Does UV Light Kill Viruses and Germs?
A bus is disinfected by ultraviolet light on March 4, 2020. Photo: Essdras M Suarez/Boston Globe via Getty Images
We first heard about the disinfecting powers of UV-C light (ultraviolet light with a wavelength between 200 and 280 nanometers — and the same light that causes sunburn and skin-cell mutation in humans) while talking to certified sex coach Gigi Engle about the best rabbit and bullet vibrators you can buy online. Engle uses a UV-light sterilization pouch to clean her sex toys of bacteria that could lead to yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis. According to her, UV light is much more convenient than soap and water. “You just need to wipe off your toys and pop them in the pouch and you’re done,” she says.
That made us wonder: If UV light is better than soap at cleaning sex toys, what else might it be useful for cleaning? To find out, we talked to four medical professionals (and one Strategist staffer who swears by her UV-light-blasting water bottle). Eric Lee, a St. Louis–based physician, says that “UV light, the type used in most common devices on the market to clean household objects, has been shown to be effective in laboratory studies at killing bacteria on computer screens, toothbrushes, and other objects. It has also been shown to affect viruses in similar ways that it affects bacteria.” According Alex Berezow, a microbiologist who has written on the topic, “UV light is lethal to bacteria and viruses because of its high frequency that scrambles and damages their nuclear material. When it damages the DNA (or RNA) code of these pathogens, it also triggers lethal mutations that prevent them from reproducing properly.” (As we all try to protect ourselves from unnecessary coronavirus exposure, we also asked if the existing technology was effective against it. While our experts say there haven’t been conclusive tests showing that UV light can kill the coronavirus, Berezow says “UV light kills everything: bacteria, fungi, viruses. It should kill coronavirus.” What we do know for sure is that it is effective against other viruses like the flu.)
With their advice in mind, we found a number of devices that use UV light to kill a range of dangerous bacteria and viruses from MRSA to E. coli. One of them is a UV-light-emitting robot that quite literally zaps operating rooms clean of all pathogens. According to CNBC, the manufacturers of these robots, Danish company UVD Robots and Texas based Xenex Disinfection Services, believe that they are effective at killing the coronavirus and have sent shipments of the disinfecting devices to Italy and East Asia in an effort to stop further spread in hotels and hospitals. In addition, Boeing has designed a prototype for a self-cleaning airplane bathroom that uses UV light to disinfect after each use.
