With Corona virus sweeping the globe, demand for virus killing ultraviolet light machines is increasing.
Right now we're offering all the units that we have at no cost because we understand the magnitude of this situation and we wanna do whatever we can to help One of the key places these ultraviolet light machines are being put to work is airplanes.
With people packed tight and lots of high-tough surfaces, planes are just as much a form of transportation for germs as they are for us.
That's where the GermFalcon comes in.
Jaren Falcon is designed specifically for the interior of an airplane.
It's built on the footprint of a flight attendants food and drink cart.
And it has these wings that reach out over the seats and under the overhead bins and it's lined with these ultraviolet UVC lights.
And they're strategically positioned to deliver high doses of these UVC lights to all the commonly touch surfaces on an airplane.
If you're wondering how light can kill viruses consider how the sun's rays burn our skin, especially mine.
You've probably seen sunglasses or sunscreen advertising protection from both UVA and UVB light.
The sun also emits a higher energy UVC light, like the kind created by the germ Falcon.
But it doesn't penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, meaning Earth germs haven't had any reason to develop immunity to it.
UVC lights been used in hospitals for a long time and it is very reliable and very fast to kill all known pathogens, bacteria, viruses, and superbugs is what it's typically used for in hospitals, on airplanes we're really concerned with viruses like coronavirus.
Ebola, influenza and norovirus are the good ones.
UVC isn't the only method of disinfecting a plane, but it does have some significant advantages over the chemical disinfectants we usually use.
Chemical disinfectants are highly flammable.
They tend to remove the flame retardant coatings on airplane surfaces that are required by law.
And most of the time if you look at the chemical disinfectants you have at home If you read the fine print, they're only to be used in well ventilated areas which is not the interior of an airplane.
They're only supposed to be used on hard non porous surfaces, which is probably 60% of the airplane cabin but the other 40% is leathers fabrics to sanitize one of these surfaces, which is to kill bacteria.
You need to leave the surface visibly wet for 10 seconds and then wipe it dry.
To kill viruses to disinfect, you need to keep the surface visibly wet for up to 4 minutes, and they're not doing that on their points.
This ultraviolet germ killing technology is also being put to use in another critical battlefield in the fight against disease causing microbes, hospitals.
A company called UVD robots has been deploying ultraviolet disinfecting robots to hospitals around the globe.
Since, 2018.
It claims to offer the only autonomous battery powered ultraviolet robots currently available.
These UV disinfecting robots have been deployed in about 50 countries so far.
They're not fully active in the United States yet, but they are being tested in Florida.
Dimer the company behind the germ Falcon also has a unit made for hospitals called the UV hammer.
A great option in operating rooms.
It'll work in patient rooms on both sides of a curtain.
There's no cord that potentially picks up drums off the floor and takes them to the next room.
Our unit disinfects its own wheels.
It'll also work in classrooms.
It'll work in airport terminals, where it's currently being used to work in hotels, cruise ships, restaurants, gyms, and eventually we wanna get to a household unit.
Dimer is also working on a UV disinfecting robot for the International Space Station, as well as a handheld UVC device called the UV blue eye.
Though Elliott had some words of warning about handheld UVC devices in general We don't recommend handheld units because they either don't do a good job killing germs or the lamps are so strong that you could potentially hurt yourself when
Elliot couldn't reveal pricing information on the germ Falcon.
But he did say that they're working on ramping up production to meet the increasing demand for folks out there hoping to give the germs in their home or apartment a nice little sunburn You may have to wait a while.
Available for your home is probably a couple of years down the road.
The good news is the germs in your house are overwhelmingly your own germs, the germs on your cell phone are overwhelmingly your own germs, and those aren't gonna get you sick, but when you get on an airplane, it's specifically everyone else's germs, as much as someone might like to disinfect their household the way that a hospital would It's a bigger issue on airplanes in the immediate future for sure.
Hope you enjoyed the first video from my apartment in the age of social distancing.
Thanks so much for watching.
See you next time.