Elmore County bought an ultraviolet device to fight the COVID virus. Does it work? How?
Twenty-one months into the pandemic, scientists continue to study ways to prevent Americans from spreading the highly infectious coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Recent research shows that a method of disinfection discovered nearly a century ago is effective at neutralizing the virus, leading the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office to join other agencies by investing in a high-tech ultraviolet radiation device for its offices and the jail.
For decades, researchers have been using UV light to neutralize or kill pathogens, and research has shown that it is very adept at combating bacteria and viruses — including SARS-CoV-2.
“SARS-CoV-2 and coronaviruses in general are highly susceptible to UV, extraordinarily susceptible,” Karl Linden, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Colorado, told the Idaho Statesman by phone.
“More so than most any other pathogens that we’ve ever looked at.”
In November, Elmore County announced that it had purchased a device that emits UV-C light, a range of wavelengths on the ultraviolet spectrum. Made by a company called R-Zero, the machine is marketed as being able to kill “over 99.99% of all pathogens, including COVID-19.”
(Linden said it’s technically incorrect to say viruses are “killed” by the UV light; rather, it renders them unable to reproduce and therefore ineffectual.)
The device, which cost around $37,000, was purchased with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, which earmarked money for use by local authorities to combat COVID-19, according to Shauna Gavin, the jail commander at the Sheriff’s Office.
Called Arc, the device is a 6.5-foot cylinder that contains multiple ultraviolet bulbs and can be wheeled into a room, plugged in and turned on. It sends data about its use to the owner and to the company, so that interruptions in disinfection cycles and the frequency of use can be tracked.
After its use, the air in the disinfected room has a burned smell, which Gavin said “doesn’t smell good, but it tells me that it’s clean.”
Gavin said the Sheriff’s Office uses its device most often in high-traffic areas, such as the booking room of the jail, where inmates are first brought inside, and in the main office lobby.
“They claim that it kills all of the bacteria, all of the COVID, in the air (and) on surfaces,” Gavin said.
The unit can disinfect air and surfaces in a 1,000-square-foot room in seven minutes, according to a news release, but there is a caveat: It can’t be used while people are in the room.
Traditional ultraviolet disinfection devices use light at a wavelength of 254 nanometers, which is dangerous to humans. It can cause burns on the skin and eyes. So the machines can be used overnight to disinfect a subway car, for instance, or an intake area at a jail, but it’s too risky to turn them on when people are present.
The Arc device has a timer on it, allowing an operator to prepare a cycle, leave the room and return when it’s finished. The Arc also has sensors that automatically shut off the device if a person enters a room.
PROS AND CONS OF UV LIGHT FOR COVID-19
David Brenner, who directs the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, said that the airborne nature of most coronavirus spread makes the approach of a standard UV device a tad problematic. He said New York City’s efforts to clean its subway cars overnight didn’t make a lot of sense.
“At 6 o’clock in the morning or whenever, the trains were nice and clean,” he said. “But as soon as people started going into the trains, the lamps were turned off, the air became contaminated again. And really it’s the contamination from people standing next to other people that causes the transmission of the disease from one person to another.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines exposure to COVID-19 as being less than 6 feet away from an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a period of 24 hours. The CDC also notes that the virus can be suspended in aerosol particles for “minutes to hours,” and that these airborne particles can cause infection at distances greater than 6 feet, which is the standard social distancing guideline used by the agencies.
Linden said that disinfection at 254 nanometers can be effective, but “not in real time to actually keep it safe while people are there, so that’s one limitation.”
In an interview with the Statesman, R-Zero CEO Grant Morgan said the Arc product is about “risk reduction,” noting that stagnant air can often persist in a poorly ventilated room.
“When you bring Arc in, it’s basically hitting the reset button, and it’ll get rid of everything in the room,” said Morgan, who noted that a third-party lab tests the product’s effectiveness.
Charles Hammond, the CEO of Command Sourcing, a jail technology company that sold the Arc to Elmore County and provided on-site training, said there’s “no silver bullet” against COVID-19. Regularly sanitizing rooms with the device, however, keeps down the viral load.
“The likelihood of somebody getting sick and the severity of them getting sick is reduced,” Hammond said.
ARE IDAHO HOSPITALS USING UV? WHAT DO REGULATORS SAY?
Studies on UV and COVID-19 are recent, having begun with the start of the pandemic two years ago.
On its website, the Food and Drug Administration says that UV-C radiation has been shown to be effective against other viruses and “may” be effective against the virus that causes COVID-19.
“Currently there is limited published data about the wavelength, dose, and duration of UVC radiation required to inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” according to a page on the FDA website.
While ultraviolet light is often used as a disinfectant in hospitals, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation — as it’s known — is not employed by major hospitals in the Treasure Valley to target the COVID-19 virus.
“The literature and evidence of the effectiveness is still not determined,” Christine Myron, a spokesperson for St. Luke’s Health System, wrote in an email.
A spokesperson for Saint Alphonsus Health System, Mark Snider, said something similar.
Because of “manual surface disinfection” and “adequate air turnover and filtration, patient and caregiver distancing and masking, and defined COVID-free areas, we have had no need to bring in ultraviolet treatment,” Snider said via email.
Guidance from the CDC regarding hospital disinfection is that “ultraviolet germicidal irradiation can be used as an adjunct air-cleaning measure, but it cannot replace HEPA filtration,” meaning air filters that neutralize very small particulates.
Linden told the Statesman that any federal review takes time.
“The studies are sound and solid, but I think translating any research into policies can take years,” he said.
Morgan said dozens of law enforcement agencies have purchased R-Zero devices, as have health care and long-term care facilities, doctors’ offices, schools and corporate offices.
He said the company wants the FDA to regulate UV light devices, to ensure uniform performance standards and allow consumers to compare products.
“There really aren’t any regulations around what manufacturers can say or do, so that’s why you can see a company selling battery-powered wands on Amazon,” Morgan said. “They frankly just don’t do anything. … It’s really important for us to have science at the core of everything we do.”
HOW IS THE DEVICE USED IN ELMORE COUNTY?
The Elmore sheriff’s office received its device in late October, according to Morgan, and has been using it daily since then, according to Gavin.
In parts of the 130-person capacity jail, such as the booking area, the device is used multiple times a day, while lower-traffic areas are disinfected once a week.
“It’s not only protecting the inmates and giving them security — and we’ve had very little COVID — but it also protects the employees, which we are very concerned about,” Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead said in an interview with the Statesman.
In April 2020, a cook at the jail got COVID-19, and the jail put the half-dozen inmates she had been around into isolation together. A couple of them eventually tested positive, Gavin said. The office had another outbreak among staff over the summer of 2021, affecting six people.
Gavin said no staff members have gotten seriously ill, and even though multiple inmates have tested positive, they have been asymptomatic. The jail’s average daily population is around 75 inmates.
Since the Arc device has been installed, there have been no new COVID-19 cases, according to Gavin.
The Sheriff’s Office purchased the machine to combat spread of the virus, but employees are not required to wear masks when interacting with each other, Hollinshead said.
When inmates are booked, intake workers must wear gloves and masks, and the new inmates are medically screened. Inmates and employees are required to wear face coverings when interacting closely with each other.
At times, Hollinshead said he has required masking for employees and dispatchers, such as during the major surge this fall.
“I have relaxed that right now because the numbers are down,” he said, indicating that he follows the protocols and recommendations of Central District Health.
Hollinshead said that if cases start to spike in Elmore County, “I implement the mask policy immediately. … We follow CDH guidelines very strictly.”
According to CDH, Elmore County is currently experiencing “high” community transmission. At that level, “the CDC and Central District Health recommend wearing a mask when in an indoor public space, regardless of vaccination status. If you are not fully vaccinated and aged two (2) or older, you should wear a mask in all indoor public places,” according to the CDH website.
While Morgan, the R-Zero CEO, says he strongly recommends mask use, rooms where people are not wearing masks or practicing social distancing are “much, much safer by orders of magnitude if our products are installed.”
Command Sourcing sells various supplies to about 3,000 law enforcement agencies, and has sold the R-Zero Arc device to “approaching 100 different facilities,” said Hammond, the company’s CEO. Command Sourcing sells products to the Canyon and Ada county sheriff’s offices, but neither agency has purchased a UV device from them.
The Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office, in Orofino, purchased an Arc device that was delivered in September.
DEVELOPING A DEVICE TO USE WHILE PEOPLE ARE IN THE ROOM
Research into UV-C light disinfection continues, and both Brenner and Linden — the Columbia and Colorado scientists — have conducted studies on a different wavelength that may not be harmful to humans.
Called far-UV-C light, it uses 222-wavelength light, rather than the standard 254. At this shorter wavelength, the ultraviolet rays don’t penetrate through the layer of dead skin cells on human bodies and are blocked by the tear layer around eyes, Linden said.
Both researchers said many studies have shown that far-UV light can be shined continuously in rooms with people in them, without health detriments. And in one study performed by Linden’s lab, the far-UV-C wavelength was nearly twice as effective as standard UV lamps.
“You can tolerate a much higher dose of light with these wavelengths, so these can … lower the potential disease burden from coronaviruses in real time as people are present — let’s say in a cafe, or in a museum, or concert hall,” Linden said.
But he said there is much work to be done to make sure the devices are effective enough to gain favorable nods from federal regulatory agencies. He said that room size, the intensity of the light, the airflow systems and other factors all affect how well far-UV-C will work.
“There’s a lot of complicating factors … because you have to verify that it’s actually delivering the dose to the bugs, and they can be anywhere in the room,” Linden said.
He added that he would like to see a regulatory agency get involved in testing and certifying specific devices.
At least one company, called Far UV Technologies, has contracts with the Air Force, NASA and Boeing to install their machines.
R-Zero has a suite of three UV products for sale, including Arc. A product called Beam uses a wavelength that is harmful to humans, but it projects light into the upper part of a room — where people are not irradiated — and disinfects air that flows upwards. The newest product, Vive, uses the far-UV-C wavelength and was launched in November.
“As soon as the air comes out of my mouth, it’s being disinfected in real time,” Morgan said. ”By the time it actually gets to you, the pathogenic load and therefore the risk is much, much lower. So I fundamentally believe that far-UV is going to change the way that we live.”
Morgan pointed to the fact that millions of Americans get the cold and flu every year, often through sharing indoor spaces.
“We are looking at COVID as really the catalyst, and we have to come out of this better, stronger, safer than we ever were before and establish a new standard for indoor health and safety,” he said.
Brenner, whose lab at Columbia was the first to study far-UV-C and its safety implications, said that one of the benefits of the technology is that it doesn’t require the public to buy in the way vaccination and masks do.
“Any technology we can use which doesn’t require decisions on the part of the public has to be a useful thing,” he said. “One of the nice things about far-UV-C is you don’t have to do anything special. It’ll be sitting in the ceiling, protecting you.”
