A company in my region is advertising that you can install this in
your house. Somebody I trust on other issues, but who is not a
STEM person, has picked up on it and tweeted about a portable version of the
technology. First,
you need to know that the FDA has not approved this technology. So you can stop here if that’s enough for you.
You know that UV that tans your skin will also cause cancer. The portable version of the technology looks to me like “tanning bed on a
stick”, which somebody is promoting to recoup their investment in tanning bed
technology, now that tanning beds are restricted in use for the obvious reasons.
You who have had surgery for skin cancer can stop reading here cos
you aren’t going there again so you'll never buy either the house installation or the portable.
Some kinds of UV light will work -- against microbes. Pretending this will work on coronavirus is the same misconception as using anti-bacterials thinking
it will help with the cold and flu viruses. In any case, the main ingredient in
anti-bacterials used to be triclosan. The science showed that it doesn’t work
any better than soap and water, but the companies were charging more than soap
for their products. So triclosan was banned as not effective. We will never
know what safety problems it would have caused because there won’t be 20 years
of epidemiological studies to draw on. We do know the problems of UV
light, and they apply to the germicidal technology as well.
That’s microbes, not viruses. It takes a different UV to hit
viruses and, you guessed it, it’s even more dangerous.
Both kinds of germicidal UV require extended exposure to work. So does tanning. That extended exposure is what promotes skin cancer.
The last problem is that UVC only works where it can reach the virus – on the outsides or the tops of things -- the same as tanning. It won’t reach your counters if the UVC fixture is above a cabinet. It won’t reach your skin under your clothes. The nice photo of the subway car in the BBC article only shows its exterior being treated. There have to be UVCs inside to reach the seats and the bars you hold onto when it’s standing room only. The UVCs have to be mobile to reach all sides of those bars. And notice that the subway car is EMPTY. No people in it.
The last problem is that UVC only works where it can reach the virus – on the outsides or the tops of things -- the same as tanning. It won’t reach your counters if the UVC fixture is above a cabinet. It won’t reach your skin under your clothes. The nice photo of the subway car in the BBC article only shows its exterior being treated. There have to be UVCs inside to reach the seats and the bars you hold onto when it’s standing room only. The UVCs have to be mobile to reach all sides of those bars. And notice that the subway car is EMPTY. No people in it.
So there’s my usual overkill on what could be a simple “don’t put
beans up your nose,” but I did give you opportunities to duck out.
Oh yeah, that title? Comes from a story I heard long ago. A mother going out to run errands left her kids home alone. She gave them all kinds of instructions before she left, and the last thing she said was, "and don't stick beans up your nose." She came home to a house full of crying children and had to call in a doctor to pull the beans out of their noses.
Oh yeah, that title? Comes from a story I heard long ago. A mother going out to run errands left her kids home alone. She gave them all kinds of instructions before she left, and the last thing she said was, "and don't stick beans up your nose." She came home to a house full of crying children and had to call in a doctor to pull the beans out of their noses.
I'm just saying....
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