How to use a UVC germicidal lamp SAFELY.

It's become very clear that a lot of people have been buying UVC germicidal lamps from online sellers without really understanding how to use them or that they can cause serious skin and eye damage just by exposure. Here's a simple guide to using them safely.

To sterilise a room place the lamp in a holder that will ensure that as much light as possible falls on the surfaces to be sanitised. If you put it in a table or ceiling lamp with a shade it may block most of the useful output. These lamps usually produce a lot of ozone (active oxygen) which will permeate everything and smells a bit like bleach.

Turn on the light and leave the room immediately. Make sure no humans or pets can enter the room while the lamp is lit.

Leave the lamp running for 30 minutes or more depending on the size of the room.

Enter the room and turn the lamp off immediately. Then leave the room for another 30 minutes to let the level of ozone reduce. The smell of the ozone may linger for days at a low level.

Remove the lamp and re-box. It's VERY important that the lamp and the box it's in are clearly marked to show that it is dangerous to be exposed to or look at. Store it in a safe place where kids can't find it.

The ability to sterilise a room is dependant on the volume of the room, obstructions between the light and surfaces, the power of the lamp and time. These lamps can't guarantee to protect against infection, but can help in some instances.

If you do expose your skin for long enough you will get an irritating rash or burn like sunburn. Treat as sunburn unless it's very severe.

If anyone looks at the lamp for too long with unprotected eyes the surface of the eye will be damaged and lead to an effect called arc flash, arc eye, welders flash or corneal keratitis which is often experienced by welders. After a length of time you will feel like you have sand in your eyes. It will heal up after a few days, but if in doubt seek medical attention and explain what happened.

Wearing glasses may offer some protection to your eyes, but shouldn't be a reason to expose yourself to the light.

Ignore the misleading pictures and videos from sellers who imply that you can use these lamps to sanitise your dogs fur, show pictures of the lamp next to babies or have videos of people holding the lamps. If they are actual UVC lamps then all those things pose a serious risk.

If you want to make a sterilising enclosure then you could use a cupboard or box with one of these lamps mounted inside it. UVC can't pass through ordinary glass although you can still see the blue light also emitted by these lamps. A professional unit would have a safety switch on the door that would cut the lamp off when the door is opened. If no switch is used then everyone MUST be aware not to open the cabinet when the lamp is on.

The only maintenance required for these lamps is to occasionally clean greasy fingerprints off them with an alcohol wipe. They should last a long time in intermittent use.

If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

[larry]

Back in the 80's I found a military surplus UV lamp. I plugged it in and started using it. I was fascinated by the glows it was giving things, even window glass had a green glow to it. I played with it for about 30 minutes. The following day I woke up with itchy eyes, then I went to go outside into the daylight. The daylight was painful even with my eyes closed. I could not go outside for two weeks and it took about ten years for my eyes to fully heal.

[TylerBenney]

This is exactly what I love about you, you know when to have a laugh but you also know when you need to be serious. Like in this case

[thatbluelada]

I remember as a kid watching my dad weld from a few meters away, for a duration of 2-3 hours. Boy oh boy did that hurt. Spent the whole night sleepless crying my ass out with the pain of pine needles in my eyes. Lesson learned the hard way with UV stuff. Thanks for this video, helps shed some light to those who don't know!

[justcubbin]

Been there done that with the welding flash burn. 35 years ago and ever since cannot read reflective road signs clearly as there is a drop shadow of the speed down and right of the actual speed.
Not worth the need to weld up a crack in an engine header during a race when the hood was locked up and I didn't have the key.
I'm a decent welder and can weld by feel, but even a quick look to spark the bead can give you a bad result for life.
Not to mention that the sand in the eyes feeling is something you definitely want to avoid even if you manage to not suffer the lifetime problems

[nccm]

UVC is best used in sealed environments to prevent contact with anything you don't plan to kill.

[pey-yote]

These lamps are incredibly useful, but it blows me away how unscrupulous some of these sellers on eBay can be. “UV lamp proven to kill coronavirus 100%. 100% safe for pets and family.“ I wonder if I would get away with posting something like “irradiated graphite dust from Chernobyl. Proven to kill coronavirus 100%”

[acf]

I got a pair of these (20 watt) lamps and I managed to get a minor case of welder's flash (watery eyes and blurred vision for 24-48 hours) from probably just about a minutes worth of *indirect* exposure. Also had dry peeling skin a few days later. If you need me to spell it out for you: these things take *much* less exposure than you actually think to cause damage. I now use an RF remote to turn them on and off after I have already left the room. This is *not* overkill.

[BruceBoschek]

These are built into our virology and microbiology labs. They turn on automatically at 2 AM and turn off an hour later. The labs are all tile and stainless steel. The UV radiation will yellow and damage plastics, cause finished wooden surfaces to crack and generally destroy anyting but tile and stainless steel. These are really not suitable for normal living spaces, even when used judiciously.

[ianbutler]

In high school shop class we had safety glasses that were stored in a steel cabinet. When the door was closed, one of these lamps illuminated and disinfected the glasses between uses.

[rogerhargreaves]

I’m glad you made this informational video. I have the exact same bulb, 25 watt, everyone in the house knows what it does. I have it on a timer in the kitchen, is comes on at midnight and off one hour later, by the morning the ozone has completely depleted. An empty dishwasher is fine as a sterilising cabinet; don’t turn the machine on, just the bulb on a timer.

[LakeNipissing]

My neighbor who is a nurse stated they need to get UVC lights to sterilize masks, because they have to re-use them, due to a lack of supply in Canadian hospitals.

[ils]

Thank you!!! So glad you made this video especially in these times everybody's buying these but probably don't understand what they're getting

[BaddaBigBoom]

I speak from experience of having "arc eye" from one of these. I bought one for removing discolouration from several vintage camera lenses I own, set it up, switched it on and it took me a couple of minutes to position the lenses properly. The following morning I woke up with stinging eyes and blurred vision, no matter how much I rinsed my face/eyes in cool tapwater the worse it got, leading then to a nasty headache. Figuring out eventually what it was, I took myself to casualty and after examination including fluorescent eyedrops, the doctor confirmed the damage, I shat myself and he reassured me that the human eye "mends itself" fairly quickly and I should be ok in two or three days. He prescribed some antibiotic eyedrops and sent me on my way.
Sure enough, three days later I was back to normal. Lesson learnt, I now own a pair of UV safety spex!

[arnolddalby]

I use the UVC Lamp and as long as everyone knows it is on in a room. UVC Light is only for responsible grown up people who take killing virus, bacteria and mould seriously. Great video.

[realShadowKat]

After the first vid I bought a whole stack of the UVC bulbs, always follow your instruction when I use them and never had a problem.

[C.P.C]

Thank you. I brought a UVC handheld, not realizing it was fake. After watching your channel, I've learned a lot about what to look for in a UVC lamp/bulb

[AisuRoma]

I bought one of these when my brother caught scabies (despite being a shut in). He plugged in the light while it was delivered without me or my mother, who I'd warned extensively about the dangers from watching your videos and my own research (he was being obstinate about even being infested and unwilling to listen to anything to remove them from the areas he was staying or from himself). Thankfully he plugged it in, turned it on and walked straight out, closing the door behind him; but it gave me quite a scare when I returned.
Amazon doesn't ship warnings on the light at all and we ended up writing "DANGER: CANCER LAMP" on the box after that.

Really did clear up the scabies in half the time though, couldn't get reinfested from the bedding or carpet in his hoarder pit (also helped to put on the insecticide every four days rather than the recommended week to disrupt their egg laying cycle).

I do intend to use the cancer lamp to sterilize rooms in our home if one of us becomes infected, though.

[rwebb]

33 year shop teacher here! We used a UV safety cabinet to decontamination if safety glasses. I was going to use this for my 3M M95 mask on return home in the short term!

[frankowalker]

Short, to the point, and needed saying! Well done Clive.

[pierreuntel]

Also these lamp will degrade and yellowing plastic very fast if you use it frequently and put it near a plastic surface, I don't think you should use it in wardrobe because both the UVC and the ozone will attack the fabric and degrade them

Also don't leave it exposing on your phone too long unless you want your phone to fall apart, wipe your phone throughly with alcohol is enough