As the Columbia University New York has released on its website, a new technology has been developed at the university’s Center for Radiological Research which is able to zap airborne viruses with a narrow-wavelength band of UV light. As the university stated, this offers promising hopes for curtailing the person-to-person spread of COVID-19 in public indoor areas. The researchers say that far-UVC lighting could be deployed in hospitals, schools, airplanes, airports and other transportation hub and anywhere else where larger groups of people congregate.

Germicidal UV light with wavelengths around 254 nm have been in use for decades and possess the proven capacity to kill viruses and bacteria. Hospitals and laboratories frequently use germicidal UV light to sterilize rooms as well as other equipment. However, conventional germicidal UV light cannot be used in the presence of people as it can causes health problems to the skin and eyes. Contrary to this, Columbia University’s new development can “kill viruses and bacteria without harming human skin, eyes and other tissues.’  The wavelength of the new technology ranges between 205 and 230 nm.

 
Researchers concluded that this technology can be used safely in public spaces and kills pathogens in the air before people can breathe them in. This means a different “tactic in the war against the virus”, namely the prevention of viruses to enter human bodies instead of fighting the virus after infection.

As the researchers of the Columbia University finally pointed out, the new system is low-cost, safe and can eradicate viruses reliably after they have been breathed, coughed or sneezed into the air. Moreover the new technology can be used as well against similar and other future novel viruses against which no vaccines exist or where the development of vaccines will take a long period of time.

According Columbia University, the new technology is easy to retrofit into existing lighting fixtures, but it will still take several months to get a large-scale production ready.