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.
