Upper-room ultraviolet air disinfection might help to reduce COVID-19 transmission in buildings: a feasibility study.
Upper-room ultraviolet air disinfection might help to reduce COVID-19 transmission in buildings: a feasibility study.
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作者：
Beggs CB;Avital EJ
随着世界经济走出新冠肺炎疫情造成的封锁，迫切需要技术来缓解建筑物等密闭空间中的新冠肺炎传播。这项可行性研究着眼于一种这样的技术，即上层房间紫外线(UV)空气消毒，当人类在房间里时，这种技术可以安全使用，并且已经证明其作为一种干预措施的有效性，以抑制麻疹和结核病等空气传播疾病的传播。从不同来源公布的数据显示，新冠肺炎的病原体SARS-CoV-2病毒在悬浮在空气中时，极有可能对UV-C损伤敏感，UV敏感性常数可能在0.377-0.590 m2/J之间，与其他气雾化冠状病毒相似。因此，消毒病毒所需的UV-C通量预计对上层房间的应用是可接受和安全的。通过对预期和最坏情况的分析，证明了上层房间UV-C方法在有限空间(具有中等但足够的天花板高度)中减少新冠肺炎传播的有效性。此外，研究表明，对于SARS-CoV-2，使用上层房间紫外线空气消毒应该可以实现高当量换气率，这表明该技术可能特别适用于通风不良的空间。
As the world’s economies come out of the lockdown imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need for technologies to mitigate COVID-19 transmission in confined spaces such as buildings. This feasibility study looks at one such technology, upper-room ultraviolet (UV) air disinfection, that can be safely used while humans are present in the room space, and which has already proven its efficacy as an intervention to inhibit the transmission of airborne diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. Using published data from various sources, it is shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of COVID-19, is highly likely to be susceptible to UV-C damage when suspended in air, with a UV susceptibility constant likely to be in the region 0.377–0.590 m2/J, similar to that for other aerosolised coronaviruses. As such, the UV-C flux required to disinfect the virus is expected to be acceptable and safe for upper-room applications. Through analysis of expected and worst-case scenarios, the efficacy of the upper-room UV-C approach for reducing COVID-19 transmission in confined spaces (with moderate but sufficient ceiling height) is demonstrated. Furthermore, it is shown that with SARS-CoV-2, it should be possible to achieve high equivalent air change rates using upper-room UV air disinfection, suggesting that the technology might be particularly applicable to poorly ventilated spaces.