Air purifiers with UVC are gimmicks. For safety reasons, the UVC light (which can take hours to kill/inactivate almost everything present) has to be emitted within the machine which means it will act upon pumped air that will be sent through a HEPA filter anyways (which filters at or above 99.7% of the most penetrating particle size of ~0.3 microns).
Intuitively, UVGI should possess substantial pathogen destroying potential. This study(1) states, “35% (106/304) of guinea pigs in the control group developed TB infection, and this was reduced to 14% (43/303) by ionizers, and to 9.5% (29/307) by UV lights (both p < 0.0001 compared with the control group).”
Far-UVC (safe for mammals but not particles and bacteria) that can economically bathe a room (top and bottom) is the holy grail and probably deserving of at least exploratory funding.
Air purifiers with UVC are gimmicks. For safety reasons, the UVC light (which can take hours to kill/inactivate almost everything present) has to be emitted within the machine which means it will act upon pumped air that will be sent through a HEPA filter anyways (which filters at or above 99.7% of the most penetrating particle size of ~0.3 microns).
Intuitively, UVGI should possess substantial pathogen destroying potential. This study(1) states, “35% (106/304) of guinea pigs in the control group developed TB infection, and this was reduced to 14% (43/303) by ionizers, and to 9.5% (29/307) by UV lights (both p < 0.0001 compared with the control group).”
Far-UVC (safe for mammals but not particles and bacteria) that can economically bathe a room (top and bottom) is the holy grail and probably deserving of at least exploratory funding.
1) Escombe AR, Moore DAJ, Gilman RH, Navincopa M, Ticona E, Mitchell B, et al. Upper-room ultraviolet light and negative air ionization to prevent tuberculosis transmission. PLoS Med. 2009;6:e43 (https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000043)