Comment by cainxinth

19 days ago

Cool idea and cool looking, but just want to point out that surface transmission of infections is several orders of magnitude less common than airborne transmission.

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cainxinth

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yoshuaw  18 days ago

If we're talking sanitation tech: I'm personally really excited by the further miniaturization of (far)-UVC light sources [1]. Far-UVC lamps deactivate airborne pathogens, but cannot penetrate the human eyes or skin making them generally safe to use.

Right now they do require rather bulky lamps (Krypton Chloride), but last I checked there had been promising advancements in producing far-UVC LEDs [2]. Which should make installation and deployment of far-UVC both more practical and economical in the future.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-UVC

[2]: https://ece.engin.umich.edu/stories/ece-spinout-company-ns-n...

mhb  19 days ago

And easily thwarted by washing your hands.

  • rendaw  19 days ago

    And then grabbing the bathroom door handle.

    • ssl-3  19 days ago

      With my sleeve.

      (Although I did see a lot of foot-operated door handles emerge on public restroom doors during the covid years. They're mounted down low, near the floor, and you can just put your shoe on them and drag the door open without using hands. They make sense to me for what I think are a lot of good reasons.)

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