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UV-emitting LED-based Air Hygiene Technology Could Be Used to Eradicate COVID-19 in Indoor Settings

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At first glance of the headline you'd be forgiven for perhaps thinking the dateline should read April 1st. However there's much credence in this latest reveal from movers and shakers employed in another branch of science. Keen to play their part in helping rid society of the continuing scourge of COVID-19.


Acknowledged as something of a global first at this stage, researchers have made the hugely promising discovery that Coronavirus can possibly be stopped in its nefarious tracks in a rapid, efficient and cost-effective way. And it's all courtesy of an everyday item which surrounds us and have historically been used for more orthodox purposes. Like lighting our homes and businesses, for example.

Tech Which Has Existed for Decades Could Help in War on COVID-19

Thankfully the architects of this latest breakthrough aren't doing a 'Trump' and claiming that we should all be injecting ourselves with readily available household disinfectant, to better protect ourselves from the virus. Instead, boffins working at Tel Aviv University's School of Mechanical Environmental Engineering conducted a study which sought to investigate the disinfection efficiency of ultraviolet LED irradiation at different wavelengths (or frequencies) on a virus from the family of coronaviruses.
The upshot of the lab-based fact-findings are that targeted ultraviolet light-emitting diodes does appear to have a positive impact on the presence of the virus. Which the team behind the research believe can translate into a range of subsequent facilitations.

What's All This Got to do With Air Hygiene?

Fascinatingly from our viewpoint, one particular scenario which might benefit from the technology, are traditional locations which frequent air ventilation systems. The thinking being that the application of ultraviolet LEDS could sterilise the air which passes through and is recirculated via such interior-based assemblages.

Environmental Engineers Make Potential Game-changing Coronavirus Discovery


Professor Hadas Mamane heads up the Environmental Engineering Program and recently told reputable media sources that; "Disinfection systems based on LED bulbs can be installed in the ventilation system and air conditioner and sterilise the air sucked in and then emitted into the room."


Explaining what her body of research had determined, Professor Mamane went on to add; "We discovered that it is quite simple to kill the coronavirus using LED bulbs that radiate ultraviolet light. We killed the viruses using cheaper and more readily available LED bulbs, which consume little energy and do not contain mercury like regular bulbs."

Delivered as a caveat, it's not a practical solution as it is right now. With protocols needing to evolve before the concept is run out on a bigger scale. Not least because humans shouldn't be directly exposed to ultraviolet light, as the researchers are keen to point out.

'Disinfection' of Virus Via Ultraviolet Light

Encouragingly however, exposure to a wavelength of 285 nanometres was considered efficient in 'disinfecting' the virus, a feat it performed in less than 30 seconds according to the team. Eradicating more than 99.9 per cent of the coronaviruses in the test.
Potential ramifications are promising, as 285 nm LED bulbs are both affordable and commonplace, which is why the researchers are excited about the reach of its commercial and societal implications.

Still, along with the roll out of vaccines this could well prove to be another shining example of light at the end of what's been a long COVID-19 tunnel thus far.

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