Researchers find a cost-effective answer to mitigate coronaviruses in public places; Here’s how

A team of scientists has come up with an innovative and cost-effective way to get rid of two kinds of viruses that have baffled researchers for years. A University of Toronto Scarborough investigation found that Ultraviolet LED lights can kill HIV and coronaviruses effectively within 30 minutes of exposure.

This is a breakthrough discovery as UV LED lights are a common fixture in offices and public spaces and since they are inexpensive and can be easily installed in multiple places. They can provide an innovative and cost-effective method in mitigating infections that spread the most in public places.

Christina Guzzo, the senior author of the study from the University of Toronto Scarborough, said, that every single possible stop should be used that can help the world to come out of the pandemic. Every mitigation strategy that can be easily implemented should be used.

The team examined the light on bacterial spores that are usually resistant to radiations from UV lights as if they are able to kill spores that can kill most other viruses that would commonly encounter in the environment.  Scientists were surprised that within just 20 seconds of exposure to the UV lights, the growth of the spores dropped by 99%.

Next, they targeted HIV and coronavirus by forming droplets to mimic the way people encounter them through coughing, sneezing, and bleeding. In just 30 seconds of exposure, the virus’s ability to infect was reduced by 93% and even for cultures with high viral loads, infectivity dropped by 88 per cent.

The scientists then compared the results to how viruses react when exposed to heavy-duty disinfectants that are used in lab research and found that both UV rays and the reagents have similar effects on the microbes.

However, even with this high effectiveness, a small amount of the virus was still resistant to the UV rays and could spread an infection that calls for the need for repeated UV exposure to eliminate all of the remaining particles. But then again this finding is so simple like just changing a bulb or switching a light than developing an air filtration system. Moreover, this arrangement wouldn’t infringe on people’s enjoyment of that everyday’ normal’ life that they long for.

The lights also hold advantages over disinfectants as that leave room for human error over the amount to be used besides generating waste and landfill but standardised dose of germicidal light can be administered each time.

This, however, necessarily does not mean UV radiations are side effects free. They can damage nucleic acid and its repeated exposure is harmful. Due to this, lights should be used for sanitization when public places are empty.

A Toronto-based start-up company Safe Antivirus Technologies, Inc is developing unique UV-LED lighting modules that come with motion sensors that detect the human presence in the room and accordingly emit UV light when it is empty and switch to normal light when there is movement in the room.