CIE issues a statement on using ultraviolet radiation to manage the risk of COVID-19 transmission

There is significant international interest in using ultraviolet radiation to manage/interfere with COVID-19 transmission risks, and this interest is growing rapidly as the pandemic spreads daily around the world. Therefore, CIE has issued a position statement on two recently made freely available CIE publications related to UV-C applications. In the past two months, these contents have been viewed more than 10,000 times in total.

The new CIE position statement summarizes the aforementioned two publications and provides the latest insights in this field to explain the most important aspects of using ultraviolet radiation, particularly UV-C (100nm to 280nm), for managing and controlling the spread of this infectious disease.

该立场声明的部分要点如下：

UV-C is extremely useful for air and surface disinfection or water disinfection. However, CIE and WHO warn against using UV disinfection lamps to disinfect hands or any other skin areas (WHO, 2020) unless there is clinical evidence.

UV-C is extremely hazardous to humans and animals; therefore, only products compliant with safety regulations should be used, or use must be restricted to highly controlled environments where safety is the top priority, ensuring limits specified in ICNIRP (2004) and IEC/CIE (2006) are not exceeded.

UV-C causes photodegradation of materials; this issue should be considered when susceptible materials (e.g., plastics) are exposed to the environment.

There is an urgent need for more research on the safety of new UV-C light sources, particularly regarding safe thresholds for avoiding photokeratitis (corneal 'sunburn', ultraviolet keratitis).

To conduct proper UV assessment and risk management, appropriate UV radiation measurement must be performed.

Click below to read the full statement: Read More.