UV Facemask - Indiegogo

[Dave3]

UV face mask on Indiegogo. 20,000 rpm vortex fan & UV light.

A few milliseconds of UV exposure is insufficient, and Nature Research indicates several are minutes required to deactivate airbourne coronavirus.



https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/uvmask-complete-protection-for-the-new-normal#/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67211-2
"Far-UVC light (222 nm) efficiently and safely inactivates airborne human coronaviruses"

[PeLa]

They need two pulsed 4th harmonic NdYag lasers and a pretty big power supply for it to work as desired. The laser head will have to be water cooled 

[JohnnyMalaria]

What a waste of money.

Disposable surgical masks are good enough when combined with...commonsense .

[Kean]

This first funded on Kickstarter, and some people apparently have already received them.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/umsystems/uvmask-inactivate-9999-of-all-pathogens-and-air-pollutants/comments

[james_s]

I wonder how much ozone those UV lights produce? I wouldn't want to be breathing that in for long. No doubt a bunch of people who don't know any better will buy these things, they won't work, but most will be none the wiser.

[Kean]

I wonder how much ozone those UV lights produce? I wouldn't want to be breathing that in for long. No doubt a bunch of people who don't know any better will buy these things, they won't work, but most will be none the wiser.

I'm very skeptical of this project, but they do appear to have put a lot of effort into it.
Ozone creation is mentioned in the (very lengthy) Kickstarter FAQ section.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/umsystems/uvmask-inactivate-9999-of-all-pathogens-and-air-pollutants/faqs

[SiliconWizard]

Shouldn't this go to the Dodgy tech section?

[daqq]

Disposable surgical masks are good enough when combined with...commonsense .

Sadly that's a fairly uncommon ingredient.

[SiliconWizard]

Disposable surgical masks are good enough when combined with...commonsense .

Sadly that's a fairly uncommon ingredient.

So putting a UV generator right in your face is the answer.
 

[Stray Electron]

Disposable surgical masks are good enough when combined with...commonsense .

Sadly that's a fairly uncommon ingredient.

So putting a UV generator right in your face is the answer.
 

   You bet! You can get face cancer instead of Covid!

[james_s]

I can only assume the UV light is contained to a chamber that the air passes through. I'm still skeptical of it working but hopefully they had the sense to prevent exposure.

[BrokenYugo]

You'll get the ozone no matter how the light is shielded, probably not healthy.

2 CFM is probably insufficient, as I recall 4 is usually specified as minimum for a tight mask with supplied air.

The thing I find funny about all this fancy mask business is if one is serious about not inhaling a single airborne disease particle (COVID or otherwise) 3M bayonet type respirators and P100 filters, or even surplus NATO thread gas masks and proper CBRN filters haven't been too hard to come by at reasonable prices for months now. Or throw together a PAPR for a few bucks more if you don't like shaving for proper seal, though IME people give you a wide enough berth that filtration efficiency isn't so critical if you're wearing a full face respirator of any sort in public.

[SiliconWizard]

I can only assume the UV light is contained to a chamber that the air passes through. I'm still skeptical of it working but hopefully they had the sense to prevent exposure.

I dunno what kind of sense they had, but such a contraption would have to be thoroughly tested for safety before ever being sold. That part should be real fun.

[Zero999]

You'll get the ozone no matter how the light is shielded

That's not true. Only the shortest of UV wavelengths produce ozone and if if doesn't produce and very short wave UV, there won't be any ozone.

[ogden]

I wonder - how it is possible to UV-disinfect air using energy source which is contained in the mask? Main question here: for how long any certain volume of the air is irradiated by UV light of certain power. One may claim to "disinfect" 1m^3 of air using 1mW UV LED during 1 sec and tell that 1m^3 of the air did see UV radiation, thus it is sterile [disclaimer: it was speculative exaggregation]