To UVC, Or Not To UVC

I have a new girlfriend. Her name is Tru-D ™ . No not Trudi, or Trudy.

Ok seriously I don’t have a girl fiend, my wife would kill me!

Tru-D™ is the trademark name of the company Tru-D Smart UVC. It is now a subsidiary of PDI Global Infection Experts Inc. It is a system we use at the hospital I work at to sterilize a room after a patient with a particularly nasty bug as been treated in or was an patient in.

Why UV-C ?

UV-C light is a wavelength of Ultraviolet light. Specifically 100-280 nanometers. Out side of that its either UV-A or UV-B. The UV region covers the wavelength range 100-400 nm and is divided into three bands: UVA (315-400 nm) UVB (280-315 nm) UVC (100-280 nm)

How does it work?

UVC Kills cells and viruses, by disrupting the DNA and or RNA of the cell or virus. That is why its very important to NOT EXPOSE LIVING TISSUES OR PLANTS TO UVC LIGHT. Seriously it well severely damage your skin after prolonged exposure. And it will really damage your eyes.


UV-C takes time to kill. Just like hand sanitizer or bleach, contact time is the key. When I prep a patient
I use a tool called a Chloraprep. Its a combunation of alcohol and chlorahexadine. Or sometimes I use Betadyne, and iodine detergent solution. Either way they have to dry completely before I can move on to draping my patient.


Lets go back and review one thing.

DO NOT EXPOSE LIVING TISSUES OR PLANTS TO UVC LIGHT.

UV-C is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Care needs to be used when using it.

Okay, now that is out of the way….


How long
do I need to expose an item to UV light?

The Tru-D system is placed in one of our cath labs for 2 hours. And about the same amount of time for a patients room. I did some experiments on bacteria plates. I made agar plates mixed with sugar and the “blood” that you get on the bottom of a packaged beef roast. And some, where the juice from raw chicken was mixed into the agar. I made multiple samples of each. 1 was a control and plated and let grow for 2 days in a bleach sterilized box out on the back porch. (Hey its South Carolina and it perfect temps and humidity!)

The others I placed into my home made UVC box. 1 sample (each sample was 2 items 1 beef 1 chicken soaked on to paper, plastic and mild steel rounds.) I “cooked” each one for different times. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes and 30 minutes.

The results.

Each sample was placed on a agar plate and left to do its thing for 2 days. I found the 10 minute setting did not allow any bacteria to grow from any of the samples. 1,2 and 5 minutes still allowed some bacteria to grow. 10 minutes and on, there was no growth.

Of Note.

I am not a microbiologist nor a virologist. At one time many years ago I was a MLT. Medical Laboratory Technician with my ASCP (American Society of Clinical Pathologist) certification. My results are not a “perfect” scientific process. I’m sure there are holes in my process. But I am confidant that I did maintain sterile technique and good plating practices.

What WE put in the box.

The items we put in the box is all our mail. Unless it is something perishable. Our used masks. Since they still at a premium I reprocess them at least 3-5 times. I set it for 10 minutes. The reason I settled on the number is 1. My plates consistently did not grow anything at 10 minutes. And my hospital has a room, really a closet, that we reprocess our masks in. They run the masks for 5 minutes. So to play it safe, I doubled the hospital time.

The Build

I started with a basic medium sized box. I taped the bottom closed to keep it flat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Value foil, Glue stick and Hot glue gun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each side was overlapped and glue applied

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All sides foiled up and the light installed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing is GOOD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A metal dish rack is used to hold everything apart. You can also hang the items.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Parts.

In reality everything an be purchased at Walmart but the lamp. I will say one thing about the light. It took 5 of them before I got one that was with in spectrum.  The 2 were in the UV-B spectrum at 300 nanometers. 2 were blue light at 450 nm The 5th came in at 280nm. It is a LED UV-C 60 watts.

I tried the higher watt lights and they got REAL hot. Didn’t feel safe. This is still an experiment. The Medic Shack makes no warranty nor claim on suitability or infection control.

Right now I can not recommend ANY of the UV light sources from Amazon. I got lucky with one. By being a persistent pain in the ass. Calling on a daily basis and testing testing and MORE TESTING.  And I thank the gods for my education in microbiology, And, not trusting even people in a traffic circle.

What does work

Now THIS device I have ordered and will give a full report on. The Medisan UVC Tower  Consumer reports gives it a 4.9 out of 5. At 100 bucks it, to me is a much better buy. Look for my report on this device soon.

SARS-2 is driving us all Bat Poop Crazy! we’re trying ANYTHING to protect ourselves. I even wrote about that a few weeks ago right here Please do not fall for the latest get rich schemes OR the I can cure Covid schemes. Be suspicious. Be careful and most of all be smart.  A few days ago I posted a bit of wisdom. ( Okay it was a smart assed remark!)

Chuck’s Wisdom

“With this virus going around we have forgotten about the most dangerous virus there is. The ID-10T virus. it has killed more people over the history of this planet than any other bug.”

Please do not fall prey to the ID-10T disease.

Next time, back to basics. With all the hubub of the virus, protests, riots for and against LEO’s. We’ve got sloppy. We’ll talk about that later.

 

 

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