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Virus inactivation and skin safety studies using far- UVC LEDs

D. Welch1, M. Buonanno1, C. Petersen1, I. Shuryak1, T. Filler2, N. Lobo-Ploch2, D.J. Brenner1

Published in:

Photochem Photobiol., vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 48-56, doi:10.1111/php.14115 (2026).

Abstract:

Reducing airborne disease transmission is a public health goal. Far-UVC light, defined as 200–235 nm, is a promising technology to inactivate viruses within occupied spaces. This work examines state of the art far-UVC emitting LEDs, with a center emission wavelength of 233 nm, for virus inactivation efficacy and for DNA damage to skin models. The LEDs were used to expose an aerosolized surrogate of SARS-CoV2, the human coronavirus OC43, and survival results estimated a susceptibility constant of k233-aerosol = 4.0 ± 0.2 cm2/mJ, which corre- sponds to a D90 of 0.58 mJ/cm2. HCoV-OC43 was also exposed after drying on a plastic or glass surface, and inactivation results estimated susceptibility values of k1_233-plastic = 6.7 ± 3.8 cm2/mJ and k1_233-glass = 7.2 ± 3.0 cm2/mJ which were not significantly different. For safety evaluation, human skin biopsies exposed to 100 mJ/cm2 from the 233 nm LEDs indicated only 8% of the epidermal cells were positive for DNA damage, whereas the same dose from a 254 nm lamp showed damage in 45% of epidermal cells. A radiant exposure of 100 mJ/cm2 from the 233 nm LEDs did not produce DNA double strand breaks within the skin biopsies. These tests for the safety and efficacy of a 233 nm far-UVC LED system provide support for the continued development of far-UVC LED sources.

1 Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York, USA
2 Ferdinand- Braun- Institut (FBH), Berlin, Germany

Topics:

far-UVC, LEDs, ultraviolet, virus inactivation

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
© 2025 The Author(s). Photochemistry and Photobiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Photobiology.
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