Ultraviolet light can kill almost all the viruses in a room. Why isn’t it everywhere?::Can special lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?
cuz it literally burns your eye holes
Might be a good idea though if you could pair it with timers/sensors so that it only turns on when people aren’t home or something.
Like a 1 hour disinfection every day while people are at work/school.
Don’t most virus just becomes useless on most surfaces after so long anyway?
I’m going to shill for LifX here and not get paid for it. I swear.
They already made smart bulbs that you can set a “cleaning schedule” on that uses UV light.
I don’t have any yet because LifX is expensive. I have 11 of their multicolor bulbs throughout the house, though. Bought those back when I had bachelor guy money.
I look at this the same way I look at problems I’m trying to solve at work: is this already an issue causing massive problems with how we go about our day to day operations, or is this something that might have some kind of improvement.
It’s a resource allocation issue. Sure, I can add some bulbs that kill some bacteria and viruses. But how expensive are there bulbs, and how much are we having to deal with the fallout from when someone gets sick? In the grand scheme of things, would spending ~$1,000 on light bulbs to make sure my kid doesn’t get sick (but not when in range of the bulbs…) be more beneficial than just putting that $1000 into their college savings account and learning how to deal with missing a couple days of class when the inevitable happens (which the bulb can’t protect you from anyways - you’ll get sick from other people no matter how many lights you have at home).
That thing looks terrible. t’s wifi controlled and you’re supposed to install an app to use it. And it doesn’t say anything about the UV wavelength or power (HEV=high energy visible light so I guess 9000K can be translated to wavelength). There is a pdf test report about its efficacy against a few bacteria species but nothing about aerosol viruses. I’ll pass.
Better idea, they turn off if you look at them and then when you look away they turn back on. Simple
I’ve got my house kitted out with quite a bit of intelligence. I’ve spent a lot of time and money getting it working right, and it still has issues with human presence among other things.
I would absolutely not trust any automated system with something like this. It’s like buying tools from harbor freight: anything that makes your life easier is fine but never buy something from harbor freight that you have to entrust your life to. Similarly, never trust an automation that has the potential to end your life.
Without bothering to read the article, I look forward to sunburning my retinas like im at a crypto rave.
To be fair, nobody complained about getting COVID from that event.
The article does mention the issue of safety and how to address it actually
Joke aside, looks like they’re using a higher bandwidth of light, 222nm compared to more common 254nm uv for medical uses. It doesn’t penetrate the skin or eyes sufficiently to cause damage.
But will it activate my transitions lenses so I look like a cool guy wearing sunglasses indoors?
And bleaching all materials in the room. And slowly destroying anything made of paper or plastic or wood.
What if, and hear me out,
What if…
What if… we just ran them when people weren’t in the room? 🤯
Crazy what happens when you can come up with your own thoughts instead of parroting reddit comments ad nauseam.
What if… we just ran them when people weren’t in the room?
This is already a thing in many hospitals, and has been used extensively even before covid.
And there are also UV systems that can be added to air ducts to kill off airborne pathogens as well. But they’re not cheap and not commonly used outside of medical facilities.
Lemmy users don’t respond well to reasonable criticism or facts.
Only toxic and stupid comments allowed.
UV light is regularly used on HVAC systems and water purification systems.
There are systems used in hospitals that are automated which will roll into an empty room and then turn on to disinfect the room. They are usually used in hospitals but I’ve seen them used in places like China during their zero covid crackdown on public transportation.
Some transit systems in China even converted a paint booths to disinfect with UV so they could drive buses through. All of which is probably overkill as prolonged exposure to sunlight will do the same thing.
Exposure to UV light that is intense enough to kill viruses within seconds is very bad for humans. I pulled the cover off a system I was taking marketing pictures for while it was turned on. Within a thirty to sixty seconds I could feel like I was getting a sunburn on my arm that was closest to the light. I wouldn’t want to risk a direct UV system turning on while someone is sleeping and burning them. As a result most systems are indirect and rely on a combination of UV and HEPA filters to disinfect airborne viruses.
There are other ways to disinfect surfaces. Bleach or chlorine is cheap, simple and won’t harm humans. Chlorine gas can be used to kill really bad viruses like anthrax. Chlorine gas was used to disinfect the Federal buildings that had been contaminated in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Many detail shops, rental car agencies and public transit systems in the US use Chlorine gas on vehicles to disinfect or more commonly remove nasty odors from vehicles. The gas can seep into all cracks/crevices and get into the HVAC system ductwork in ways UV light can not. If you ever get into a car that faintly smells like a pool, chances are it has been gassed recently to kill an odor.
I worked for a company that made a UVC light system for sterilization. The amount of safety you have to build in so people wont nuke themselves makes them hard to use.Also, the bulbs we used were delicate and had issues constantly.
This thing kills all living things so why don’t we bathe ourselves in it?
I chugged cleaning chemicals. Now my insides are dirt free.
Is UV light the best thing since fermenting alcohol?
“X can kill gems! Why don’t we use X everywhere?”
X: Thing that can kill humans too. And/or cause cancer.
See also:
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Fire
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chlorine gas
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dehydration
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Boiling water
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Radiation
But what if we just inject the bleach? Or what if we just shine the light on the inside?
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This is the dumbest shit. It kills all kinds of stuff, not just bad viruses. Homes are covered in bacteria which you’ve adapted to and are helpful. Kind of like gut bacteria, but outside your body. Killing all of them isn’t a good idea.
IIRC, they have UV sterilizers for central HVAC systems. So while it may not sterilize surfaces, it will kill all airborne pathogens.
The UV there is mostly to keep the inverter coils free of mould. Air typically flows too fast to be meaningfully disinfected.
Because it’s great at killing things, including human skin. Seriously, my local gym has people practically sign their life away before letting them into a UV-A/B tanning booth. No way are you putting the even worse UV-C bulbs out in public. That’s how people got their retinas fried at a crypto conference in Hong Kong last year.
People think I’m nuts when I wear sunglasses on cloudy days, but my eyes hurt. Idk why they don’t hurt the same way sunny days, probably I don’t squint when it’s not so sunny.
I always thought these were pretty cool. I’m not sure how HEV compares to UV though, or if it even works
Who the hell thought that an NFT festival was a good idea and unprotected UV lights?
Maybe the organisers were exposed to gamma radiation lwhen they thought up the event.
i imagine theres a lot of overlap.
A bit of the old Ultraviolence, eh?
Ultraviolance: solution to anything and everything (ps: this would make a very good name for a custom minigun)
This thread might be the worst example of “I didn’t read the article, but I’ll comment anyway” that I’ve seen.
Yeah but ducks shouldn’t do that!!!
(I didn’t even read the headline)
Why isn’t it everywhere?
because it sounds scary even though it actually isn’t, and people don’t want to read the science, they want to read one headline and give a reactionary uninformed response.
the comments are exactly the same echoes as, “omg mobile phones use microwaves? those things that cook food? omg they must be cooking my brain, GIVING ME CANCER 😱😱😱”
~~Because that is specifically UV-C and it’s harmful to humans too. ~~
~~for example: https://wwd.com/eye/parties/hypebeast-party-uv-lights-injuries-11036559/~~
Correction: the article is about even smaller wavelength UV which is not as harmful to humans, my bad.
In Macau, they have little trash garages which are flooded with UV at night
