Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York, 10032, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 24;10(1):10285. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67211-2.
A direct approach to limit airborne viral transmissions is to inactivate them within a short time of their production. Germicidal ultraviolet light, typically at 254 nm, is effective in this context but, used directly, can be a health hazard to skin and eyes. By contrast, far-UVC light (207-222 nm) efficiently kills pathogens potentially without harm to exposed human tissues. We previously demonstrated that 222-nm far-UVC light efficiently kills airborne influenza virus and we extend those studies to explore far-UVC efficacy against airborne human coronaviruses alpha HCoV-229E and beta HCoV-OC43. Low doses of 1.7 and 1.2 mJ/cm inactivated 99.9% of aerosolized coronavirus 229E and OC43, respectively. As all human coronaviruses have similar genomic sizes, far-UVC light would be expected to show similar inactivation efficiency against other human coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2. Based on the beta-HCoV-OC43 results, continuous far-UVC exposure in occupied public locations at the current regulatory exposure limit (~3 mJ/cm/hour) would result in ~90% viral inactivation in ~8 minutes, 95% in ~11 minutes, 99% in ~16 minutes and 99.9% inactivation in ~25 minutes. Thus while staying within current regulatory dose limits, low-dose-rate far-UVC exposure can potentially safely provide a major reduction in the ambient level of airborne coronaviruses in occupied public locations.
一种直接的方法是在病毒产生后的短时间内将其灭活。杀菌紫外线(通常为 254nm)在这种情况下非常有效,但直接使用会对皮肤和眼睛造成健康危害。相比之下,远紫外线(207-222nm)能够有效地杀死病原体,而不会对暴露的人体组织造成伤害。我们之前证明,222nm 的远紫外线能够有效地杀死空气中的流感病毒,我们将这些研究扩展到探索远紫外线对空气中的人冠状病毒 alpha HCoV-229E 和 beta HCoV-OC43 的功效。低剂量的 1.7 和 1.2mJ/cm 分别使雾化的冠状病毒 229E 和 OC43 灭活 99.9%。由于所有人类冠状病毒都具有相似的基因组大小,远紫外线应该对其他人类冠状病毒(包括 SARS-CoV-2)表现出相似的灭活效率。根据 beta-HCoV-OC43 的结果,在有人占用的公共场所以当前监管暴露限值(~3mJ/cm/小时)进行连续的远紫外线照射,将导致约 8 分钟内约 90%的病毒失活,约 11 分钟内 95%失活,约 16 分钟内 99%失活,约 25 分钟内 99.9%失活。因此,在保持当前监管剂量限制的情况下,低剂量率的远紫外线照射可能能够安全地显著降低有人占用的公共场所空气中的冠状病毒环境水平。