Far Ultra-Violet Technology
Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection technology has a proven track record of strong germicidal properties against both surface and airborne bacteria, viruses, and mold. Recently developed Far-UVC (200-230nm wavelengths) technology offers an unprecedented combination of effectiveness, safety and flexibility. It is the first UV technology that is safe for human and animal exposure and built to be more effective at permanently eradicating disease-causing pathogens.
FarUV has developed numerous unique products and systems based on Far-UVC technology with benefits of UV disinfection while eliminating the drawbacks of traditional UV light sources. Our technology offers invisible, unobtrusive, continuous germicidal properties for commercial applications.
Advantages of Far-UV
Far-UV does not utilize environmentally challenging chemicals, does not inadvertently create super-bugs, as antibiotics have been shown to do, and does not require water. Far-UV is superior to existing legacy UV sanitation because legacy UV-C sanitation systems emitting 254nm wavelength UV light (typically from Mercury lamps and more recently LEDs) are ineffective at sanitizing objects that are exposed to UV-A, which includes sunlight, fluorescent lights and other light sources after sanitation and are a carcinogenic safety risk for direct human exposure. Far UV is the first UV sanitation system that can be used to sanitize objects intended or required to be exposed to light after sanitation and the first to be safe for direct human exposure.
Far-UV Safety
Safety of Far-UVC lights to humans has been established by numerous medical studies over the years. Its inherent safety arises from inability of Far-UVC wavelengths to penetrate the moisture layer of a human eye or top layer of human skin.
National Institute of Health Study 2017
… “Here we showed that 222 nm is essentially equi-effective at killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria as conventional germicidal UV lamps (254 nm). However, compared to the latter, 222-nm light does not induce typical UV-associated premutagenic DNA lesions in human keratinocytes in a 3D human skin model and appears to be safe for skin of exposed hairless mice, as assessed by eight cellular and molecular endpoints associated with damaged skin.” …
… “Other potential applications of far-UVC light is sterilization of any environment with a high likelihood of airborne-based pathogen transmission, including tuberculosis, small pox, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and pandemic influenza, which collectively affects one billion people annually (47). Although upper-room UV-irradiation systems based on conventional broad-spectrum UV lamps (48) have long been considered for room sterilization (49–51), they cannot be widely used due to safety concerns relating to skin cancer and cataract risks (49, 52, 53).
Collectively, our studies suggest that far-UVC light (200–225 nm), unlike conventional UV germicidal lamps, has considerable promise to be a safe and inexpensive modality for SSI reduction, while being cytotoxic to both drug-resistant and drug-sensitive microbes (22).” …
Colombia University Study 2020
“Over the past few years we've developed a promising technique to prevent the airborne transmission of viruses like influenza virus, which we would expect to be effective for coronavirus too. In short, the idea is to use the power of light. It's well known that conventional germicidal ultraviolet (UV) light reduces the person-to-person transmission of viruses through the air, by killing the viruses while they are in the air. Unfortunately, conventional germicidal UV light is a safety hazard, as it causes skin cancer and eye problems.
What we have come up with is a particular type of UV light ("far-UVC" light with a wavelength around 220 nm) which has only a very short range in biological material, so that it cannot penetrate the dead-cell layer at the surface of our skin, nor can it penetrate our eyes. So, it can't reach or damage any living cells in our body. But it can penetrate and kill viruses floating in the air, simply because viruses are incredibly small. In short, exposure to far-UVC light is safe for people, but potentially lethal for viruses in the air.”…