How Does UV-C light Protect you?

It destroys DNA

All microbes have DNA just like you and I.
Their DNA has the same 4 proteins that make up all life.
Those proteins are broken down by the intense UV-C lights.
UV light waves are between 400nm and 100nm. Extreme Ultraviolet can get as short as 10nm.

Between each session I will turn the UV-C (253nm) light source on, completely sterilizing the whole room.

What is UV light?

Close up the lamp of UV light sterilizat

UV-A has a wavelength in-between 400nm-315nm. UV-A is found in black lights,as well as in sunlight. Black light bulbs are made of a UV-B producing light bulb. Then using an interior coating of nickle-oxide UV-B is filtered from escaping the bulbs.

UV-B has a wavelength in-between 315nm-280nm and can be found in Tanning beds as well as well as some aquarium specific lighting for reptiles to simulate the sun.

UV-C has a wavelength in-between 280nm-100nm and can be found in germicidal/virucidal lamps in hospitals as well as in sunlight. However, the UV-C light does not make it through the atmosphere and is responsible for what is known as the ozone layer. Extreme UV-C light between 200nm-100nm when exposed to the atmospheric gases creates ozone, by splitting oxygen away from it's molecular bonds and creating O₃. Some water treatment facilities make use of extreme UV-C in order to sanitize water supplies making use of this ozone to oxidize the water and sanitize it using ozone. This is a double precaution as the light waves themselves attack the DNA chains in the bacteria/virus, without the use of harmful ozone. The photos reach their maximum DNA damaging capabilities aroun 253nm. This is why hospitals and research facilities use UV-C light bulbs that produce UV-C light in the wavelength of 253nm to insure that all equipment is completely sterilized.

Watch a video on uv lightbulbs

Do UV lights make Ozone?

name%2C%20chemical%20formula%20and%20structure%20diagram%20of%20Ozone%20handwritten%20on%20blackboar

What is Ozone?

Ozone is present in low concentrations throughout the earth's atmosphere. Some researchers say that this chemical is “good up high, but bad down low.” Without the ozone layer protecting our Earth’s stratosphere, for example, the Sun's ultraviolet radiation would make life on Earth uninhabitable. At street level, however, a high concentration of ozone is toxic to plants and animals. In humans, ozone can irritate nasal passages, cause nausea and extended exposure can lead to lung inflammation.

Ozone, also called Vacuum Ultraviolet (UV-V), is a gas molecule that contains three (3) oxygen atoms – and as such, it has a destabilizing effect on oxygen in the air (leading to its irritation and danger to humans). A UV lamp “tuned” to 185nm can create ozone from oxygen (O2) by disrupting the O2 molecule and splitting it into two oxygen atoms. These two oxygen atoms attempt to attach to other oxygen molecule (O2). It is the attachment of this third oxygen atom that creates ozone (O3).

Why Ozone is not produced in most cases

While the Ultraviolet spectrum contains four separate wavelengths—UV-A, B, C and Vacuum UV—each operates at different energy levels and only one is capable of producing ozone (Vacuum UV).

As you’ll note in the graphic to the right, Vacuum UV operates in the 100-200nm range, where it is capable of producing ozone. UV-C, conversely, reaches its optimal germicidal strength near 253.7nm. Because ozone may only be produced below 200nm, at 253.7nm (rounded to 254nm), the germicidal wavelength does not generate ozone.

In addition to the stronger 254nm wavelength that does not produce ozone, UV-C lamps offer another layer of ozone protection.

Most germicidal lamps, including those from UV Resources, are produced with doped quartz glass, which blocks the transmission of the 185nm ozone-producing wavelength. The doped quartz glass allows the 253.7nm radiation to pass through, but it blocks the 185nm wavelength from escaping. Therefore, germicidal lamps with doped glass CANNOT produce Ozone
Ironically, UV light in the 240-315nm wavelength will break this third oxygen atom attachment above and convert it back to oxygen. The peak ozone destruction occurs at the 254nm wavelength. So, a UV-C lamp at the 253.7nm wavelength will actually destroy ozone!

Harmful effects of UV

In humans, excessive exposure to UV radiation can result in acute and chronic harmful effects on the eye's dioptric system and retina. The risk is elevated at high altitudes and people living in high latitude areas where snow covers the ground right into early summer and sun positions even at zenith are low, are particularly at risk.[50] Skin, the circadian system, and the immune system can also be affected.[51]The differential effects of various wavelengths of light on the human cornea and skin are sometimes called the "erythemal action spectrum".[52] The action spectrum shows that UVA does not cause immediate reaction, but rather UV begins to cause photokeratitis and skin redness (with lighter skinned individuals being more sensitive) at wavelengths starting near the beginning of the UVB band at 315 nm, and rapidly increasing to 300 nm. The skin and eyes are most sensitive to damage by UV at 265–275 nm, which is in the lower UVC band. At still shorter wavelengths of UV, damage continues to happen, but the overt effects are not as great with so little penetrating the atmosphere. The WHO-standard ultraviolet index is a widely publicized measurement of total strength of UV wavelengths that cause sunburn on human skin, by weighting UV exposure for action spectrum effects at a given time and location. This standard shows that most sunburn happens due to UV at wavelengths near the boundary of the UVA and UVB bands.

Skin damage

Overexposure to UVB radiation not only can cause sunburn but also some forms of skin cancer. However, the degree of redness and eye irritation (which are largely not caused by UVA) do not predict the long-term effects of UV, although they do mirror the direct damage of DNA by ultraviolet.[53]

All bands of UV radiation damage collagen fibers and accelerate aging of the skin. Both UVA and UVB destroy vitamin A in skin, which may cause further damage.[54]

UVB radiation can cause direct DNA damage.[55] This cancer connection is one reason for concern about ozone depletion and the ozone hole.

The most deadly form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, is mostly caused by DNA damage independent from UVA radiation. This can be seen from the absence of a direct UV signature mutation in 92% of all melanoma.[56] Occasional overexposure and sunburn are probably greater risk factors for melanoma than long-term moderate exposure.[57] UVC is the highest-energy, most-dangerous type of ultraviolet radiation, and causes adverse effects that can variously be mutagenic or carcinogenic.[58]

In the past, UVA was considered not harmful or less harmful than UVB, but today it is known to contribute to skin cancer via indirect DNA damage (free radicals such as reactive oxygen species). UVA can generate highly reactive chemical intermediates, such as hydroxyl and oxygen radicals, which in turn can damage DNA. The DNA damage caused indirectly to skin by UVA consists mostly of single-strand breaks in DNA, while the damage caused by UVB includes direct formation of thymine dimers or cytosine dimers and double-strand DNA breakage.[59] UVA is immunosuppressive for the entire body (accounting for a large part of the immunosuppressive effects of sunlight exposure), and is mutagenic for basal cell keratinocytes in skin.[60]

UVB photons can cause direct DNA damage. UVB radiation excites DNA molecules in skin cells, causing aberrant covalent bonds to form between adjacent pyrimidine bases, producing a dimer. Most UV-induced pyrimidine dimers in DNA are removed by the process known as nucleotide excision repair that employs about 30 different proteins.[55] Those pyrimidine dimers that escape this repair process can induce a form of programmed cell death (apoptosis) or can cause DNA replication errors leading to mutation.

Credit to my sources. 1 2. and various videos on youtube.