personal nozzle. The same information is available on the website, but the parent company's website in Canada states that you should not exchange alcolocks with others unless absolutely necessary. Furthermore, it says that you should throw away your personal mouthpiece after each use. That you should throw the nozzle after each use is not something that appears in Sweden.

- We have received a description from the manufacturer and then we have tested it with the Public Health Agency. We have been super strict in following what the Swedish Public Health Agency says, says Karin Nilsson Malmén.

But the Public Health Agency writes in an email response that they have not given any recommendations regarding alcolocks, and that the risk assessment lies with the employer.

Robert Alf believes that many do not feel secure that it is completely safe, and that there is uncertainty about how safe it really is. He himself has been healthy throughout this pandemic. But he thinks it may be due to something completely different.

- My grandfather was the only one of his brothers who survived the Spanish flu. So who knows, I may have got his genes, says Robert Alf.