by TLA Staff
Just joining us? Read the first installment of this series – “The ABCs of UV Light” here.
Welcome to the second installment of The Lighting Agency’s four-part series on UV Light. With students returning to classrooms across the country, maintaining a clean and healthy school environment is more important than ever as we enter the 8th month of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this post, we will explore how PURO™ Lighting, powered by Violet Defense™, can be installed as an integral part of your facility’s complete cleaning system.
Read on to learn how you can use PURO™ Lighting, powered by Violet Defense™ to safely disinfect high-touch surfaces without breaking your budget.
In a typical academic year, millions of school days are missed by students due to colds and the flu. Large groups of students and faculty clustered in poorly ventilated indoor spaces can easily transmit bacterial and viral pathogens amongst one another. Historically, excessive student illnesses and high rates of absenteeism due to Norovirus outbreaks, for example, can and have led to the shut-down of entire school buildings for facility-wide disinfection.
As parents and students on a planet currently ravaged by COVID-19 have collectively and painfully discovered, the year 2020 has been anything but typical. Entire school systems and college campuses across the nation and worldwide have been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While exposure to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 occurs through person-to-person contact, there is also extensive evidence to suggest that environmental exposure to this and other pathogens can also result in the transmission of illnesses. Many bacteria and viruses can remain viable on surfaces in classrooms for hours, weeks or even months, placing even more students and staff at continued risk of infection and illness. Illnesses can be spread by touching contaminated surfaces, from toys, shared supplies, door handles, or other high-touch areas.
Accordingly, in addition to precautionary measures such as wearing PPE and social distancing, the World Health Organization recommends that schools:
“…develop a schedule for daily cleaning and disinfection of the school environment, facilities and frequently touches surfaces…”
You can read more about current WHO guidelines here.
Ultraviolet light has a 140-year history of killing microbes in the air and on surfaces and a proven track record of reducing rates of infection from MRSA, C. diff, VRE, and other harmful pathogens. UV-C wave lengths in particular have been shown to have great benefits when combined with other cleaning methods. Researchers at Duke University and the UNC Schools of Medicine found an additional 94% reduction in epidemiological-important pathogens when UV was added to the standard use of quaternary compound disinfectants. 20 Vitally—and in direct comparison to chemical disinfectants—microbes cannot develop resistance to ultraviolet light even as the wavelength attacks and destroy microorganisms at the DNA and RNA level.
While not a “new” disinfecting technology, UV light has rapidly been growing in use in hospital settings—and now also increasingly in schools and universities—as a proven disinfectant for surfaces, instruments, and air.
As a result of advances resulting in the miniaturization of the PURO™ Lighting, powered by Violet Defense™ technology, it is now possible to deploy cost-effective UV disinfectant technology in more settings than ever before. Given the variety of health threats beyond COVID-19 that students and staff may encounter in school buildings such as cold, flu, and norovirus, as well as superbugs like MRSA, ultraviolet light should be considered an essential component of the environmental cleaning protocols for a school or campus regardless of its size.
The ABCs of UV Light
To re-cap from The ABCs of UV Light, these are the three key ways that PURO™ Lighting contributes to healthy indoor air quality, and a toxin-free learning environment, for students and teachers:
- Chemical-free cleaning – no harsh solutions and no residue left behind.
- Does not emit O3 – and any UV created by ultraviolet radiation typically dissipates within 15 minutes.
- Economical and Environmentally Friendly – PURO™ Lighting, powered by Violet Defense™, utilizes “miniaturized” technology for minimal environmental impact during the manufacturing process, is portable, and can be plugged into a standard 110v outlet.
TLA is here to help answer your location-specific questions and navigate the process of identifying, installing, and implementing the best UV Light System for your needs using PURO™ Lighting, powered by Violet Defense™.
Contact your TLA sales representative or our inside lighting sales team for more information on any of the products above.
You can also check out the EVENTS section in this newsletter or click over to our website EVENTS page for upcoming trainings, seminars and virtual tradeshows.
And be sure to join us for the next two parts in this series as we cover:
- Healthcare Applications
- The Value of Green Cleaning
Thank you so much for joining us today on the blog!