New ultraviolet light can kill Covid virus, is variant proof

Hyderabad: A new ultraviolet light, known as Far-UVC, has been found to be potent enough to tackle all kinds of Covid variants and kill the virus itself. It also makes indoor air safe. Far-UVC made it safe for people in less than five minutes by reducing the level of indoor airborne microbes by more than […]

Hyderabad: A new ultraviolet light, known as Far-UVC, has been found to be potent enough to tackle all kinds of Covid variants and kill the virus itself. It also makes indoor air safe.

Far-UVC made it safe for people in less than five minutes by reducing the level of indoor airborne microbes by more than 98 percent, a joint study by scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and in the UK found. Even as microbes continued to be sprayed into the room, the level remained very low as long as the lights were on.

According to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, far-UVC light from lamps installed in the ceiling could be a highly effective passive technology for reducing person-to-person transmission of airborne-mediated diseases such as COVID and influenza indoors, and lowering the risk of the next pandemic.

“Far-UVC rapidly reduces the amount of active microbes in the indoor air to almost zero, making indoor air essentially as safe as outdoor air,” says David Brenner, PhD, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and co-author of the study. “Using this technology in locations where people gather together indoors could prevent the next potential pandemic.”

Variant-proof
“Previous studies have shown that far-UVC light can kill the COVID virus, other human coronaviruses, influenza, and drug-resistant bacteria,” Brenner says. “What’s particularly attractive about far-UVC technology as a practical method of preventing indoor disease transmission is that it will be equally good at inactivating all future COVID variants, as well as new infectious viruses that have yet to emerge, while retaining efficacy against ‘old fashioned’ viruses like influenza and measles.”

Finally, because of the way ultraviolet light kills microbes, viruses and bacteria cannot develop resistance as they do with vaccines and drug treatments, it says.

“Far-UVC light is simple to install, it’s inexpensive, it doesn’t need people to change their behavior, and evidence from multiple studies suggests it may be a safe way to prevent the transmission of any virus, including the COVID virus and its variants, as well as influenza and also any potential future pandemic viruses,” Brenner says.

What is far-UVC light?
Far-UVC light has a shorter wavelength than conventional germicidal UVC, so it can’t penetrate into living human skin cells or eye cells. But it is equally efficient at killing bacteria and viruses, which are much smaller than human cells. Many studies, done in small experimental chambers, have shown that far-UVC is efficient at destroying airborne bacteria and viruses without causing damage to living tissue. The new study shows far-UVC is highly effective in real room environment.

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