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Ultraviolet light can kill almost all the viruses in a room. Why isn’t it everywhere? (www.vox.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Because we have skin and eyeballs?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't explain why we don't use them to sanitize rooms while we're not in them.

What does explain it is that UV also damages stuff too. You use it to sanitize your living room, and soon the fabric on your couches will start losing their color. The paint on your walls will start flaking off. The plastic frames of the frames on the wall will start crumbling away or turning sticky. Nobody wants that in their house.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

UV is used to sanitize stuff when people aren't around but yeah, it does damage a lot of materials so that's a pretty limiting factor. I've seen them used inside air circulators to kill bacteria for over a decade too (usually in hospitals and restaurant kitchens).