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UV Lamp Air Purification Could Reduce Worker Sickness (Part 2)
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The use of the air purification lights resulted in a 99% reduction of the concentration of germs on irradiated surfaces within the ventilation systems.
Some weeks, use of the air purifier lamps resulted in a 20% overall reduction in all symptoms for some workers; a 40% reduction in respiratory symptoms and a 30% reduction in mucous problems. The benefits were greatest for workers with allergies and for people who had never smoked.
With the air purifier lights switched on, the frequency of muscle complaints among nonsmokers halved and the incidence of work-related breathing problems among them dropped by 60%.
Wladyslaw Jan Kowalski, an architectural engineer at Pennsylvania State University's Indoor Environment Center, said the air purifier study may be a landmark in proving that the technique could be cost-effective in commercial office buildings.
Kowalski, who was not involved with the research, also said the UV light air purification approach could be useful in the broader effort to combat contagious diseases such as flu, SARS, tuberculosis and cold viruses.
"Theoretically, if a large number of schools, office buildings and residences were modified, a number of airborne respiratory diseases could be eradicated by interrupting the transmission cycle," Kowalski said. "Reducing the transmission rate sufficiently would ... halt epidemics in their path."
However, Roy Anderson, an infectious diseases expert at Imperial College in London, said disinfecting ventilation systems by itself would not stamp out outbreaks of contagious respiratory diseases.
"Transport is particularly important — buses, subways, trains and airplanes," said Anderson, who was not connected with study. Disease also spreads through personal contact.
"You've got multiple methods of transmission and for control, you need to address all of them. It's an interesting new approach worth pursuing, but it needs detailed investigation," Anderson said.
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