Ultraviolet light can destroy microscopic organisms such as bacteria and viruses by destroying the molecular bonds of their genetic material. But UV light also damages human DNA, causing damage to the eyes and skin and increasing our risk of cancer. As it turns out, there is a loophole: the specific wavelength of UV light that is safe for people but also capable of killing coronaviruses, both on the surface and in the air.
Since the epidemic started, you’ve probably spent a lot of time on sites like Amazon, which means you’ve probably seen numerous advertisements for devices that promise to disinfect your home using ultraviolet light – especially short-range UVCs. UV wavelength (it is a light wavelength between 200 and 280 nanometers). Thanks to the Earth’s atmosphere preventing UVC from reaching us, we still have to worry about long-wavelength UV light, which can damage our skin and eyes. Disinfection using UVC light works: It has been used for decades by hospitals and medical facilities to clean personal protective gear, tools, equipment, rooms and water. Depending on how it is deployed, UVC can be particularly good at penetrating small nooks and cranes, which are otherwise very difficult to sanitize.
However, there are some issues with using UVC lights for disinfection. You need a certain intensity to kill germs quickly. As low-powered devices are sold to consumers, you’ll need to leave the smartphone locked like a smartphone inside the glowing inside for longer to be effectively sanitized – and assume it’s properly exposed to UVC lights at all. Sides. The second point is a little more about this: 254-nanometer wavelength UVC light is thought to be carcinogenic, causing DNA changes in our skin and eyes. Hospitals take extreme measures to use it safely, where the average consumer would no doubt.
As a result, experts such as Jim Imley, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire and the founding president of the International Ultraviolet Association. Recommend social distance instead, To minimize exposure to covid-1, proper hand washing, masks and disinfectant wipes. Two recent studies, one conducted at the Scientific College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center and the other at the University of Hiroshima in Japan, found that a very specific wavelength of UVC light n 222 nanometers cannot penetrate the tear layer of the eye. Or from the dead-cell layer of the skin, preventing it from reaching and damaging living cells in the human body.
G / O media can get commission
This Columbia University study, Published in June 2020, found that even low exposure to 222-nanometer UVC light is capable of defeating two common coronaviruses (which cause seasonal colds) that were aerosolised. 90% of airborne coronaviruses were exposed to this distant UVC light for about eight minutes; It took about 25 minutes to kill 99.9% of the virus. Last week, Another study Hiroshima University confirmed that far-UVC light was effective in killing SARS-CV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19), although tests were performed in a more controlled setting. The researchers exposed the viral culture on a polystyrene plate to a distance of 24 cm in a far-UVC lamp, which killed 99.7% of the virus in just 30 seconds.
Despite the success tests, the Japanese research team believes that further studies on far-UVC light using real-world surfaces and environments are needed before it can be adopted as an effective tool for disinfection. Still, it’s an exciting invention, as far-away UVC lights can theoretically be placed safely in public places even when people are present. If failures (e.g. loc loc mechanisms) are no longer needed, it will make UVC sterilization devices targeted to consumers safer and cheaper to manufacture.
.
