UV disinfection is a physical, non-intrusive method of ensuring that, through the partial photo oxidation of an organism’s DNA, it is unable to replicate and with a typical life of only a few minutes, the organism is rendered harmless.
Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of light radiation that is invisible to the human eye and inhabits the electromagnetic spectrum between X-rays and visible light. There are three ranges of UV radiation - UVA, UVB, and UVC as well as Vacuum UV. All types of UV have the potential to damage our skin, but to varying degrees.
The most dangerous type of UV radiation is UVC which exist between 200 and 280nm and the capability to artificially generate light across this range allows the widespread adoption of UV as an environmentally friendly, chemical-free, and highly effective way to disinfect water against pathogenic bacteria, viruses and protozoa.
UV-C light inactivates microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions and in its simplest terms the effectiveness of UV disinfection depends on the length of time a microorganism is exposed to UV radiation and the intensity of that radiation.