04-29-2020, 12:40 PM
(04-27-2020, 01:53 PM)Bubba Gamps Wrote: Very interesting. UV light has been used for some time in water treatment systems to kill bacteria. It has been proven that UV rays in sunlight kill viruses, as well. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that retailers will use UV light to disinfect their stores in the very near future. As the technology advances, the cost of units will decrease.
You could certainly disinfect a store with the right frequency of UV. But it would have to be while the shop was shut. Unfortunately you couldn't run it while people are inside, which is a shame because that's when it would be most useful to destroy viri. The issue is that you'd damage people's sight (short term it would hurt their eyes, long term they'd develop cataracts). Also production of UV at this frequency produces ozone in large quantities and that's bad for your lungs and makes you more prone to developing lung infections.
UV could have it's place in the home if you wanted to decontaminate a room without chemicals. Open the windows, make sure everyone knows not to enter the room, and flick the UV light on (you can get UV lights on Ebay relatively cheaply). If I were a fridge manufacturer I'd be looking at next gen fridges that blast everything inside with UV when the door is shut. Not sure how the deal with the ozone problem, or the damage to the plastic interior of the fridge, but I'm sure they could be overcome.