"haha, only serious" question: Can we use something like CFCs to break down the ozone?
Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
31–40 of 61 posts
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#32UV light is also pretty bad for humans, is it not? Sunburn, skin-cancer, and all that. I seem to recall a recent mistake where some UV disinfectant lights were used at an event, resulting in sunburns and eye problems for many attendees. The article does address this and is talking about a variety of techniques for UV light that has less exposure to people and doesn't result in immediate harm. But presumably this woul…
Well, if people are talking about COVID and similar diseases, the Sun is killing all the virus.
Also, disinfecting shoes and surfaces is mostly useless.
Anyway, good thing those lamps are expensive, because people will certainly do lots of stupid things with them.
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I suspect that subjecting people indoors to an amount of UV radiation comparable with a day outside might be OK And I suspect this is very incorrect. UV is beneficial at low quantities, but has serious negative impacts on human health at high quantities.[1] Your mention of using it in common areas (where individuals would only be for a few minutes a day) seems much more reasonable. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…
The far UV spectrum being talked about here is not the same as conventional UVC germicidal lamps, nor the same as UVA/B from the sun. UV is only dangerous because at UVC wavelengths it penetrates cell nucleii and damages DNA. The interesting thing about far UV though is that while it will still damage DNA, it can't penetrate regular cells - it's blocked by the cell membrane/proteins. But viral particles don't have a…
Personally I feel the use of the term "far uv" is very misleading because the 220 nm wavelength is within UVC, and not too far away from 254 nm germicidal UVC.
It is always helpful to consult a chart:
http://www.drb-mattech.co.uk/uv%20spectrum.html
So, from a public health/public education standpoint, I find it troubling that scientific research, which the article points out, is limited in this area. For decades, general advice has been that all UVC is dangerous to all life. We don't know below which wavelength does UVC no longer become harmful to animal (human) cells. Nor do we know if 220 nm wavelength light damage/weaken other materials. I'm not a chemist/engineer so I don't know if theoretical calculations can be made or if a massive scientific effort needs to be done to verify the impact of 220 nm UV light on lots of materials/life.
If there is an animal/human cell safety region, perhaps a rebranding or subdivision of UVC into a "UV-D" is better than calling this "far uv". This has the added benefit of the "D" meaning "Death to germs/viruses".
YouTuber Big Clive has had several videos on UVC lamps, I'd like to see someone get a 220 nm light into his hands to see if he smells like burnt meat. https://youtube.com/watch?v=1m0TQjBRcFo https://youtu.be/6DlfLthx89E?si=V4FD0DO4l09w2Wlr
Edit: maybe I am a bit alarmist, some comments did share additional information about products offering this technology... I still hold that the branding/messaging is a problem by lumping it all together
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#34"haha, only serious" question: Can we use something like CFCs to break down the ozone?
Ha, I love it. I imagine spraying those into the rooms would be even worse though. And if you do it in an HVAC system you might as well just do the UV there too, in which case the ozone would break down before it was an issue. (And in fact could even be beneficial killing pathogens itself.)
The main advantage of the near UV lights is that they can be inexpensively placed in locations that don't have good HVAC systems.
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#35If this will kill all bacteria and viruses, it would certainly also destroy the beneficial bacteria that forms our microbiome and that could have negative health effects in the long run. Has any research been done to check on this?
I could be mistaken but I think your micro biome mostly doesn’t depend on external input in the form of microbes.
Rather, you have microbes, and these depend on external input in the form of nutrients.
There are exceptions such as yogurt and sauerkraut etc. but those are kept in a fridge and would not be exposed to far uvc most of the time. It would be interesting to know how they are affected during meals.
Skin micro biome might be more affected. I could not find much information on this point.
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#36So because of some turn of events, I was enrolled in a privately owned school in Shenzhen, China, around the year of 2010, for a year.
In the primary school, all classes have UV lights to kill germs. So upon leaving the class, the last student would turn off the (normal) lights and turn on the UV lamps. In the morning they would ofc turn off the UV lamps and turn on the normal lighting.
I'm not gonna talk about efficacies or whether it causes harm, it might as well be placebos, but from what I know, it's kind of common to have.
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#37Because sterilizing lamp use UVC ( more than 250 nm ) that hare ionising radiation, they cause cancer in long / medium term and burn your eyes immediately. Recently I read about a party where "diversely intelligent people" used UVC sterilising lamps as light effect, with this result: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/msnbc/bored-ape-yacht-club-eye-b... This is not a scientific journal, anyway I read the article and it is m…
This is precisely what's addressed by the article though. It's talking about far UV, which based on evidence to date does not cause any damage to skin or eyes. The ozone issue certainly needs more study, but I don't see the justification for labelling this an unreliable source. It seems like an accurate overview to me.
This is not a scientific journal, anyway I read the article and it is mix of unrelated sources:
- a test on certain UVC wavelength radiation on *MOUSES*
- a study of UVC filters for eye safety
That to conclude that we should use UVC as anti-virus measure.
Has the journalist a degree in biology or medicine ? Are his conclusion supported by a serious medical study , with peer review ? * I don't think so, IMHO , is one that write stuff on Internet, so for someone he is a reliable source. OH PLEASE !!!
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#38I built some prototypes with far-UVC, ie UV but safe for human exposure (and pets!), as in the article. Specifically this one: https://www.care222.com At the end of the day it’s tutorial 1 in every arduino project, just replace the led with a far-UVC lamp. Unfortunately the price is extreme, so very hard to commercialize. I installed one in my entrance… I’m currently sterilizing my shoes :)
On the site "Care222modules use an excimer lamp in combination with a special optical band pass filter that blocks the ultraviolet wavelengths that could have a harmful effect on people. Care222 is the only Far UV-C product in the world with this key technology." why is this key technology so difficult? And why is the product so expensive?
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#39The problem is that when people start installing these but accidently brought fakes/cheap, you'd get sun burns and eye burns and won't know from where.
Re: Can ultraviolet lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
#40So because of some turn of events, I was enrolled in a privately owned school in Shenzhen, China, around the year of 2010, for a year. In the primary school, all classes have UV lights to kill germs. So upon leaving the class, the last student would turn off the (normal) lights and turn on the UV lamps. In the morning they would ofc turn off the UV lamps and turn on the normal lighting. I'm not gonna talk about effic…
That's very interesting, I've never heard of that.
Of course that couldn't do really anything about typical airbourne diseases, but it should help "clean" surfaces somewhat. I wonder if anyone has studied the effect of that.