NIST and DHS research collaboration reveals which wavelengths of UV light work best for COVID-19 virus disinfection. To disinfect a surface, you can illuminate it with a blast of ultraviolet (UV) light, which is at a bluer wavelength than the human eye can see. But to specifically inactivate SARS
NIST and DHS research collaboration reveals which wavelengths of UV light work best forTo disinfect a surface, you can illuminate it with a blast of ultraviolet light, which is at a bluer wavelength than the human eye can see. But to specifically inactivate, the virus that causes COVID-19, which wavelengths are best? And how much radiation is sufficient?
So, what is COVID’s kryptonite? As it turns out, nothing special: The SARS-CoV-2 virus is susceptible to the same wavelengths of UV light as other viruses such as those that cause the flu. The most effective wavelengths were ones in the “UVC” range between 222 and 280 nanometers . UVC light is shorter than the UVB wavelengths that cause sunburn.
“Right now, there’s a big push to get UVC disinfection into the commercial atmosphere,” said NIST researcher Cameron Miller. “Long-term, hopefully this study will lead to standards and other methodologies for measuring UV dose required to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 and other harmful viruses.”Shed a Little Light
In the study, the team tested the virus in different suspensions. In addition to using the saliva mimic, scientists also put the virus in water to see what happened in a “pure” environment, without components that could shield it. They tested their virus suspensions both as liquids and as dried droplets on steel surfaces, which represented something that an infected person might sneeze or cough out.
“It’s sort of a one-way door,” Miller said. “Anything coming out of that lab has to be either incinerated, autoclaved [heat-sterilized], or chemically disinfected with hydrogen peroxide vapor. So, taking our $120,000 laser in was not the option we wanted to use.” “The device that the NIST team came up with allowed us to rapidly test a very wide range of different wavelengths, all at very controlled and precise wavebands,” Schuit said. “If we were trying to do the same number of wavelengths without that system, we would have had to juggle a bunch of different types of devices, each of which would have produced wavebands of different widths.
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