That’s a good point, given basically every respiratory illness you’d come across in the first world is viral.
If everybody is wearing clothes (which I expect is the case for at least 2⁄3 of the events organized by LessWrong users) then UV exposure will be limited to face, neck, hands, arms, and lower legs.
I expect that hands, neck, arms, and legs will be rapidly re-colonized by bacteria from the torso, upper legs, feet, etc, just from normal walking around. The face is the main area I’d be worried about, since I’d expect it to have a slightly different microbiome than the rest of the skin (I think it’s oilier, hence acne) and it’s going to be pretty maximally exposed to the UV light. Having thought about the problems I’m less worried than I was before.
I’d keep a small eye out for acne/eczema/dry skin on people’s faces after being exposed to this, just in case.
(Of course the ideal method is to have the UVC light internal to your air conditioner/heater unit, which is already circulating the air, so you can blast everything passing through that with enough UVC to annihilate any and all pathogens in the air, but that requires retro-fitting to AC units and stuff. Still, would be cool to see Aerolamp partner with some AC/heater company in the future.)
Of course the ideal method is to have the UVC light internal to your air conditioner/heater unit, which is already circulating the air, so you can blast everything passing through that with enough UVC to annihilate any and all pathogens in the air, but that requires retro-fitting to AC units and stuff.
To get equivalent protection this way you’d need to cycle your air through your HVAC much faster than you likely currently do. Which would be noisy!
And if you’re cycling the air much faster then you need much more UV in the duct to get enough exposure time. And then you have to maintain the lamps inside a dusty vent...has its uses but it’s operationally tricky and there are tradeoffs.
viruses are much more vulnerable than skin bacteria, although that doesn’t rule out microbiome damage entirely.
That’s a good point, given basically every respiratory illness you’d come across in the first world is viral.
If everybody is wearing clothes (which I expect is the case for at least 2⁄3 of the events organized by LessWrong users) then UV exposure will be limited to face, neck, hands, arms, and lower legs.
I expect that hands, neck, arms, and legs will be rapidly re-colonized by bacteria from the torso, upper legs, feet, etc, just from normal walking around. The face is the main area I’d be worried about, since I’d expect it to have a slightly different microbiome than the rest of the skin (I think it’s oilier, hence acne) and it’s going to be pretty maximally exposed to the UV light. Having thought about the problems I’m less worried than I was before.
I’d keep a small eye out for acne/eczema/dry skin on people’s faces after being exposed to this, just in case.
(Of course the ideal method is to have the UVC light internal to your air conditioner/heater unit, which is already circulating the air, so you can blast everything passing through that with enough UVC to annihilate any and all pathogens in the air, but that requires retro-fitting to AC units and stuff. Still, would be cool to see Aerolamp partner with some AC/heater company in the future.)
To get equivalent protection this way you’d need to cycle your air through your HVAC much faster than you likely currently do. Which would be noisy!
And if you’re cycling the air much faster then you need much more UV in the duct to get enough exposure time. And then you have to maintain the lamps inside a dusty vent...has its uses but it’s operationally tricky and there are tradeoffs.
The effect isn’t instantaneous, right? Is a moment in the HVAC system enough to kill them?
>acne/eczema/dry skin on people’s faces after being exposed to this
UVA and UVB are used to treat eczema, not sure if UVC has any effect.