By TOSHIHIKO NINOMIYA/ Staff Writer
July 5, 2020 at 07:00 JST
Irradiation from deep ultraviolet LED light renders the novel coronavirus inactive, according to what could be trailblazing research.
Nikkiso Co., a Tokyo-based medical equipment maker that developed the light, teamed up with the University of Miyazaki’s Faculty of Medicine to gauge the effect of LEDs installed in Nikkiso’s Aeropure air purifier.
They said their findings, released May 27, were a world-first.
The purifier, equipped with the deep UV-LED, is aimed primarily at preventing in-hospital infections.
The light is said to be effective in sterilizing water and air since its wavelength is shorter than that of typical ultraviolet light.
Nikkiso installed the deep UV-LED in the air purifier that it began manufacturing and selling to hospitals in January.
In late April, the maker and the university’s Faculty of Medicine tried irradiating the coronavirus on a petri dish with the LED light.
The researchers tested two sets of irradiation time, 30 seconds and 60 seconds, and found that in both cases, 99.9 percent of the virus was rendered “inactive,” meaning it was no longer infectious.
Although the novel coronavirus is not believed to pose a wind-borne threat, Hiroshi Sameshima, director of a hospital affiliated with the faculty, is confident that the LED light is effective against the virus.
“It will serve as a weapon against the virus,” Sameshima said. “We intend to study it further.”
In November, Nikkiso and the medicine faculty set up a course to engage in collaborative research on ways to improve medical care environment, including measures against in-hospital infections.
They decided to carry out the experiment on the LED light because the COVID-19 pandemic was raging.
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Deep ultraviolet LED installed in these air purifiers renders the novel coronavirus inactive. This photo was taken at the University of Miyazaki’s Faculty of Medicine on May 27. (Toshihiko Ninomiya)
