Could a new type of ultraviolet lamps be used in stations, airplanes and schools to kill dangerous viruses, becoming a gamechanger in the COVID-19 fight?
This photo taken on March 26, 2020 by Columbia University researcher Manuela Buonanno shows an experiment being conducted on the use of a special kind of ultraviolet rays against the coronavirus.
But UVC rays are dangerous, causing skin cancer and eye problems, and can be used only when no one is present. At those frequencies, he explained, the rays cannot penetrate the surface of the skin nor of the eye. He appeared to be inspired by federal research on the effects of natural light on the virus — but natural light has no UVC rays.
The team next plans to test the lamps on viruses suspended in the air, as when an infected person coughs or sneezes.For 40 weeks now, the lab has exposed mice to far-UVC rays for “eight hours a day, five days a week, at intensities 20 times higher than we might think of using with humans.”After testing the rodents’ eyes and skin, “we have found absolutely nothing; the mice are very happy — and very cute as well,” Brenner said.
“We felt for a long time this is a great application for this technology,” said John Yerger, the CEO of Eden Park Illumination, a small producer based in Champaign, Illinois.And the US Food and Drug Administration has relaxed its regulation of tools or agents that can be used for disinfection, encouraging manufacturers to find a solution.
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