The whole world is presently battling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Till now, there is no country in the world which has found the cure to the disease. Amid this daunting situation, “Far UVC” has come up as the new defender of human life. Far UVC is one of the type of ultraviolet rays (UV) that is emitted by “Sun”. These rays can be used effectively in reducing the transmission of Coronavirus in public places such as Airports, Railway stations, Bus Stands, Schools, Theatre halls etc. India has also used the UVC light in its new developed devices namely UV-C Light based sanitisation box and hand held UV-C device.
Classification of Ultraviolet (UV) light:
The sun emits energy in the form of heat and light which reaches us in the form of radiation between a range of frequencies of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. UV light emitted by sun can be broadly classified into the higher energy waves of the electromagnetic EM spectrum. The sun radiates three different types of UV radiation namely: UVA, UVB, and UVC.
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The 3-types of UV radiation have been classified according to their wavelength/frequency, indicating higher the frequency, the higher the energy and dangerous the radiation. Lets see the impacts of exposure to the above UV rays according to the World Health Organization.
UV-A rays: These rays accounts for 95% of the radiations that reaches the earth’s surface. It is responsible for causing wrinkles, “sun spots,” and other kinds of premature aging.
UV-B rays: These are medium-wavelength rays which are very biologically active by nature but it cannot penetrate beyond the superficial skin layers. Thses rays are mostly filtered by the ozone layer. It reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and also promotes the development of skin cancers.
UV-C rays: These rays are the most energetic among the three rays and have a higher frequency and shorter wavelength. As these are the most energetic, they react with ozone high in our atmosphere and don’t reaches the ground at all.
What is FAR UVC?
The Far-UVC light has a higher frequency and shorter wavelength, hence it has higher energy than UV-C. Thus, its effect on microorganisms is different from the regular germicidal Ultraviolet (UV) light. As its more energetic among all, it donot reaches to earth at all. Therefore, it has to be produced artificially, as none of the naturally occurring rays penetrates the ozone layer.
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Impact of “Far-UVC” on the present villain: The SARS-COV-2 aka the Novel Corona Virus
As we have discussed above that the “Far-UVC” has shorter wavelength, so it cannot even penetrate the outer layer of the skin. But viruses are typically of micron or smaller dimensions, hence these rays can effectively penetrate and inactivate the viruese by messing up with their RNA mechanisms. Hence, these rays can efficiently inactivate the virus without causing any harm to the exposed human cells.
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Therefore, due to the above properties, the “Far-UVC” light can be used to reduce the transmission of Coronavirus in public places such as Airports, Railway stations, Bus Stands, Schools, Theatre halls etc.
In the recent developments, India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has rolled out new products to enable COVID-19 disinfection process. These new products includes Automatic Mist Based Sanitiser Dispensing Unit and UV Sanitisation Box, and Hand-held UV device. Both of the above units execute the disinfection process with the use of UV-C Light. The Automatic Mist Based Sanitiser Dispensing Unit and UV Sanitisation Box is designed for disinfecting personal belongings such as mobile phone, tablets, purse, currency, cover of office files, etc, while the hand-held device having UV-C lamp disinfects the office as well as the household objects such as chairs, files, postal delivered items etc.
Hence, the Far UV can act as the new defender of human life. However, more constructive research needs to be done on it. The use of technique as well as the applications of far UVC is presently under active research internationally.
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