The impact of UV lighting has been and will continue to be profound. The coronavirus and other recent new or previously existing contagious diseases such as bird flu, measles, tuberculosis, hand, foot and mouth disease, E coli, salmonella, MRSA, C Diff, mold, monkeypox, Ebola, and others have proven in an increasingly interconnected world that there are no real borders when it comes to infectious disease. Throughout recorded history, one out of every three people born has died of an infectious disease.

Bottom line: widespread usage of UV could dramatically reduce the spread and potentially eradicate many of these pathogens, saving billions of lives and trillions of dollars. It is arguably the most significant, unaddressed solvable threat in human history.

To date, we are unaware of any bacteria, viruses, fungi, or allergens that far UV light has not been able to successfully inactivate or kill. Efficacy data confirming 99.9% bioburden reduction or better is available specifically assessing Krypton 222nm far UV devices against organisms such as SARS-CoV-2 (the pathogen associated with COVID-19), other coronaviruses or rhinoviruses, influenza, foodborne illnesses caused by E. coli and Salmonella, hospital-acquired infections (HAI) caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), and even allergens such as pollen, dust mites, and mold (aspergillus niger). The rapidly growing list, including the pathogens and surrogates published by the International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA), Columbia University Medical Center, Wiley, and several others is available upon request.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/php.13724

There is ample publicly available peer-reviewed literature available. Links for a few of these and other webinars are supplied below from some of the leading subject matter experts in the industry. We add to this list periodically so, don’t hesitate to review often:

• Research Article (Skin Safety Study) – No Evidence of Induced Skin Cancer or Other Skin Abnormalities after Long-Term Chronic Exposure to 222-nm Far-UVC Radiation
• New York Times – We Have the Technology to Stop Superspreading Without Masks
• Medical Device News Magazine – Overcoming COVID Fatigue for a Brighter Future
• Facility Executive – Far UV Light is Significant Tool for Layered Disinfection in Facilities
• TIME: If We’re Going to Live With COVID-19, It’s Time to Clean Our Indoor Air Properly – By Ed Nardell, Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Far UV-C Radiation: Current State-of Knowledge – a scientific review of Far UV-C technology and the state of the art research featuring key conclusions made through analysis of published literature and collation of expert knowledge at the IUVA.
• NHS Tayside, University of Leeds, Columbia University Medical Center – Confirming Far UV ability to provide 35 Air Changes per Hour Equivalent in real world settings – https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-908156/v1/a54f46e0-47eb-4424-942f-b162aa4970fe.pdf?c=1631889559
• Queen Mary University of London – Estimating airborne efficacy comparable to N95 mask – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-76597-y
• University of Colorado Boulder – UV Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 across the UVC spectrum https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34495736/
• New England Journal of Medicine – Infectivity study – https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2004973
• Hiroshima University – Effectiveness of 222-nm ultraviolet light on disinfecting the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen which causes COVID-19 – https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(20)30809-9/fulltext
• Columbia University Medical Center – Efficacy of 222-nm on airborne coronaviruses – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67211-2
• Columbia University Medical Center – Airborne efficacy study –https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21058-w
• Columbia University Medical Center – Webinar – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iJuSNI3Y98
• Columbia University Medical Center – Skin safety study –https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5552051/
• Columbia University Medical Center – Public-Health significance of far-UVC-induced indoor ozone –https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/php.13892
• Kobe University – Skin safety study – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/php.13269
• British Journal of Dermatology – Skin safety study – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjd.19816
• Kobe University – Skin safety study – https://www.ushio.com/ushio-inc-and-kobe-university-have-achieved-the-worlds-first-successful-reduction-of-bacteria-using-ultraviolet-irradiation-that-is-harmless-to-normal-human-skin/
• Harvard University – Webinar on Upper Room Germicidal UV foreshadowing whole room disinfection* opportunities with Far UV – https://ghdcenter.hms.harvard.edu/keeping-public-spaces-safe

The Krypton™ light sanitizes the air it travels through and the surfaces it hits. While it effectively inactivates or kills unwanted pathogens, it does not remove soil or spills from surfaces. As a result, we recommend using Krypton™ lighting as part of a multi-layered sanitation approach, combining it with existing conventional cleaning methods.

Krypton lighting is appropriate for use in almost any space you would like to protect from airborne or surface pathogens. Far UV is currently being used in schools, defense applications, hospitals, medical and dental clinics, houses of worship, elderly care facilities, airports, buses, offices, elevators, bathrooms, daycare centers, homeless shelters, hotels, retail, restaurants, gymnasiums, locker rooms, fitness facilities, dining facilities and more. We invite you to contact us to discuss your specific needs. Our company has been providing best in class 222nm Far UV whole-room, 254 upper-room GUV, and HEPA solutions for over 30 years.

We recommend prioritizing use in the highest-traffic, highest-risk often occupied locations. Krypton lighting can be used alone or as part of a multi-pronged strategy to increase protection for your facilities or vehicles.

The area of coverage depends on your room dimensions, the user risk profile and the solutions chosen. The lights can provide protection for up to or over 1,000 square feet of space, more often targeting a higher degree of protection with 200-400 square feet per fixture. Even a single light can materially reduce the viral load of almost any space. As a result, UV lighting can fit into most budgets. The higher the ceiling, the wider the coverage (but the weaker the light – think of shining a flashlight on a wall, and how the beam spreads and dissipates as you get further from the wall).

The decreased intensity still provides protection, it just changes how long the light needs to be on to achieve the same effect as it does on air or surfaces that are closer. For broader coverage, strategically spaced lamps are often installed around a room creating overlapping treatment zones (much in the way regular lighting plans are designed). Any certified electrician can install Krypton lighting and we recommend using NALMCO certified installers if using upper-room fixtures.

After reviewing your building dimensions, electrical and mechanical floor plans, we or our strategic distributors, sales representatives, or installers will work with you to help determine how many, and where, UV lights should be placed in your facility. Please don’t hesitate to send us your dimensional and electrical floor plans (including ceiling heights) to expedite the process along with your priority areas for protection (if known).

Our most common commercial solutions are our Krypton-11 and Krypton-36 overhead or Lexus Upper Room lighting fixtures. They are largely set-it-and-forget-it solutions resembling oversized smoke detectors, which continuously and autonomously disinfect a given area of surfaces and/or the air above them. They would typically be installed in your highest traffic – highest risk often occupied areas. The Krypton-11 is best used with ceiling heights below 10 feet (3 meters) and the Krypton-36 is best utilized with ceiling heights 10+ feet. Lexus Upper Room GUV typically requires 9+ ceilings.

The Krypton Shield is a compact collapsible mobile floor lamp that is about the size of a golf umbrella and can be quickly deployed with a telescoping pole on a tripod to up to 8-9 ft. The Krypton Shield is plug-and-play right out of the box (does not require electrical installation). Finally, we have codeveloped high-powered Handheld Wand solutions with Boeing operating at 222 nm for very rapid three-log disinfection* of surfaces. These devices were designed for the rapid cleaning of airplane cockpits in between crew changes where individually cleaning hundreds of knobs is not practical with conventional wipe methods and using an abundance of chemicals on electronics is discouraged. Please see our product specification sheets for more detail or contact us to discuss your application.

Our consumer offerings include the Krypton Guard, Legacy Guard, MVP, and MVP-Pro.

Unfortunately, UV is created with specialty lights that cannot be used with existing lighting fixtures or special adaptors. Far UV Technologies/AeroMed has over 30 years of experience in the design of reliable, efficient, and cost-effective UV products and given the high degree of know-how needed to engineer and commercialize market-ready products and the importance for us and our component providers to provide effective solutions, we are not offering components for sale for integration into other products at this time.

• Krypton Guard and Krypton Shield: 10,000 hours
• Krypton 11 and Krypton 36: 10,000 hours
• Upper Room Lexus Louvered and Lexus Open: 10,000 hours
• MVP and MVP-Pro: 5,000 hours
• Legacy Guard: 3,000 hours

Most Krypton^tm Far UV bulbs or Lexus Upper Room GUV bulbs will last about 10,000 hours. As with any other light, you can extend the useful life in practice by simply turning it off whenever is not needed (either because the room is not occupied or if it no longer requires protection). A well-designed system will not only take into account product life but also disinfection* efficacy, safety, and upfront cost.

• MVP and MVP-Pro: 1 year
• Krypton 11 and Krypton 36: 3 years
• Krypton Guard and Krypton Shield: 1 year
• Legacy Guard: 90 days

The limited warranty set forth below is given by Far UV Technologies, Inc. and applies to the Far UV Technologies fixture only.  The product when delivered to you in new condition in its original container is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship under normal use and service.  This does not include the bulb itself.  If the product is found to be defective during this warranty period Far UV Technologies will repair or exchange the unit for a new or refurbished unit as determined by Far UV Technologies.

Far UV Standard Terms and Conditions

UV lighting is not a cure for diseases already transmitted to humans and is not intended to be used for disinfecting people or equipment to be used in medical procedures on people. Instead, it is meant to sanitize the environments (air and surfaces) that people inhabit or come into contact with to prevent the risk of infection between people. As a result, Krypton and Lexus UV lights are not medical devices and thus do not require FDA approval. Far UV Technologies is regulated and registered with the EPA under Establishment #96253-MO-1.  Far UV Technologies complies with all FIFRA labeling and other regulatory requirements.

Since the wavelengths of UV-C light are below the visible spectrum, it is unfortunately very difficult for an end-user without NIST calibrated equipment to visually tell the difference between 222nm, 254nm and 265nm lighting. The purple hue often emanating from UV-C lights is typically from imperfections in the bulb glass.  We had actually researched and developed higher purity glass solutions which improved lamp efficiencies but ultimately decided not to commercialize them after customers indicated they preferred the light as an indicator that the fixture was on.

Material limitations have historically prohibited LEDs from efficiently being able to create UV much below 260nm so there are no currently effective commercial Far UV LED alternatives that we are aware of.  However, there are a handful of companies researching and developing Far UV-C LEDs and we intend to integrate them into our products if/when they meet the performance and cost requirements for commercialization.

UV can be very useful in the HVAC ductwork to clean the coils and make them more efficient. However, the only air that can be cleaned in the ductwork is the air that actually circulates through it. Given the mechanical limitations of existing ductwork and the energy intensity of moving air through it, one might expect to achieve up to a few additional important equivalent air changes utilizing UV in the ductwork. The advantage of in-room UV like whole room Far UV-C or Upper Room Germicidal UV is that it is cleaning the actual air in the room that you are more likely to breath in and can achieve 20+ equivalent air changes per hour, which is often required to materially limit the transmission of pathogens between people in occupied spaces.

While it has long been a question of when, and not if, a global pandemic would occur, the recent rapid spread of COVID-19 in our increasingly interconnected world caused global socio-economic and political unrest at an unprecedented scale. The economic cost exceeded several trillion dollars with unemployment rates not seen since the great depression. The reality of COVID-19, and fear of inevitable future outbreaks, have significantly heightened demand for new technologies for mitigating the spread of dangerous pathogens.

Ultraviolet light can autonomously and continuously eradicate viruses, bacteria, fungi and allergens in occupied spaces, which is essential for containing and mitigating the emerging threat and reoccurring outbreaks where potentially infected human carriers in occupied locations are often not distinguishable from the non-carriers. While each human or animal has a different immune system response and vulnerability to either an initial infection (which can often be asymptomatic) or subsequent infection to any infectious disease (when the body is weakened), UV lighting can significantly reduce the viral and/or bacterial load of an environment before our bodies even encounter them.

UV has long been proven to be the safest, most effective, easiest to implement and most sustainable evidenced-based method to eradicate pathogens by leading global academic institutions, trade organizations and government agencies. As a result, UV-C lighting is broadly used to eradicate the pathogens that previously/would otherwise plague our municipal drinking water. However, it has surprisingly not been widely used to remove pathogens from our air and surfaces. Some of this may be due to decades of messaging from our public health authorities warning consumers against the threat of UV-B from the sun and a misunderstanding that the same threat does not exist with UV-C when used correctly.

In addition, most people alive today had not previously faced a global pandemic, and with short memories and/or a fatalistic but erroneous belief that nothing could/can be done to eradicate the pathogens in our occupied environments, there was less concern or at least a lack of a call to action regarding their mitigation. Essentially, people had just accepted the risks, even if better solutions were available. That said, in an increasingly interconnected world, where pandemics now are occurring every three years instead of 100 years, many countries and organizations are now writing and implementing efforts for the control of infectious aerosols.

UV lighting capable of reliably reproducing a narrow band around 222nm, which has been proven to be the easiest in-room UV to implement and maintain, had also until relatively recently, simply not been technically or commercially available, which prevented data from being captured and evaluated for potential applications.

A good overview of Far UV technology, including its efficacy and safety, can be found in the following link to a White Paper, published by Boeing:

https://www.boeing.com/confident-travel/downloads/CAP-3_Disinfection_with_Far-UV.pdf

Far UV can autonomously and continuously eradicate viruses, bacteria, fungi, and allergens in occupied spaces, which is essential for containing and mitigating the continuous emerging threat of infectious diseases. What makes Far UV-C unique from conventional germicidal UV (GUV) is that its wavelengths often around 222nm, cannot penetrate the outermost nonliving cells in our skin and eyes. This significantly increases the areas we can safely deploy UV, the most effective countermeasure against the dangerous pathogens often in the air and on surfaces all around us. Along with conventional GUV, effective diagnostics, vaccines, and therapies, the elimination of pathogens in occupied spaces is a critical element for the eradication of disease. Far UV technology is an essential addition to existing sanitation practices, as part of a multi-pronged approach to prevent the spread of existing and emerging infectious diseases.

COVID-19 was a stark reminder about the biological threats all around us. Social distancing, proper hand hygiene and wearing face masks helped slow but did not stop the spread of COVID-19, nor did they become engrained policies or procedures to stop the next dangerous pathogen which according to recent trends is due to emerge within the next year or two. Even with vaccines, we were still just playing more defense and not actually killing the dangerous pathogens in the air and on the surfaces all around us. But we can’t safely begin relaxing our defenses anytime soon until we reduce the viral load in the air we breathe and, on the surfaces, we touch all around us.

100% of contamination events occur from someone breathing, talking, coughing, sneezing or singing in a space or onto their hands which they later touch surfaces with. The goal is to reduce the viral or bacterial load in the air and on the surfaces, the particles fall to or are touched by a contaminated person as completely and quickly as possible after a contamination event and there is simply nothing more immediate and effective than UV lighting at doing so.

In-room UV lighting has been clinically shown to provide the equivalent or better of an extra N95 mask for every occupant in a space and allows us to start playing offense and reduce the viral load instead of just playing defense.

In July of 2023, ASHRAE established a new Standard for the Control of Infectious Aerosols. This new standard is being implemented by architects and facility owners and operators to protect themselves from the prospective liability of doing nothing (similar to fire protections etc). As this standard becomes integrated into building codes, UV solutions will be significantly favored given their efficacy, energy and cost advantages.

As a recipient of multiple peer-reviewed Phase I, II and III NASA and Department of Defense SBIR research and development contracts, Far UV Technologies’ products have been granted unique Federal designation under the SBIR Reauthorization Act and the SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive. While not specifically endorsed by any agency, the SBIR Congressional Mandate provides Far UV Technologies with unique sole sourcing options to minimize potential contracting delays and requires potential Federal purchasers of Far UV solutions to first request permission from the SBA to purchase non-SBIR alternatives https://www.sbir.gov/tutorials/data-rights/tutorial-4. This has led to a significant increase in UV installations across the country including but not limited to several Air Force bases and the top levels of the Pentagon with many more in the queue.

Given the increasing demand and interest in rapid deployment, Far UV Technologies has also been issued National Stock Numbers for Krypton Lighting as a critical trusted supply requirement by the Defense Logistics Agency further facilitating the preferential ease of acquisition and use for many years to come. Krypton and Lexus UV lighting is Made in the USA. We’re networked in through the highest levels of the defense community, Federal, State and local Government agencies and their representatives. Our products are also available on Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business GSA schedules as well as state and national coops. Please contact us for more information to facilitate your procurement requirements.

We would love your help! If you’re interested in joining our mission to rid the world of infectious disease-causing pathogens, the easiest and most impactful thing you can immediately do is help us raise awareness about the opportunity for UV lighting to be part of the immediate and long-term solution. This could be with your families, friends or communities all of which may have excellent opportunities to bring safer and more effective long-term solutions in the various often fragmented markets we are trying to help, from schools to healthcare facilities to transportation and many more. Keeping safe from dangerous pathogens is now an option and end-users who want to increase confidence in their safety and want it can now ask for or demand it from their employers or political representatives. Pathogens do not know borders, gender, age or ethnicity.

You can also help with referrals to domestic or global end-users, channel partners, influencers, media, investors, or employment candidates. If you believe you have important access to these or other important channels/connections, please spread the word and/or contact us at your earliest convenience for potential introductions. Please share our website, contact information, and/or story via whatever medium you think most appropriate. Awareness is our current greatest challenge. We very much appreciate any help you can provide in overcoming this pandemic, future ones and even many of the common now preventable illnesses we’ve all just had to deal with.

If you’re interested in a more significant role, please send a cover letter and resume or your thoughts to info@faruv.com.

We are also establishing a global network of strategic partners for sales representation and installation services. If you are an electrical contractor and would like to carry or install our product, please contact us.

The rule of thumb has long been that something exposed to UV light ages about 10% faster than those that are not. In other words, something exposed to UV for 4.5 years can look like it is 5 years old. Most cannot distinguish between the two unless you are seeing two differently aged items side by side. One example of this is the slight discoloration of some items near windows over long periods of time. Far UV Technologies has done a variety of limited testing on all kinds of surfaces from plastics to steel, wood, paper, countertops, clothing, paint, and food under our NASA contract and beyond. At this point, we have not noticed significant material degradation with our relatively low power lamps. Boeing has also completed significant materials testing with higher-powered lamps and also confirmed little to no materials degradation for the materials found in an airplane cockpit beyond potential discoloration for some plastics. Presumably, for the same reason, 222nm cannot penetrate the human and animal cells, the physical characteristics prevent it from penetrating most surfaces and the potential to induce significant material damage. That said, we will continue to be testing organic materials for potential longer-term impacts and recommend users with potentially sensitive applications consult with us for installation best practices.

Yes, but they do often differ from the protocols and equipment used to validate 254nm or 265nm UV-C performance. Below are a couple of the challenges we have encountered in the market and solutions for them:

254nm calibrated dosage strips or dosimeters often do not accurately measure 222nm fluence/dosage. While many of these devices claim detection capabilities for wavelengths between 200-280nm, they are often one or more orders of magnitude less likely to detect light at the portion of the spectrum they were intended to target and/or extrapolate expected dosage. Far UV Technologies primarily uses and recommends NIST calibrated Gigahertz and International Light Technologies sensors for accurate UV-C measurements in the labs and in the field. These are commercially available for purchase, although somewhat expensive if you are not regularly collecting data. Far UV Technologies and/or its installers provide NALMCO certified installations with as-installed dosage confirmation when we or our network of contractors install in-room UV solutions. In addition, other industry participants such as Columbia University have created new 222nm calibrated films that can also indicate actual dosage in application.

Measuring microbiological efficacy in the field is often not particularly fast or accurate for any pathogen reduction solution as the preexisting bacterial or viral loads and types are typically unknown in the real world. The current gold standard for pathogen reduction efficacy is to introduce known concentrations of known pathogens, treat them, culture them and then determine pathogen reduction efficacy ~24-48 hours later. However, few end users prefer to introduce virulent pathogens into their environments due to the intrinsic safety risks. As a result, accurately measuring the UV fluence as noted above and then referencing tables of lab proven efficacy are often the best ways to validate and certify expected pathogen reduction safely in facilities and vehicles. That said, Far UV Technologies is supporting several academic and industry studies and will continue to welcome and support institutional partners to further validate our products in the field and in the labs.

PCR techniques can help identify bacterial or viral presence but are not good at confirming whether RNA is alive (viable) or dead, just that it is present. This is particularly challenging with 222nm as Far UV inactivates or kills the pathogens through protein damage, eliminating the chance of infectivity but the nonviable cells are still detected with PCR. We confirmed this under our NASA testing and Hiroshima University confirmed it as well in their published study on 222nm efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 It is now considered common knowledge and best practice to use the TCID50 assay, which has proven to be a more accurate microbiological test method than PCR to determine pathogen viability.

Some standardized test protocols utilize protein-rich bovine or other solutions when testing which inhibit 222nm test accuracy. A growing body of evidence is suggesting the most dangerous particles are the smallest droplets that can remain airborne longer and can reach deeper into the lungs of an uninfected individual. The smaller the droplet, the less potential saliva or other accompanying materials/solution and the less the real-world impact on 222nm penetration of the targeted pathogens. Ironically, the efficacy of 222nm Krypton Far UV in saliva has been shown to be even more effective as the natural decay is reduced in the controls, but the inactivation of Far UV has not been materially impacted.

We recommend end users utilize NALMCO certified GUV installers. Far UV Technologies and AeroMed are certified GUV Management Consultants, the highest level of certification ensuring safe and effective installations.

Far UV devices for air, surface and water pathogen reduction have been documented in technical and other publications since the 1980s, if not earlier. Much of that prior art is now available in the public domain and in commercial use. Since completing an intellectual property landscape analysis in early 2017, Far UV Technologies has filed multiple utility and design patents and trademarks to protect its own innovations and brands. Far UV Technologies has also entered into a Technology and Licensing Agreement with Boeing to provide its customers the combined benefits of one of the largest Intellectual Property portfolios in the industry. Finally, the company’s management team also has as much if not more manufacturing know-how, real-world applications development expertise and actual installations with end-users than anyone else in the industry allowing for the design, delivery, and implementation of the most effective, and cost-efficient solutions which have led to significant and important additional trade secrets.

A market competitor (Sterilray) had previously made broad IP claims against other Far UV companies and end users of Far UV technologies. On October 11, 2023, after an extensive Inter Partes Review, the USPTO Board issued its Final Written Decision on Sterilray’s‘ 605 patent finding all challenged claims obvious and invalidating it. Then, on November 14, 2023, the Board issued its Final Written Decision in the Inter Partes Review challenging the ‘642 patent finding all of the challenged claims unpatentable and further denied Sterilray’s motion to amend. Shortly thereafter in December of 2023, SterilRay informed the court they did not intend to respond to the IPR on their ‘951 patent, almost insuring it will also be invalidated, ending potential further threats to Far UV providers or their customers any further, without incurring prospective legal damages for tortious interference. If you believe you may have been exposed to false marketing claims around prospective IP infringement, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Far UV Standard Terms and Conditions