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Bare‐bulb Upper‐Room Germicidal Ultraviolet‐C (GUV) Indoor Air Disinfection for COVID‐19 †
Author(s) -
Davidson Bruce L.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/php.13380
Subject(s) - casing , environmental science , covid-19 , ceiling (cloud) , ultraviolet , materials science , meteorology , optoelectronics , medicine , physics , disease , pathology , geophysics , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Abstract Reliable indoor air disinfection could make clinical and other necessary indoor spaces safer during epidemics with airborne transmission like COVID‐19. Low‐dose upper‐room germicidal ultraviolet‐C (GUV 254 nm) is well suited for this because of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus' sensitivity to GUV inactivation and GUV's relatively easy adaptability to many types of indoor spaces without respect to outside weather conditions. However, most existing upper‐room GUV fixtures are relatively expensive and inefficient at creating an upper‐room disinfection zone due to loss of disinfecting UV‐C photons caused by the casing and louvers designed to protect persons in the occupied space. Presented herein are two moderate‐size restaurant spaces, 900 ft 2 (83.6 m 2 ) and 630 ft 2 (58.5 m 2 ), respectively, in which low‐cost bare‐bulb GUV fixtures, without exterior casing, were installed with upward‐pulling ceiling fans to provide upper‐room disinfection and lower‐room safety. Proper safety‐tested installations like these are adaptable to hospital emergency department waiting rooms, clinics, nursing home and prison common areas, public libraries, schools and restaurants.