[Michlib-l] UVC Responses, Part 2

[Sharon Crotser-Toy]

Oops! I missed this one:

Good Afternoon!

We began using UVC lights two weeks ago, and I asked our Librarian
Assistant who has spearheaded the project to share his thoughts.

My thoughts:

We at Allen Park have looked into UVC lights to sanitize our materials
coming back into the library. We had relied on 4-7 day quarantines per the
REALM studies, but the news that UVC is able to sterilize viruses made us
consider using the UVC lights instead of the full quarantine.

With object to person transmission being a very small vector of
transmission for COVID-19, we are comfortable with using the lights as a
precaution. Columbia University Irving Medical Center released a report in
June that far-UVC light is effective at sterilizing coronaviruses,
including COVID-19, so we use UVC lamps with a 254 wavelength mercury bulb.
I have not seen any contradicting reports that COVID-19 is unaffected by
far-UVC. These lights are harmful to humans, however, so our quarantine
room has a sign on the door showing that the lights are in use and to not
enter the room until the full 30 minute lamp cycle is completed.

UVC is still a light, it cannot sterilize surfaces it cannot touch. We
currently do 2 30-minute cycles hitting most of the exterior surfaces of
the books. We do not run a cycle on each individual page. The areas of the
book people are most likely to touch are the covers and edges of the pages
so again, we are comfortable with this method to control exposure for our
patrons.

Being able to reduce our quarantine time down to 'next-day' use of
materials has increased usage of the library, and unless a new study is
released showing object to human transmission is rising, or that far-UVC
light is not as effective as reported initially, we will continue with this
as our primary sanitation method for objects.

We do not allow public access to the building at this time, we do not have
the capacity to sterilize the building with our small lamps, so I cannot
speak to the cost-effectiveness of using the lights for more than just
object sterilizing.

-- 
Sharon Crotser-Toy
Director
*Watervliet District Library*
333 N. Main Street
Watervliet, MI 49098
269-463-6382

Connects People, Inspires Ideas, Transforms Lives
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