Rohit Shishodia
DRDO’s Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) and Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) have developed an Ultraviolet C light based sanitization box and hand held UV-C (ultraviolet light with wavelength 254 nanometers) device.

“The UV-C consists of a shorter, more energetic wavelength of light. It is particularly good at destroying genetic material in corona virus. The radiation warps the structure RNA which prevents the viral particles from making more copies of themselves,” said DRDO in a press release.

“The UV-C kills microbes quickly. Sanitization of the items by employing UV-C light avoids the harmful effects of the chemicals used for disinfection. This is environment friendly and is a contact free effective sanitisation method,” reads the press release.

According to DRDO, the UV-C box is designed for disinfecting personal belongings like mobile phone, tablets, purse, currency, cover of office files, etc. COVID-19 virus will be deactivated by using UVC lamps in one minute placed equi-distantly in a box with UV dose of 100 mJ/cm2. The UV lamps used in the sanitisation box also emits 185 nm which produces ozone and is able to take care of the unexposed area on the surfaces of the objects placed in the box.

The hand held device having eight watt UV-C lamp disinfects office and house hold objects like chairs, files, postal delivered items and food packets with an exposure of 45 second at a 100 mJ/cm2 irradiance placed at a distance of less than two inches.  This measure can reduce the transmission of Coronavirus in office and public environment which is required to work in all conditions.