i started wondering whether uv lamps (like blacklights) might be useful to dry dishes washed with unfiltered water here. our main danger in unfiltered water is angiostrongylus cantonensis (the cause of "rat lung worm", or angiostrongyliasis).
i searched "uv light for angiostrongylus" and got this excellent open access article from PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases - a journal that i used to be editorial manager of 😁 :https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6772140/
it's a very nice literature review on the effects of uv light on various helminths that negatively affect human health.
the article included the following info: "Similarly, larvae of the nematode A. cantonensis exposed for 15 minutes to UV-A light were unable to develop inside an animal host."
blacklights are UV-A and i am now considering treating washed dishes with the blacklight in addition to air-drying them for a minimum 24 hours (which i already do).
i am very happy to have found this info, thankful to the scientists who did the research, and thankful to everyone who makes open access work. it feels pretty neat to have been a small contributing part of this incredibly complex knowledge production line, and to now be a beneficiary of the open knowledge that was produced.
working at PLOS wasn't always a picnic, but the scientists i worked with were amazing people with integrity, who genuinely cared about the research and the people impacted by the subjects they were researching. i feel proud to have facilitated the publication and sharing of their research findings to anyone - without subscriptions!
#OpenAccess #science #NTDs #offgrid #homestead #hawaii #RLW