Researchers discovered that sunlight is now more effective when it comes to neutralizing the novel coronavirus, which is the one causing the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. They claimed that sunlight is now eight times faster than before.
According to Explica's latest report, the latest sunlight study was conducted by different universities. These include Oregon State University, University of Manchester, ETH Zurich, and UC Santa Barbara.
However, the researchers explained that persistence and exposure risk still vary significantly between outdoor and indoor locations.
"The theory had predicted that inactivation should occur an order of magnitude slower," said Paulo Luzzatto-Fegiz, a UC Santa Barbara Professor of mechanical engineering.
"In experiments, viruses in simulated saliva and exposed to UV-B lamps went inactive more than eight times faster than the theory would have predicted," added the lead author of the study.
Why sunlight can now neutralize COVID-19 faster
Wonderful Engineering reported that the new study was published by the Journal of Infectious Diseases. It explained that previous researches include UV-B rays to be effective at inactivating the deadly virus.
They also didn't find any effect of UV-A rays when it comes to neutralizing the novel coronavirus. However, the new study proved that the UV-A rays are more effective compared to UV-B types.
The researchers added that they could help medical experts and scientists to have a new approach that could effectively stop the spread of COVID-19. Luzzatto-Fezig also added that these rays could be speeding up the inactivation process.
What previous studies show
Recent studies said that sunlight can inactivate the novel coronavirus for between ten to 20 minutes. However, UV light could now do this in less than ten or 20 minutes, thanks to the newly found effects of sunlight's UV-A rays.
The latest study's conducted experiments revealed that the simulated saliva viruses were neutralized eight times faster using UV-B lamps. On the other hand, if the UV-A rays would be proven effective, this could help prevent the virus's further spread since most indoor lights and LED bulbs produce stronger UV-A radiation compared to the sun itself.
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Written by: Giuliano de Leon
