What is Far UV

skin safe UV

Q : Is far UV (200 – 225 nm) 'skin safe'

A : Far UV-C is high-energy radiation which can directly damage DNA and key organic molecules such as proteins. The biophysical basis for the claims that Far UV-C is ‘skin and eye safe’ is that the damaging radiation is entirely absorbed within the outer, dead, layers of skin and eye and does not reach the inner, live cells; if the radiation were to hit these cells (which happens at longer wavelengths like 254 nm or longer), they would be damaged as a result. An increasing number of studies have been published discussing acute and chronic exposure to Far UV-C, most commonly using optically-filtered Kr-Cl excimer lamps. These studies have investigated the effects of Far UV-C radiation on mice and human tissues by measuring key chemical and physical changes known to indicate damage from UV-C exposure. It was found that these same damage indicators were not observed under Far UV-C irradiation. (Yamano et al., 2022, Yamano et al. , 2022; Buonanno et al., 2017; Narita et al., 2018)

Additionally, the exposure of humans to ultraviolet radiation is the subject of numerous regulations and standards worldwide: 2006/25/EC (Europe), ACGIH 2022 TLVs (USA), and IEC 64271 (CB Scheme, global) all employ an actinic UV hazard curve which lists all UV-C, including Far UV-C, as potentially harmful, though the Far UV-C range being the least (and significantly less than 254nm or longer wavelengths). These standards therefore define an upper limit to how much Far UV-C radiation the human body can be exposed to. This would then need to be compared to the dose that humans are being exposed to over typically 8 hours.

data source : https://www.iuva.org/iuva-covid-19-faq?fbclid=IwAR0O_oafzTr9h2SYszoYgW37gBNlEDeoG9tkKXayPV8wH2CKwaEBnAFsq6A