Allergy - UV-C Wands, Dust Mites & Mould

[PhoenixDown]

Just wondering if anyone has experience with these ultraviolet sanitizers? Can anyone point me to a study demonstrating clinically useful outcomes?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/UV-C-Saniti...47YG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358931039&sr=8-1

I understand it won't kill deep mould, but are these useful at all or just a scam? They are used in industry and medicine, but those products are far more expensive, so can these cheaper models do the trick or are they just a gimmick?

 

[SickOfSickness]

Well I have no hard data for you now, but I researched those for a while and decided to buy. Before I bought mine I think I had found some hard data I trusted.

Also you know they use UV-C for sanitizing drinking water. (The water has to be clear and not really gross to start with. It can kill a lot of bad stuff in the water in seconds.)

The biggest thing is the medical lab professional ones are huge, so they can cover a big area fast. These home ones take a lot of work IMO. Well, of course, I have fatigue and think everything it a lot of work That's why I don't use mine, but now that you reminded me, I should use it again. Some reviewers explain the amount of work. I forget exactly the dimensions, and different ones have different dimensions, but say you are doing a bed. Since you are only covering like 5 inches by 18 inches at a time, you can imagine it takes a while. Having to hold it at the certain position for seconds.

 

[PhoenixDown]

Ok, I've just come across this if anyone is interested:
http://www.apjtb.com/zz/20129/2.pdf
" Effect of germicidal UV-C light(254 nm) on eggs and adult of house dustmites, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae (Astigmata: Pyroglyhidae) "

http://www.apjtb.com/zz/20129/2.pdf

Basically they used a 30w ceiling mounted UV-C lamp, which isn't really the same as how domestic devices are used, especially in terms of duration. They used the device for 5 - 60 minutes, not something you can practically do in a room you spend all your time in. Most of the deaths of dustmite occurred within 15 minutes, and smaller distance from lamp to dustmite increased efficacy. Dustmite eggs are really susceptible to UV-C although dustmites in practice hide well in fabrics & upholstery, and in this study they only used Petri dishes so it's not a "real world" situation.

I think the real question though, is whether killing 50% of dustmites would proportionally reduce symptoms (by 50%), or if after a minimal threshold of allergen contact, symptoms will still occur the same (for example if you killed 90% of dustmites could the remaining 10% of dustmite still be causing the same intensity of symptoms?). Since no humans were tested in this study, the study has insufficient data when it comes to actual symptom reduction.

 

[Yocheved]

I got a plug in version for my kitchen, and it reduced my sneezing about 90%, and my burning eyes are about 40% better. I live in humid Seattle, and the mold spores are everywhere!