The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission

Re:The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission by ajsnigrutin on Saturday October 03, 2020 @08:00PM (#24675628)

I always wondered just how much UV-C do you need to effectively kill the virus (power vs duct diameter and air speed).... because, instead of traditional masks, you could take a small fan, blow air into a pipe with a UV-C bulb inside, and pump the sterilized air to the human... basically something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzGrh2io9Ds&app=desktop

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Re:The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission by Gibbon1 on Sunday October 04, 2020 @01:40AM (#24676759)

I tried looking into that this spring. I suspect the answer is for this virus not much. Nothing to indicate that any part of it's life cycle involves hanging around latent.

Interesting bit on how UV-C works to sterilize.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrimidine_dimer

Interesting thing bacteria and some viruses have DNA repair enzymes that can fix damage from UV-C. Medically you're always bedeviled by bacterial and fungal spoors.

Limitations with UV-C sterilization I think prevents wider use. Not a magic bullet. Though it probably works well for influenza, colds, and this bat virus.

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Re:The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission by dehrmann on Sunday October 04, 2020 @02:53AM (#24677001)

The real question is is there a safe wavelength and low enough power where you could swap out fluorescent tubes and effectively manage the virus.

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Re:The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission by Symmetry on Sunday October 04, 2020 @07:40AM (#24678216)

Yes, far UVC, 222 nm, won't penetrate your skin far enough to get to living cells and can be used around humans safely. It's a new technology, though, and not widely deployed.

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Re:The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission by hackerfromthefu on Sunday October 04, 2020 @09:46AM (#24679000)

Also light has very complex interactions with various of our biological symptoms, and I personally would be wary of unintended consequences without long term testing. e.g. it could interfere with sleep, or have other subtle effects

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Re:The experiment that proved airborne disease transmission by lifeisstillgood on Sunday October 04, 2020 @05:25AM (#24677513)

I was imagining some kind of doorway device - but yeah, that's a really interesting approach.

Again, what is safe .. but it the infrastructure is there ...

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