If sunlight kills coronavirus, why not try UV lamps?
Donald Milton tests people for colds and flu in his lab at the University of Maryland. Among other experiments, his students use a "sneeze machine" to measure how far viruses fly out of the nose and mouth when people sneeze, cough, talk or just breathe. It means a parade of students infected with a variety of contagious diseases coming through.
So installed in the ceilings of some of the offices are germ-killing ultraviolet-C lamps. High above where people circulate, the lamps emit ultraviolet light that, given some time, can kill bacteria and fungi and break apart viruses.
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Milton said he was dumbfounded when he heard President Trump asking about using such light to somehow decontaminate people. "Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful, light," Trump said at Thursday's White House briefing.
UV light can damage the body
The virus lives inside the body where light cannot reach, and mostly spreads in small droplets that spray out when infected people cough, sneeze or talk.
"Irradiating the outside of them with a UV light isn't going to do anything for the virus inside them in spite of what Donald Trump says about putting a UV inside somebody," said Milton, a professor of environmental health. "It's not going to work."
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Two factors are required for ultraviolet light to destroy a virus: intensity and time. But if the light is intense enough to break apart a virus in a short time, it's going to be dangerous to people, Milton said. UVA and UVB light damages the skin. UVC light is safer for skin, but it will damage tender tissue such as the eyes.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/if-sunlight-kills-coronavirus-why-not-try-uv-lamps/ar-BB13cVH8?li=BBnb7Kz
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