Germicidal UV could make airborne diseases as rare as those carried by water

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 9:57 PM UTC

metalman wrote: post #42

mahrain wrote: post #6

I have worked on such systems at Signify: There are numerous barriers to wider adoption except for very high risk situations. For instance: there have yet to be lawsuits to determine the risk of exposing people to UV. As you see in the comments below, any "UV" is considered dangerous by people not aware of the biological effects of various wavelenghts. Besides this, excimer lamps have a low expected lifetime, of both…

there are much simpler and more reliable ways to significantly reduce indoor air contaminents. one is a building method that produces a "floating" slab floor, that has a small gap around most of the walls, and the underfloor space is vented upwards with a chimney, this creates a small but continious air current that removes most dust and other things in the air. And then the simple expedient of useing radiant heat so…

Post by hvac_newb » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 11:17 PM UTC

metalman wrote: post #42

mahrain wrote: post #6

I have worked on such systems at Signify: There are numerous barriers to wider adoption except for very high risk situations. For instance: there have yet to be lawsuits to determine the risk of exposing people to UV. As you see in the comments below, any "UV" is considered dangerous by people not aware of the biological effects of various wavelenghts. Besides this, excimer lamps have a low expected lifetime, of both…

there are much simpler and more reliable ways to significantly reduce indoor air contaminents. one is a building method that produces a "floating" slab floor, that has a small gap around most of the walls, and the underfloor space is vented upwards with a chimney, this creates a small but continious air current that removes most dust and other things in the air. And then the simple expedient of useing radiant heat so…

Post by DennisP » Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 11:44 PM UTC

wkat4242 wrote: post #64

DennisP wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a quick search, they are not millionaire-level expensive. Here for example is a 20W 222nm lamp that costs $436, with a lifetime of several thousand hours. https://uv-can.com/products/gerani-far-uv-light?srsltid=AfmB...

Several thousand hours is not a lot. A year is already 8760 hours.

Post by pazimzadeh » Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 10:06 AM UTC

bschwarz wrote: post #43

pazimzadeh wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

too much UV all at once, you mean. melanoma is not common and face and arms - the regions which receive the most sunlight a moderate amount of UV stimulates vitamin D production, suppresses inflammation, and turns on DNA repair pathways

This moderate amount of UV is enough to accelerate skin aging which is why we wear sunscreen.

  In this paper we review the current state of the science on this subject and conclude that vitamin D supplements are not an adequate substitute for sun exposure for attenuation of most of these diseases and adverse health effects, particularly hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and should not be recommended in lieu of sun exposure to patients presenting with low levels of serum 25(OH)D. Vitamin D supplementation for such patients could even be harmful, because it will raise patients’ serum 25(OH)D levels, thereby giving patients a false sense of security and obscuring the best available metric for insufficient sun exposure.

Post by bondarchuk » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 10:12 AM UTC

rocqua wrote: post #41

bondarchuk wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it would be a problem for the microbiome [1] but I would worry about the immune system. Would being inside in sterilized air all the time mean you can't go outside or into a forest without getting really sick? [1] but who am I, it would still be worthwhile to check obviously

The underlying thought is that outside air (such as a forest) gets UV sterilized by the sun. So this would bring inside air up to the sterilization level of outside air.