Pretty much since the start of the COVID pandemic, Naomi Wu has been working to bring affordable high-quality far-UVC lights - deadly against pathogens, harmless to humans - to market.

I missed the product release announcement, but it’s alive! The devices output 222nm UVC for ~$150 per emitter. Each emitter is good for between 8 and 10m^3 of germicidal environment.

https://cybernightmarket.com/products/nukit-lantern-far-uvc-light

Nukit Lantern 222nm Far-UVC Light

Nukit Lanterns are available worldwide*, with free Shipping and Handling. Continuous protection from airborne pathogens using eye and skin safe, 222nm Far-UVC Effective- Kills viruses, bacteria, and mold in the air and on surfaces within seconds. Affordable- Lowest price per watt of any filtered Far-UVC product. Eye and skin safe- Third-party verified, all lab results available for download. Easy to install- Extra long cables, simple power control. Quiet- Perfect for those who can't tolerate loud filtration systems. We have a temporary limit of 10 per customer to ensure fair distribution. We now sell to the US (sorry, no Canada sales by request of the Canadian government). About the Nukit Lantern Far-UVC Light: Far-UVC is a recently discovered form of ultraviolet light that, unlike most UVC, does not penetrate skin or eye surfaces and can be used safely in the presence of humans and animals to disinfect air and exposed surfaces. Far-UVC rapidly kills viruses, bacteria, and fungi, making it one of the most powerful and broadly acting tools ever discovered for reducing the transmission of infectious diseases and allergy symptoms. Pathogens cannot become resistant to it, and none exist that are completely immune to it. Extensive studies have proven Far-UVC safe for humans. Up until now, Far-UVC installations have cost thousands of dollars per room. Nukit has completely reworked the existing Far-UVC production toolchain and offers high-quality, third-party tested Far-UVC for one-quarter to one-half the price per watt of any competitor- putting this lifesaving technology within reach of ordinary consumers. The Lantern is Nukit's latest Far-UVC product. Although more full-featured Nukit Far-UVC fixtures are in development, the Lantern is an effective, robust interim solution. It was developed to meet the immediate need for a low-cost, safe, and effective far-UVC emitter for fixed installation in homes and businesses. Features Each Nukit Lantern uses a 6-watt, 222nm Far-UVC emitter and a high-quality optical cut filter to block any harmful UV light. The Lantern is powered by 12V DC using a standard 5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel jack and comes with a power supply, international plugs, and five meters of cabling- making placement away from electrical outlets easy and convenient. Each Nukit Lantern also comes with a state-of-the-art millimeter wave (mmWave) human presence sensor to turn the lights on when you enter the room and off when you leave- to save power and preserve excimer bulb life. Many Far-UVC fixtures have frustratingly low-quality passive infrared sensors built in that constantly fail to read human presence, turning off the lamps when you need them the most. Millimeter wave (mmWave) is effectively radar, far more sensitive and reliable, and by using it as a separate, optional module, optimal placement to detect room occupants and the longest possible emitter life can be assured. Don't want detection? No problem. Use it as a remote on-off button- or don't use it at all. You can connect the Nukit Latern directly to any outlet or smart-home management hardware. The Lantern features a ¼-20 standard tripod socket on the bottom, meaning it can be installed with standard studio hardware wherever needed. Nukit Lantern Installation Instructions Proven Effectiveness Due to variables such as optical cut filter efficiency and size, reflector shape, and emitter gas composition, the output of a Far-UVC lamp cannot accurately be determined from the input power alone. Many manufacturers use questionable math to support their claims with no real-world data. Pathogen load testing, done by a third-party lab in a sealed chamber, is the only way to truly verify the effectiveness of a given Far-UVC air sanitizing device. Anything else is just guessing and taking the manufacturer's word for it- with no penalties for exaggeration or even outright lying. To ensure effectiveness, Nukit contracts with a third-party laboratory to test its products in a hermetically sealed chamber against a SARS-CoV-2 analog- showing precisely how effective they will be at their intended use in the real world. There is no guessing, estimates, or claims without accompanying lab results—just proof. Modeling: This Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model uses the data from the GB/T 18801-2022 Air cleaner Appendix H Virus Removal Rate (Human Coronavirus HCoV-229E) test, and the Nukit Lantern spectral data, to show exactly how four Lanterns mounted in the four upper corners of a room inactivate pathogens in the entire space. Suggested Use 6-Watt Nukit Lanterns in 30m3: Viral Inactivation % 2 Nukit Lanterns 74.66% 3 Nukit Lanterns 83.76% 4 Nukit Lanterns 89.07% 5 Nukit Lanterns 94.67% (Click links for lab results) Based on this data, we recommend that customers combine Far-UVC with a high-quality air filter like the Nukit Tempest in each room to handle particulates and install one Nukit Lantern per 10 cubic meters (353 cubic feet) of room size. If you don't have filtration, install at least one Nukit Lantern per 8 cubic meters (282 cubic feet) of room size. Even if you can't afford a very high level of inactivation, the lower the pathogen load in a room, the lower the chances of infection, and according to current evidence, the less severe that infection will likely be. Third-Party Testing Indoor Distribution Radiometry Test Report (Raw IES Data) GB/T 18801-2022 Air cleaner Appendix HVirus Removal Rate (Human Coronavirus HCoV-229E)2 Emitters, 3 Emitters, 4 Emitters, 5 Emitters Nukit Lantern UL Test Report Nukit Lantern CE EMC Report Nukit Lantern CE Certificate of Conformity Nukit Lantern FCC Test Report Nukit Lantern FCC Declaration of Conformity Nukit as seen in The Courier- Evening Telegraph Specifications:Size: 86mm Wide, 45mm Deep, 140mm HighWeight: 248gPower consumption: 6WUV Wavelength: 222nm Far-UVC222nm cut filter: YesPower: 12v DC, 500mAExpected Lifespan: 3000+ Hours General overview of Far-UVC: Intro to Far-UV by Joey Fox (Highly recommended source on air quality issues) Could UV Light Reduce the Spread of Covid-19 in Indoor Spaces? Disinfecting the air with far-ultraviolet light Reducing Indoor Infections: The Economic Potential Citations for effectiveness: Far-UVC light (222 nm) efficiently and safely inactivates airborne human coronaviruses Far-UVC (222 nm) efficiently inactivates an airborne pathogen in a room-sized chamber Far UV-C radiation: An emerging tool for pandemic control Improved estimates of 222 nm far-UVC susceptibility for aerosolized human coronavirus via a validated high-fidelity coupled radiation-CFD code Turn Up the Lights, Leave them On and Shine them All Around—Numerical Simulations Point the Way to more Efficient Use of Far-UVC Lights for the Inactivation of Airborne Coronavirus Citations for safety: Extreme Exposure to Filtered Far-UVC: A Case Study No Evidence of Induced Skin Cancer or Other Skin Abnormalities after Long-Term (66 week) Chronic Exposure to 222-nm Far-UVC Radiation Exposure of Human Skin Models to KrCl Excimer Lamps: The Impact of Optical Filtering 222 nm Far-UVC from filtered Krypton-Chloride excimer lamps does not cause eye irritation when deployed in a simulated office environment Nukit Lantern Far-UVC Lights have a 90-day warranty against manufacturing defects when the product is used as intended.That said, please contact us if there’s a problem that seems unreasonable, and we will do our absolute best to make it right. We’d rather underpromise and over-deliver on service than the other way around.

@cmdrmoto I'd still don't consider #UVC harmless for humans.

  • It works well for surface desinfections and to sterilize objects that can't be chemically or heat/cold-treated.

  • #SafetyDatasheets say it's unsafe for humans in the vicinity.

Regardless, her affordable & effective #PPE designs are really awesome, combining form, function and ingenuity whilst allowing the use of cheap COTS parts and using #3Dprinting sparingly to get like mountings and other parts done that most people can't fabricate cheaply due to lack of spechalized tooling...

@kkarhan Reasonable objection; I don’t trust most UVC either. Cheaper UVC lamps tend to use 450+nm emitters which can give you a sunburn, damage your eyes, or worse.

These use a far-UVC 422nm wavelength which was specifically selected for its inability to penetrate skin and corneas. That’s exactly why these are so appealing (despite being objectively less powerful on the dollars-to-photons scale).

@cmdrmoto granted, I have setup some UVC lamp in fishtank water system ages ago because that stuff can actually kill a lot of stuff in the loop and that stuff had all kinds of safety warnings, including the exlicit demand to never ever run it dry or use the light outside it's casing as it can permanently blind.one within seconds.

  • Granted this was a professional water treatment component and not something consumers are supposed to get their hands on.

However I know that UVC lights with remotes are used for whole-room sterilization systems in like BSL2 and above labs after pressure-washing surfaces with Steam and wiping down everything with 1-Propanol.

  • If in doubt, read the #SafetyDatasheet and stay away from stuff that doesn't come with one - or any #SpecSheet - because w/o professional gear one cannot distinguish a pseudo-white / cold-white blue-is GaAs LED without the yellow photsporous element and real UVC lamps visible emissions.

Unlike say IR where 850nm is faintly red and bright purple on most cameras and 940nm really takes spechal "noIR" unfiltered & Nightvision cameras...

@kkarhan

Generally UV-C, including the mercury line 253,7nm, is very bad for health, efficiently at damaging organisms, thats why they are used for disinfection in general

Its a lucky coincidence that around 220nm is a "window" of wavelenghts that are non longer penetrating outer skin to reach living cells, but also still not produce ozone

Its important that lamps have strict filters, otherwise they also emit dangerous UV!

Here is one good article https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5552051/

@cmdrmoto

Germicidal Efficacy and Mammalian Skin Safety of 222-nm UV Light

We have previously shown that 207-nm ultraviolet (UV) light has similar antimicrobial properties as typical germicidal UV light (254 nm), but without inducing mammalian skin damage. The biophysical rationale is based on the limited penetration distance ...

PubMed Central (PMC)

@Laberpferd @cmdrmoto Which is why people need to really read the SDS before buying, installing and using.

  • After all, the non-skin-penetrating variant also doesn't work for desinfection of entire rooms!

I only had to deal with #UVC lampts that explicitly were not at that window because they were setup as a "#biocide filter" in a water system to kill all fungi, bacteria, viruses and small single/multi-cell organisms that pass through the tube segment they were installed in.

  • In fact, almost all #UV-C Lamps I saw on sale were with a RF remote so they don't get flicked on with a lightswitch, but specifically from outside the room without any occupants in it to prevent exposure (like an X-ray machine at a doctors' office)!

Precise wavelenght filtering is extremely expensive and bulky so unless it's very specific unit designed for that I'd NEVER assume it's safe for any living being whilst in use!

@kkarhan
You are getting closer to understand it right

The lamp that @cmdrmoto has shown is exactly the safe filtered variant that is designed to be used to safely disinfect a room while humans are inside

@Laberpferd @cmdrmoto I'm still not convinced re: safety vs. effectivity, since a effective desinfection would necessitate the unsafe level.

  • Also safety is always in relativity: There's a reason you won't give an X-ray a second thought with a broken limb, but there are good reasons everyone else leaves the room during the actual shot, because radiologists in an ER would otherwise exceed their permissible annual doseage within a shift and their lifetime doseage within a week.

So I'd still leave the room even if it doesn't give me sunburns within seconds and skin cancer within minutes:

  • Because I do like my safety margins wide and comfy, and not tight and risky.

I mean, I know there were some hand desinfectant UVC lights that used such emitters in the past, but I can guess why these were abolished quicker than asbestos gloves...

@kkarhan
At this point i do trust enought in sources like the document from the "Nation Health Service" that i linked, and much more that i could also post, that have verified and accepted these lamps as "not harmful"

Have you read and understood this document at all? With their rxplicit comparision between filtered far-UV versus classic "kill all" UV-C

I do fully agree that "kill all" UV-C is close as dangerous as XRay but this discussion here is not about about these

@cmdrmoto

@Laberpferd @cmdrmoto Okay, then I do need to take a look at said #SafetyDataSheet - as stated before...

Certifications in that regard OFC change things...

  • And I mean like from the lab that certified them and not some CE papers the manufacturer can write and sign off themselves...

Cuz it's one thing if I want a lamp to sterilize water in a fishtank loop or #retrobrite computer parts vs. being exposed to it directly.

Kevin Karhan :verified: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] I'd still don't consider #UVC harmless for humans. - It works well for surface desinfections and to sterilize objects that can't be chemically or heat/cold-treated. - #SafetyDatasheets say it's unsafe for humans in the vicinity. Regardless, her affordable & effective #PPE designs are really awesome, combining form, function and ingenuity whilst allowing the use of cheap COTS parts and using #3Dprinting sparingly to get like mountings and other parts done that most people can't fabricate cheaply due to lack of spechalized tooling...

Infosec.Space

@kkarhan
Exactly, these are two different kinds of lamps that have been optimized for very different purposes

Low-Pressure Mercury lamps are inexpensive; long lived and energy efficient UVC-Lamps that are great for "kill all" desinfections of unoccupied rooms and surfaces, as well as energy source for photochemical reactions

Dedicatedly filtered Far-UV excimer lamps are complicated and more expensive, but they have the unique oint of beeing skin and eye safe