What Is UVC and How Can It Help Sanitize My Items and Environment?

Our prognosis may seem brighter than it was this time last year. However, that doesn’t mean that the coronavirus pandemic will come to an end any time soon. Until it does, keeping our most-touched surfaces and our air cleaned, purified, and sanitized is of critical importance.

While most of us rely on antibacterial or antiviral wipes to clean our possessions and our surroundings, they might not be the most effective at killing the diseases we need to destroy. UVC sanitation products have swept in to fill this need in a time of cleaning product shortages.

What are these UVC sanitization products? How, exactly, do they work? Here’s what you need to know.

What Is UVC?

So, let’s start off with the basics. What is UVC?

UVC is a type of ultraviolet light that’s more effective than its spectrum mates (UVA and UVB) at killing microbes. This type of UV light gets blocked by our planet’s atmosphere, making it a rare find in the wild.

That’s a good thing! UV rays in general, but especially UVC rays, can harm the delicate tissues of our eyes. Think about it: If this type of UV light can break down viruses at the cellular level, it can break down the tissues in your eyes as well.

How Does UVC Technology Work?

We touched on this briefly above, but UVC technology works by exposing the product contained within its boundaries to a barrage of UVC rays. UVC rays, as the shortest wavelengths of the UV spectrum, can pierce through the defenses of even the most resilient pathogens.

This makes UVC sanitization doubly helpful in clinical and industrial settings, as it can kill off even those bugs that have become resistant to traditional methods of treatment. (e.g. Antibiotic or antibacterial-resistant strains.)

What Can UVC Products Clean?

The most common uses of UVC products that you’ll see nowadays are home-based. They’ll be used to sanitize phones, controllers, and other common electronic germ breeding grounds. (This is especially helpful since some of these electronics can be damaged by the chemicals in most cleaners.)

Otherwise, you’ll see them used to sterilize tools and surfaces in medical facilities.

However, by far one of the best uses of UV light is to clean and filter bacteria from the air itself. UVC air sanitizers are among the most effective on the market for reducing the spread of viruses and other nasty superbugs. Both home and commercial HVAC units can benefit from a UVC sanitizer like those sold at Kahnmechanical.com, so don’t hesitate to pick one up for yourself.

Let’s Review the Facts

UVC technology is a relative newcomer to the home and commercial sanitization market, after spending years as a medical industry exclusive. It’s uniquely effective at destroying germs, but must do so away from human eyes, as it can damage them. As such, it can clean things that prove resistant to ordinary methods.

All told, UVC is a bacteria killer that you need to have on your side. If you need more information about this helpful cleaning technology, check out our blog each day for more articles like this one!