Gold Bond Building Services, Inc. 

          The problem is, most of the general public, and professionals in fields where disinfection is important, like hospitals, depend primarily on chemical cleaning agents, "germ poisons" if you will, as the way they trust to sanitize and disinfect most areas of their buildings.  We have been taught to trust that liquid disinfectant products such as "Clorox" and "Lysol" are synonymous with killing unwanted germs.

          On the other hand, we have all heard the expression, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant" and if our aforementioned scientists are correct, this is true. The fact is, most common microbes cannot survive or multiply in the presence of direct sunlight and a germ that cannot multiply is considered inert and generally harmless. Drying out a germ, like the short, ultraviolet wave lengths in natural sunlight do, destroys its ability to reproduce itself.

           Furthermore, with the green cleaning revolution now upon us, consumers who have shopped for cleaning products have surely noticed that every major cleaning chemical company is introducing "green" cleaners and, more importantly, disinfectants they tout as being far less toxic to people, pets and the environment.

           These new products claim to be safer for people to use and kinder to the environment.  But do they work as well are their more toxic, brand name products? Are the chemical manufacturers acknowledging the danger of their brand name products by now offering us these "so called" greener, safer solutions?  Or are they just getting on the "green" bandwagon? 

          The cleaning chemical manufacturers seem determined to keep people dependant on chemicals for their disinfection needs and, to be sure, chemical disinfectants are important and do have their place. However, it can be a "smaller" place.  With everyone today concerned about the environment and talking about our "carbon footprint", I am equally concerned about our chemical footprint".

           Public health professionals have been in the news recently to get the message out that we are over using chemical disinfectants and antimicrobial products and over prescribing antibiotics to the point that microorganisms are becoming resistant to these chemical approaches to control them.   And that brings me back to the subject of sunlight. If the new, green cleaning chemicals are not as toxic, do they work? Is there a way we can suplement our personal hygeine efforts to add a level of protection and peace-of-mind in place of using the more toxic cleaning methods and products?  

          What would the benefits be if we could bring the natural disinfecting properties of sunlight to bear in the indoor world? 

 

        How much less dependent on toxic chemical cleaning agents could we become by putting the natural, germ killing properties of germicidal ultraviolet light to work for us as a supplement to our cleaning with greener, less toxic cleaning products?  (Much less)

 

        Could we be confident that, by using this technology we are killing the germs we want to kill without over exposing ourselves to toxic cleaning chemicals? Yes....laboratory testing and real-world case studies have shown that most common microbes are vulnerable to UV light disinfection. 

 

         How much less of a threat would there be from disease causing microbes, (that, if the experts are correct, may be adapting to the chemicals we use to kill them; even mutating into more virulent strains), if we learn to trust that we can control and neutralize them without using so many ,chemicals; that is, with germicidal light, the way nature does.  (Far less)

           Here are just some of the facts about high-tech germicidal ultraviolet disinfection: 

 

          State-of-the-art microchip and nanotechnology, the stringent requirements of space-age materials engineering, and forward thinking by some of our countries brightest and inventive minds

are continuing to advance the use of ultraviolet light as an important sanitation technology.  This technology has come a long way since first introduced over 50 years ago, with many breakthroughs being discovered.  Our understanding of the extraordinary tools available to mankind by harnessing the power of UV light, has grown exponentially.   

 

          Today there are ultraviolet sanitizing devices available for the consumer and professional user that can safely disinfect any hard surface from a computer keyboard to the contents of an entire room, literally in seconds.  As a sanitation professional, I believe this represents an important break through in sanitary science and especially in infection control practices.

  
          When specific ultraviolet disinfection techniques are added to the disinfection practices used in hospital patient rooms, emergency rooms, OR's and other areas where infection control is critical, the infection rate statistics can show significant improvement.  The same is true for other public gathering places where germs are commonly exchanged either person to person or through the air.  Places such as athletic facilities, day care centers, walk in clinics, correctional institutions and on and on. With today's heightened concerns about such things as MRSA  and other contagious illnesses, now is the time to implement UV sanitation technologies to enhance infection control and bolster prevention.