US govt reveals details of sunlight study on virus
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
February 09, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2023
US govt reveals details of sunlight study on virus

Coronavirus chronicle

BSS/AFP
29 April, 2020, 11:20 am
Last modified: 29 April, 2020, 11:38 am

Related News

  • UNFPA and BRAC host knowledge dissemination event on Covid-19
  • The supply chain crisis opens door to resilience
  • Hong Kong will give away half a million plane tickets. Here’s who can get them first
  • US to end Covid-19 emergency declarations on 11 May
  • Covid remains a public health emergency, says WHO

US govt reveals details of sunlight study on virus

The amount of virus on a non-porous surface shrunk by half in just two minutes when sunlight was present, the temperature was 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit (21-24 Celsius) and humidity was 80 percent

BSS/AFP
29 April, 2020, 11:20 am
Last modified: 29 April, 2020, 11:38 am
A man is seen in front of the television tower during sunset, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany, April 7, 2020/ Reuters
A man is seen in front of the television tower during sunset, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Berlin, Germany, April 7, 2020/ Reuters

The US Department of Homeland Security revealed to AFP on Tuesday new technical details regarding its highly anticipated study into how ultraviolet radiation destroys the new coronavirus, saying that its experiment had accurately mimicked natural sunlight.

A summary of the research was presented last week at the White House, with some scientists calling for caution until a more comprehensive report was made public.

US President Donald Trump raised eyebrows last week when he used his daily live national press briefing to ask whether light could become a medical treatment.

"Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light," he said. "Supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way."

Trump continued on to suggest that people inject disinfectants to cure the virus, an idea that health experts quickly shot down.

DHS official William Bryan had briefed the media that the amount of virus on a non-porous surface shrunk by half in just two minutes when sunlight was present, the temperature was 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit (21-24 Celsius) and humidity was 80 percent.

The amount of virus suspended in air shrunk to half its amount in just 1.5 minutes at room temperature and 20 percent humidity, he added.

These eye-catching results surprised experts because most of the UV light contained in natural sunlight belongs to a subtype called UVA, which causes human skin to tan and age but has not generally been proven harmful to viruses, David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, told AFP.

On the other hand, a part of the spectrum called UVC is particularly adept at warping the genetic material of animal and virus cells and is widely used in sterilizing lamps, but it is not present in sunlight because it is filtered out by the Earth's atmosphere.

Asked for further details on the type of UV light that was used, Lloyd Hough, a DHS scientist overseeing the test, said: "The spectrum of light that was used was designed to approximate natural sunlight that you would expect to see at noon at sea level at a mid-latitude location (e.g., mid-Atlantic, 40 degrees N) on the first day of summer.

"More specifically, it approximates the wavelengths of light predicted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR) Tropospheric Ultraviolet and Visible (TUV) Radiation Model for noon at 40 degrees N latitude at sea level on June 21st in range of 280 and 400 nanometer wavelengths."

The wavelengths specified pertain only to long- and medium-wave ultraviolet, also known as UVA and UVB — the UV components of sunlight that penetrate the atmosphere — and not UVC.

Paper coming soon 

A DHS spokesman added that the test — which was conducted at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in Maryland — was carried out on droplets of simulated saliva on a stainless steel surface.

Brenner, who is himself performing research into another area of the UV spectrum called far-UVC, which kills microbes without penetrating human skin, said the DHS findings did not comport with previous research.

"There is a peer-reviewed paper in the literature from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) showing the earlier SARS-CoV virus did not respond to UVA light (though it did respond to UVC light)," he said, adding it is "reasonable to assume that all coronaviruses respond roughly the same way to light."

The results as presented were "straining credulity," he added.

But a DHS spokesman said that study would soon be submitted for peer review and published in scientific journals.

"While the results are still undergoing a rigorous scientific review, we felt it important to share information on the emerging trends that are being identified in our tests," the spokesman said.

Top News

Coronavirus / COVID-19 / sunlight

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: PID
    Dhaka will see different rail connectivity by 2030: PM
  • Bangladesh to publish quarterly GDP data before IMF deadline
    Bangladesh to publish quarterly GDP data before IMF deadline
  • File photo
    Stock selloff sharpens in the second half

MOST VIEWED

  • FILE PHOTO: People wearing face masks commute in a subway station during morning rush hour, following the coronavirus disease ( COVID-19) outbreak, in Beijing, China January 20, 2021. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
    No new variants in weeks after China ended zero-Covid: Study
  • Tourists ride a tour bus in Hong Kong, China October 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
    Hong Kong will give away half a million plane tickets. Here’s who can get them first
  • People wearing face masks following the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak are seen at Beijing Daxing International Airport in Beijing, China July 23, 2020. Photo:Reuters
    Pandemic to paradise: Chinese tourists return to Bali after three years
  • People walk outside wearing masks during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Harlem area of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., February 10, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
    US to end Covid-19 emergency declarations on 11 May
  • A nurse prepares a shot for Jonathan Halter as the German embassy begins its roll out of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for German expatriates at a Beijing United Family hospital in Beijing, China January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
    Covid remains a public health emergency, says WHO
  • FIKE PHOTO: Medical staff moves a patient into a fever clinic at a hospital, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Shanghai, China, December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
    China approves two domestically developed Covid drugs

Related News

  • UNFPA and BRAC host knowledge dissemination event on Covid-19
  • The supply chain crisis opens door to resilience
  • Hong Kong will give away half a million plane tickets. Here’s who can get them first
  • US to end Covid-19 emergency declarations on 11 May
  • Covid remains a public health emergency, says WHO

Features

Google’s investment bodes well for Ireland’s economy.Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

Layoffs alone won’t solve tech's problems

1h | Panorama
Mirsarai Autism Centre has been established to facilitate 7,000 disabled, autistic children at a distant village of Mirsarai upazila. Photo Minhaj Uddin

Children are everyone's business

5h | Panorama
Caption1: One of Shaker Ibne Amin’s earliest and most favourite builds which he calls the ‘Soul’. Photo: Saikat Roy

3Monkey Custom Builds: Building custom bicycles in Bangladesh

5h | Wheels
Chinese automobile manufacturers dominate the 2023 Dhaka Motor Fest

Chinese automobile manufacturers dominate the 2023 Dhaka Motor Fest

4h | Wheels

More Videos from TBS

Ekushey book fair to see fewer releases this year

Ekushey book fair to see fewer releases this year

2h | TBS Stories
Sirajdikhan's delicious Patkhir is also in demand abroad

Sirajdikhan's delicious Patkhir is also in demand abroad

3h | TBS Stories
LeBron James NBA's all-time highest scorer

LeBron James NBA's all-time highest scorer

3h | TBS SPORTS
Turkaslan's fate is the contrast of Atsu's

Turkaslan's fate is the contrast of Atsu's

3h | TBS SPORTS

Most Read

1
Photo: Courtesy
Panorama

From 'Made in Bangladesh' to 'Designed in Bangladesh'

2
Master plan for futuristic Chattogram city in the making
Districts

Master plan for futuristic Chattogram city in the making

3
Photo: Collected
Crime

Prime Distribution MD Mamun arrested in fraud case

4
Maqsuda Begum made new executive director of Bangladesh Bank
Banking

Maqsuda Begum made new executive director of Bangladesh Bank

5
Photo: Rajib Dhar/TBS
Bangladesh

HSC results to be published Wednesday

6
30% companies see double-digit growth even in hard times
Economy

30% companies see double-digit growth even in hard times

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]