Japanese firm Ushio launches UV light that kills coronavirus

Major Japanese light equipment maker Ushio has recently launched an ultraviolet lamp that can kill the coronavirus without harming human health – the first of its kind in the world.

The “Care 222” UV lamp, which Ushio developed together with Columbia University, is expected to be used for disinfection at occupied spaces where people keep coming in and out and the risk of contracting the deadly virus runs high, such as buses, trains, elevators and offices, the company said.

UV lamps have been widely used as an effective means of sterilisation notably in the medical and food-processing industries. But conventional UV rays cannot be used in spaces where there are people as they cause skin cancer and eye problems.

Ushio’s new lamp, however, emits the UV rays with a wavelength of 222 nanometres, as opposed to the conventional 254-nanometre wavelength, making them lethal to germs but benign to humans.

At this particular wavelength, the firm said, UV rays cannot infiltrate the surface of the skin nor the eyes to bring about cancer-causing genetic defects and other damage.

The Care 222, when emitted from a ceiling, inactivates 99 per cent of viruses and bacteria in the air and up to a three square metre surface of objects some two-and-a-half metres away from the lamp, in six to seven minutes.

A recent third-party study by Hiroshima University confirmed the 222-nanometre UV rays are effective in killing the new coronavirus, Ushio said.