Coronavirus Sparks New Interest In Using Ultraviolet Light To Disinfect Indoor Air
High up near the ceiling, in the dining room of his Seattle-area restaurant, Musa Firat recently installed a "killing zone" — a place where swaths of invisible electromagnetic energy penetrate the air, ready to disarm the novel coronavirus and other dangerous pathogens that drift upwards in tiny, airborne particles.
Firat's new system draws on a century-old technology of fending off infectious diseases: energetic waves of ultraviolet light, known as germicidal UV or GUV, are delivered in the right dose to wipe out viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms.
Research already shows that germicidal UV can effectively inactivate airborne microbes that transmit measles, tuberculosis and SARS-CoV-1, a close relative of the novel coronavirus.
Now, with concern mounting that the coronavirus may be easily transmitted through microscopic floating particles known as aerosols, some researchers and physicians hope the technology can be recruited yet again to help disinfect high-risk indoor settings.
"I thought it was a great idea and I want my customers to be safe," says Firat.
His restaurant, Marlaina's Mediterranean Kitchen, is a casual eatery 20 minutes south of downtown Seattle.
As the U.S. grapples with how to interrupt the spread of the highly infectious virus, UV is currently being used to decontaminate surfaces on public transit and in hospitals where infectious droplets may have landed, as well as to disinfect N-95 masks for reuse. But so far, using this technology to provide continuous air disinfection has remained outside of most mainstream, policy-setting conversations about the coronavirus.
Experts attribute this to a combination of factors: misconceptions about UV's
