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Can Sunlight Kill the Coronavirus?

Sunlight contains three types of ultraviolet light – UVA, which tans your skin (and ages it)
and can cause eye damage; UVB which burns and also ages skin, and UVC, which is ‘the most
harmful one” because it’s quite good at destroying genetic material, explains Juan Leon, a
virologist who focuses on environmental health at Emory University. Luckily, he notes, the
sun’s UVC rays don’t reach us because they are filtered out by Earth’s atmosphere.
Sunlight can be a good disinfectant with other pathogens. Leon notes that’s why in the
developing worlds, the World Health Organization recommends sterilizing water by putting it
in plastic containers and leaving it outside in the sun for about 5 hours.
“Right now, there is no data on whether the UVA rays of the sun inactivate this
coronavirus,” says Leon. However, research on SARS, another coronavirus closely related to
the one causing the current pandemic, found that exposing that virus to UVA light for 15
minutes did nothing to reduce its inefectivity, Leon says.
The results with UVC light were more promising, notes virologist Julia Silva Sobolik, a
researcher in Leon’s lab at Emory. “UVC for longer duration, over 15 minutes, was found to
be more effective at inactivating SARS,” she says.
In fact, UVC light is frequently used to sterilized equipment in medical settings, says Leon.
But while UVC products are available for consumers to buy, there aren’t really any uniform
performance standards, and testing validation can vary greatly, according to the International
ultraviolet Association. Besides, UV light of any kind can be harmful to eyes and skin – and
UVC is the most damaging kind, so you’d have be extra careful and properly trained not to
seriously hurt yourself, experts say. And you definitely shouldn’t try to use any kind of UV
light to disinfect your body, WHO has warned. For disinfecting your body, soap and water will
do the trick.
That said, researchers believe UVC light has a part to play in the fight against the
coronavirus. In China and Italy, UVC-wielding robots reportedly are being deployed to
disinfect hospitals.

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