The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Peachtree Corners, Georgia, has announced plans to update ASHRAE Handbook chapters on UV-C. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many questions about proper use of germicidal ultraviolet light (UV-C) energy for surface and air inactivation.

The Handbook committee for ASHRAE Technical Committee, 2.9, Ultraviolet Air and Surface Treatment, has been meeting regularly to update the technical information, said Dean Saputa, associate member ASHRAE, TC 2.9’s Handbook Subcommittee chair. The updates will go into the online Handbook as supplemental sneak previews of future versions of the chapters.

The committee is working on the following updates:

• Biosecurity and preparedness with different UV technologies using data from ASHRAE’s Epidemic Task Force
• The use of UV-C for surface decontamination including mobile roll-in-the-room UV-C devices including pulsed Xenon sources
• Dose and microbial response section to show a chart of well cited and documented microbes and the amount of UV-C energy it takes to inactivate at 90% and 99%
• Devices that use UV-C lights for air purifiers, handhelds and other gadgets
• Data on upper air germicidal UV fixtures including information about safety, commissioning and dosing
• New UV technologies that produce outputs at 222 nm (also called Far UV)
• Technologies using 405 nm wavelengths for bacterial disinfection

For more information, visit https://www.ashrae.org.