Continuous low doses of far ultraviolet C ( far - UVC ) lightness could be a potential style to pour down off influenza viruses while they are still airborne , according to a raw discipline . All this could go on without any disconfirming effects on man since it ca n’t penetrate our skin .
The inquiry was conducted at the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Irving Medical Center ( CUIMC ) and the discipline is publish inScientific Reports . It work up on the well - established idea of using ultraviolet ignitor to unsex instrument and surfaces . presently , the wavelength used also harms us , as it can lead to tegument Crab and cataract .
" Far - UVC light has a very limited range and can not dawn through the forbidden dead - mobile phone level of human peel or the tear layer in the eye , so it ’s not a human wellness hazard , " elderly writer Dr David J. Brenner from CUIMC , enounce in astatement . " But because viruses and bacterium are much small than human cellular telephone , far - UVC light can reach their DNA and kill them . "
Far - UVC has antecedently beendemonstratedto be effective in kill off bacteria like the dangerous methicillin - resistantStaphylococcus aureus , a superbug that has educate a resistance to antibiotics . The bacterium is a common cause of infections in hospital , and using far - UVC could be a style to fight it off without it developing more immunity to antibiotics .
Many diseases can travel on humble droplets due to people cough and sneezing , so it is better to capture the computer virus when they are in flying . The research worker design a test in which a unwashed tenor of the influenza H1N1 was aerosolise and exposed to low levels of far - UVC at a wavelength of 222 nanometers . The luminosity was as efficacious against the viruses as traditional ultraviolet light .
" If our answer are confirmed in other options , it observe that the use of overhead low - level far - UVC light in public location would be a dependable and efficient method for limiting the transmission and spread of airborne - mediated microbic diseases , such as influenza and tuberculosis , " Dr Brenner added . " And unlike flu vaccines , far - UVC is likely to be effective against all airborne germ , even fresh emerging strains . "
UVC lamps currently cost $ 1,000 , but if the cost can be reduced and adopt - up studies substantiate the findings , they could become an important style to concentrate grippe epidemic .
