[Nhcoll-l] Inquiry about installing Germicidal Lighting device (405nm) in museum space

[Robert Waller]

Hi Laura,
I have no experience with these lights but I am skeptical of their value in a classroom setting.
The risk to museum specimens of using lights having more short-wave (actinic, i.e. powerful) light will be a small, but certain increase in changes (damage) to sensitive museum specimens. I can imagine such lights having some (perhaps even significant) effect in reducing viral, bacterial, and fungal loads in high person-density spaces with low ventilation rates. It seems reasonable to expect their effectiveness to drop rapidly at lower concentrations of infectious agents as person-density and activity levels (hence breathing rates) are reduced and adequate ventilation is provided.
While this light may have health advantages in gymnasium locker rooms, I expect it would offer little or no health improvements in classrooms while resulting in a small but certain increase in risk to specimens.
Understand I am not an authority on health matters but some quick Fermi-like considerations of expected benefits and risks lead us to expect these lights are not appropriate for museum classrooms.
Rob

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Abraczinskas, Laura
Sent: February 1, 2023 11:41 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Inquiry about installing Germicidal Lighting device (405nm) in museum space

Hello,
Does anyone have information about the use of germicidal lighting in museums and effects on collections?  I learned today that a device known as "Indigo-Clean" is scheduled to be installed in the Museum's classroom.  This is a space where specimens (mainly birds, mammals, and vertebrate fossils) are displayed and placed on tables for students to examine during weekly lab sessions.   The lights are described as LED Luminaires.

A university engineer provided the following information and links.
" Indigo-Clean operates at 405nm which is just outside of UV range.  UV is 100 to 400nm.  Please use the link for detailed information on this technology.  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97797-0

https://kenall.com/Kenall-Files/Product-Files/Sell-Sheets/Indigo-Clean-Technology-Millenium-SimpleSeal_sellsheet.pdf

I'd appreciate any advice or information!
Thanks and best,
Laura

Laura Abraczinskas
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Collections Manager, Vertebrate Collections
Michigan State University Museum
409 West Circle Drive
East Lansing, Michigan  48824
USA

(517) 355-1290 (Office)

Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg-Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. The University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw.

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