UVC wands kill viruses. They’re also a ‘major safety issue,’ experts say – CNET [CNET]

The coronavirus pandemic has businesses and homeowners alike seeking out anything that might make shared spaces feel safer and more sanitary. That has some consumers and product manufacturers turning to ultraviolet, or UV light as a potential solution — specifically, a type of UV light called UVC, which has extra-short wavelengths and enough energy to alter the DNA and RNA of organic cells, which stops them from reproducing.

UVC light has a long history as a proven disinfectant at places like hospitals and laboratories, and businesses including airlines, hotels and retail spaces have been relying on the invisible light more than ever in 2020. The pandemic has also produced a flood of cheap, unregulated, consumer-facing devices for use in the home, including handheld UVC wands that look like lightsabers. 

Devices like those are nothing new, but the pandemic-borne surge of interest in them is raising alarms, because UVC light is a known carcinogen, and even a few moments of direct exposure can be hazardous to the eyes and skin.

Now, as research into UVC and the coronavirus continues, regulators, industry leaders and safety science professionals are urging caution. Here’s what you need to know — the science, the safety risks and everything experts say you should take into consideration before bringing any UVC-powered light source into your home.

UVC’s time to shine?

Ultraviolet light is invisible electromagnetic radiation that falls between 180 and 400 nanometers in wavelength. UVC light is ultraviolet light that falls specifically between 180 and 280 nanometers — the shortest, most intense part of the ultraviolet light spectrum. Unlike less intense UVA and UVB light, which will burn your skin if you sit out in the sun too long, UVC light can burn skin within seconds. Natural UVC light from the sun is completely absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere.

Man-made UVC light is just as intense, and just as good at ionizing organic molecules and altering their DNA and RNA. For years, scientists and medical professionals have used the invisible light as a natural disinfectant against bacteria and viruses, including the coronaviruses that cause illnesses like SARS and MERS. While scientists are still working to determine the full efficacy of UVC light against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the early indications are promising — enough so that the FDA issued guidance in March that it “does not plan to object” to any previously cleared sterilization or disinfectant devices updating their marketing to indicate that they combat COVID-19.

“Because disinfection kills most recognized pathogenic microorganisms, it can generally be inferred that sterilization and disinfection should minimize the viability of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces and in the air in confined spaces,” the FDA wrote. That gave manufacturers a green light to begin marketing potential COVID killers.

Now, interest in UVC light is surging. Philips Lighting parent company Signify, which has been producing wall-mounted UVC light fixtures for more than 30 years, tells CNET that interest in the lights has spiked by 800% since the start of the pandemic. In Kansas, Digital Aerolus developed a UVC drone that can fly through contaminated spaces disinfecting everything it comes across. Here in Kentucky, Big Ass Fans recently released a UVC ceiling fan designed to disinfect air as it circulates throughout the room.

Those are all high-end, commercial-grade products — but interest in cheaper, simpler UVC products that people can bring into their homes is on the rise, too. That’s where safety experts are beginning to sound the alarms.

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