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Far-UVC

Care222®disinfection

Fast disinfection, effective protection

General information Far-UVC 222nm

The history of UV(-C) light

UV-C light in the form of germicidal lamps has been used since the late 1800s to kill the types of microorganisms that typically cause indoor air quality problems: bacteria, fungi, yeasts and viruses.

Niels Ryberg Finsen (1860-1904) was the first to use UV rays in the treatment of diseases. In 1903 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. He invented the Finsen healing lamp, which was used successfully until the 1950s.

UV-C was used in 1908 to disinfect the municipal water supply of Marseille, France.

Westinghouse developed the first commercial UV-C germicidal lamps in the 1930s. They were mainly used in hospitals.

After World War II, UV-C was used to sterilize air in hospitals, kitchens, meat storage and processing plants, bakeries, breweries, dairies, beverage production, pharmaceutical plants and animal laboratories - wherever microbiological contamination is a concern.

In the 1950s UV-C was built into air treatment equipment. It became an important component in the control and eradication of tuberculosis (TB).

UV-C lamps are used today, for example for the disinfection of medical instruments.

However, they are never applied in an environment where there are people. This invisible light is harmful to humans. UV-C rays can lead to skin cancer or cataracts, a clouding of the eye.

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Niels Ryberg Finsen, UV-C, Desinfectie, Healthy Office Nederland, Professionele Luchtreiniging kopen

Name: Niels Ryberg Finsen

Born: December 15, 1860
Torshavn, Faroe Islands

Passed away: September 24, 1904 (age 43) Copenhagen, Denmark
alma mater:University of Copenhagen
Famous for:Phototherapy
Awards:

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1903)
Cameron Prize for Therapeutics from the University of Edinburgh (1904)

The origin of Care222®

Thanks to a special filter technology, American doctors, scientists and a Japanese company have succeeded in developing a disinfecting lamp that is safe for humans. The UV lamp can be used in operating theaters or train stations, for example, and would render the coronavirus harmless there. The first copies have been installed in a Japanese hospital.

The disinfecting effect of UV light has been known for some time. UV radiation in the lower wavelengths of between 160 and 280 nanometers (called UV-C) kills bacteria and makes viruses harmless by damaging molecules.

However, UV-C light is also harmful to humans: it can cause skin cancer and cataracts. That does not apply to Far-UVC light. This is 'disinfecting' light with a relatively short wavelength, so that it penetrates less deeply into the skin and eyes than the other germ-killing light rays. Compare it to sound: it is the low tones (ie long wavelengths) of ship horns and elephant trumpets that carry the furthest.

Care 222® is a light source module with an optical filter that can inactivate bacteria and viruses with ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 222 nm. The commonly used ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 254 nm are easily absorbed by DNA, which is indeed bacteriostatic, but it also has an adverse effect on human cells.

The special, shorter wavelength of UV-C 222nm light, on the other hand, is germicidal because it penetrates the DNA of viruses and bacteria. However, when irradiated on humans, light at 222 nm is absorbed by the stratum corneum of our skin before reaching the DNA of human cells. Conversely, longer wavelengths of 254 nm ultraviolet rays can penetrate the layers of our skin and damage the DNA in our skin cells.

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Care222, far-UVC, UV-C veilig voor mens en dier, Beste luchtreiniger kopen, UV-C Desinfectie, Healthy Office Nederland

Aerosol microbes

In the fight against the many wound infections in operating rooms, often due to resistant bacteria, the American Columbia University started a research project about ten years ago to find 'an instrument that can disinfect both the air in operating rooms and the surfaces of user equipment', while doctors and nurses work on the patient.

A team of scientists around David Brenner, radiologist and director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, sought the solution in avoiding and filtering out the harmful radiation of conventional UV-C lamps. For example, they worked with radiation in the narrower UV-C bandwidth. They do have an anti-microbial effect, but do not penetrate into human (skin) cells.

Indoor filter technology

UV rays are generated with specific vacuum lamps, so-called excimer lamps, which are filled with gas and when electrically activated they produce a UV photon burst. Brenner's team chosefor the gas KrCl (krypton chloride), with a photon peak at 222 nanometers.

However, the photon curve of the KrCl lamp shows light waves on the high side (see illustration). It is precisely such 'photon bumps' that can cause damage.

Brenner and colleagues developed a special beam filter, an optical band-pass filter, to smooth out those bumps. It is this filter technology that makes UV-C light technology highly safe for humans.

Columbia University patented the invention. In 2015, the Japanese company Ushio Inc., manufacturer of UV lamps and other specialist light sources, joined the project as a partner. It was granted exclusive licensing rights to the invention at this early stage, which is now named Care222® comes onto the market.

Mice and humans

Tests in mice soon showed that no skin and eye damage occurred in the rodents. But that the technique works is evidenced by the activation rate of a series of human viruses such as H1N1 (Spanish flu), MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV with which they tested: it fell by 99 percent within twenty minutes.

Last summer it turned out that irradiation tests on humans had also yielded positive results. There are no abnormalities on the skin or in the eyes, as the rays cannot penetrate the skin.

It must be said that also in these tests, and soon also in practice, a radiation dose is used that is far below the safe limit (up to three microjoules per square centimeter per hour). Ushio Europe's spokesman, Sam Rogers, emphasizes that these are excimer lamps with an integrated optical filter: 'Without a filter it is not a safe instrument for humans'. All Far-UVC 222nm products that Healthy Office Nederland BV has in its portfolio, are all provided with the official license: Care222®.

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