UV-C light has been used for many years to disinfect surfaces and sanitize drinking water. Today, with the emergence of the pandemic, we have hospital grade UV light, a UV sanitizer that’s used in commercial places, schools, and restaurants. The UV-C systems are used to disinfect against a wide range of pathogens and mold and that’s part of the reason why it’s used in other businesses other than hospitals. Different companies have come up with hospital-grade disinfection units for businesses like restaurants and hotels.
How Do You Check If Your UV-C System Is Working?
There are different ways for checking the performance of systems like R-Zero UV light disinfection of hospitals. Here are some ways that you can do that:
Dose-response models
This measures the UV dose of a particular cycle. The results are used to estimate the effectiveness of your UV-C systems in hospitals and any other place where it’s used. There is a straightforward relationship between UV dose and disinfection. Companies use UV dosimeters which are the most accurate way of measuring narrow-spectrum UV light to prove that the room is disinfected. If you’re considering getting a UV light room disinfection device based on the said company’s UV dosimetry data, make sure you read up more on the mathematical dose-response models for antimicrobial efficacy.
Tests done in a microbiology lab
Laboratory tests are the most common types of data representation type of data that is presented to UV buyers. If a laboratory test is well conducted, it gives a clear picture of the UV’s device capabilities and allows you to compare between different devices. The laboratory studies are designed similar to the hospital tests but are under controlled conditions while making use of high concentrations of disease-causing microorganisms. Laboratory tests are sometimes referred to as In-vitro tests.
Environmental Effectiveness Tests
This is a great way to test for the effectiveness of UV-C systems. This test is done by taking a swab of the room before and after the UV disinfection. Environmental effectiveness test is easy to carry out and to measure the effect of a UV device after it is used. However an environmental swab study has several problematic factors that make it the least reliable way to test UV-C system effectiveness. Some of these issues include:
UV efficacy is determined in mathematical nature
Laboratory techniques used to catalog microorganisms on the test swabs have poor limit detection. This means that feasible cells available on the surface will not be detected because they appear in low numbers.
The microbiological technique used
Results of your environmental swab studies depend on the sampling method used. Meaning that different sampling methods yield different results.
Impact of spore formation
While sampling, you are likely to pick up non-pathogenic spores. Almost 50% of bacteria picked up from swab surfaces are not pathogenic. This becomes a challenge for any researcher to determine the disinfection rates since it is supposed to be done on pathogenic microbes
There are different ways to check the disinfection rate of a UV-C system. Before you decide to purchase any device, make sure you do your research and choose one that will work best for your business.
