Awesome flesh-burning death lamp. (Germicidal UV)

Another sensational eBay delight that you should probably not buy unless you really know what it is and does. It bathes a whole room in the icy glow of UVC narrow band ultraviolet, which can cause eye and skin damage to anyone in its vicinity. It appears that the "acarien" reference may be to do with killing dust mites. I'm not sure how effective that is, but it definitely puts out a lot of UV and makes the room smell strongly of ozone in the process.
UVC tubes are often used in industrial food processing equipment to sterilise it in a cleaning cycle where the machinery runs while the lamp is lit inside. You also get water sterilisation systems where the water is pumped through a tube in close vicinity of a UV tube.
If you really do want to buy one of these on eBay then the magic keywords are E27 and germicidal. The only ones I could find were 220V so they are probably really only intended for sale in China. I did see 110V blacklight lamps falsely advertised as germicidal.
If you do buy one of these you MUST make anyone who might come across it aware that it is dangerous to look at or even be in a room with when lit. If you like weird and dangerous electrical stuff or have a genuine need for a convenient UVC lamp with integrated ballast, then this may be a worthy addition to your collection.

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[stevenmckeown]

I'm 45 yrs old and ruined my eyes when I was just 17yrs old. I was helping out at the scrapyard where my Dad worked and came across a bunch of Metal Cylinders. I unscrewed them to find they contained FULLY Transparent Fluorescent Tubes. After wiring a ballast up and having tested 9 out of the 10 I found, I saw the Warning on the end of the tube whilst I was looking at the beautiful Ribbon shaped Bluey Purple light passing through the Tube!! It said, in Bright Red Letters..."UV-C. AVOID PROLONGED SKIN EXPOSURE. AVOID ANY EYE EXPOSURE. RETINAL DAMAGE WILL OCCUR"!!! Later that night I had a slight headache when I went to bed and at 3am, Pain like I have never known! I spent the next 2 weeks in the house recovering and HAD to wear dark sunglasses AT NIGHT, it was that bad. They're not toys. Don't piss about with them and stay safe around them. My eyesight was irreparably damaged and that diagnosis was from a top ophthalmologist through Private health care! "Never look at UV-C with remaining eye!"

[RebeccaMorningstar]

Ah, the smell of ozone and burnt skin. Nothing like ionizing radiation to freshen up a room. I like to call these chernobyl bulbs

[RaunienTheFirst]

"The back of my hand now smells like burnt pork. That's bad."
As a man who once set fire to his hand, I can confirm that yes, that's bad.

[HU]

"The back of my hand now smells like burnt pork, "

" *_t h a t ' s b a d_* ."

[hossmcgregor]

As a welder who has done stupid and burned his eyes, 'sand in the eyes' is the best description I know of.

[pointlessink]

Good thing were sitting behind the safety of our monitor.

[niraea]

The allure and beauty of the light reminds me of the Goiânia disaster in which a radiotherapy component from an abandoned hospital was stolen by people looking for scrap and dismantled, with the beautiful glowing blue and highly radioactive powder contained within removed. It was then passed around and handled by several people including a child and a woman who thought it would make for a nice eyeshadow. 4 people died and dozens more were exposed. Can't say I trust pretty glowing blue things.

[JungleJayAdventures]

Oh noo! The memories, I found a bulb like this when i was a kid. Had no idea what it was. We set it up outside to attract insects. Little did we know we had been burning the skin on our eye balls for a couple of hours. Woke up the next day with my eyelids sealed shut! Was out of school for a couple of days.

[SirWolfwoodIII]

I work at a plant nursery and one day i was changing an air filter on one of the a/c units. There was a similar bulb inside the ac unit to kill any unwanted bacteria. I only looked at the bulb for maybe 5 seconds from a distance of 2-3 feet. That evening I woke up in the middle of the night and it literally felt like I had sand in my eyes. I have never felt anything like that before or since, and it wasn't until watching this episode did I understand what had happened. Now I know, it was that d%^* light ! Thank You bigc !!

[wcemichael]

Put this thing over some red meat for 30 min. I wanna see it cook a steak

[guitarbrad]

"Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! But also, no." Greatest quote ever.

[KitNeedsCoffee]

"The back of my hand smells like burnt pork. That's bad."
-He said *calmly*

[rpm]

most shocking part is that it lives up to the 20w rating lol

[Bushougoma]

3:36 UV lamp tubes are made of fused quartz which allows the UV to pass through. Standard florescent tubes are made of glass that allows UV to pass but most of it is absorbed by the phosphor coating inside the tube to create visible light. Note any damage to the phosphor coating (this often happens at the ends of the tube) will allow UV leakage.

[TheComputec]

looks to medical adviser sat four feet away

"I wonder if there's any way of using these internally to do a sort of cleaning"

[Bisqwit]

That was a _very scary_ long time that you spent with the lamp on next to your skin and eyes, knowing what this radiation does.
(With regards: A fellow owner of _two_ death lamps.)

[kvjqxzz]

'anti-acarien' = French for 'anti-mite' - it kills critters

[minutemail]

I've actually seen one of these used "properly".

I worked in a lab in Turkey and they had a room that had to be sterile for working with cultures. They had one of these lamps to sterilize the room when it wasn't in use, that you could turn on from the outside.

I think there was a rudimentary safety system in that you couldn't turn in on if the normal lights for the room were on (i.e. it was occupied) but scary nonetheless.

[JulianKnight-IT]

As nobody seems to have mentioned it. I will also point out just how dangerous Ozone is, both itself and in reaction with other chemicals. So please ventilate the room well if using one of these. Also, for those people thinking of using this for sterilising rooms, remember that the UV-C will badly damage plastics, nylon, etc very rapidly. Painted surfaces, silk and other materials will also be badly affected. Don't use if you have cheaper man-made carpets.

[TheBrucifer]

This reminds me of an incident when an OAP in our family managed to get a hold of these for his garage.. the reason being is he hated frosted bulbs and it was to replace the two clear halogen bulbs.. My ears pricked up as someone mentioned he was moaning about his new ‘energy saving’ lights not working and were ‘weird baby blue’ in colour.. sure as anything they were two germicidal bulbs in E27. No idea where he got them from.. he had been working under them for a good few days (using a bench light). Another ‘trigger’ for me when his son also said they set off his Transition glasses... that’s when I got involved... awhile ago but I do wonder how on Earth he managed to get a hold of them, as he was far from computer literate!