– Look! This is a perfect example. Jörn Klein points towards the one lift at the University of Southeast Norway in Drammen. It is packed with students. The professor is usually based at the school’s campus in Porsgrunn. Now he is in Drammen to carry out a potentially ground-breaking research project: Is it the case that using UV lamps can kill bacteria and viruses? – In a very simplified way, we can say that the bacteria and viruses in this lift will be inside a kind of microwave that will boil them to death, says Klein. UNIVERSITY: Here at the University of Southeast Norway, or USN as it is colloquially known, the research project is carried out using UV lamps. Photo: Eirik Leivestad Hall / news – Must be smarter The aim of the project is to keep cruise ships and ferries safe from infection. Klein highlights an example from the start of the corona pandemic: In July 2020, more than 70 people were infected on Hurtigruten’s ship, M/S Roald Amundsen. – We must have become smarter when the next pandemic comes. It requires smarter solutions, such as these lamps. The project: The trial in Drammen is part of a larger research project called Healthy Sailing. The entire project is financed by the EU, on order from the shipping industry. The lamps will hang here for two months, before they go on to a cruise ship in Greece. According to the plan, they should have reliable test results in around five months. The elevators: These are the elevators on the USN in which the UV lamps are installed. In the technical language, they are called far-UVC lamps, which means lamps with a disinfecting, short-wave ultraviolet light. All three lifts (A, B and C) must be used in the experiment in different ways. The researchers will take daily air samples in the lifts, and compare the difference between the lifts. Lift A: Here the UV light inside the lift is switched on at all times of the day. The light is not harmful to either humans or animals, and is only strong enough to kill bacteria and viruses. Lift B: No UV lamps have been installed here. This lift is used as a control lift, to compare with the other two lifts. Lift C: A UV lamp with motion sensor is installed here. The light will only be on when there is no one in the lift. The researchers want to see if it works just as well when avoiding human exposure to UV lamps. Disinfection: In addition to the UV lamps, well-used touch surfaces must be covered with an antimicrobial substance. An example of such touch surfaces are lift buttons and handles. – Interestingly for us, Hurtigruten will not say anything about whether tools such as the UV lamps could have prevented the outbreak almost three years ago. They point out that they already have strict infection control measures that can be put in place if something similar were to happen again. – Infection control with us is just like what we know from the pandemic, perhaps a little stricter, says Tarjei Kramviken in Hurtigruten Norway. OUTBREAK: Here M/S Roald Amundsen is docked in Tromsø, a few days after the outbreak of infection on the ship in July 2020. Photo: CHRISTIAN KRÅKENES / news They are nevertheless positive about the project which is being carried out in the lifts at the University of Southeast Norway. – We are interested in all well-documented measures that can reduce the likelihood of infection in the future, says Kramviken. Dreaming big Back in Drammen, Jörn Klein continues to talk about the lamps that are now in the lifts. He repeats up to several times that these are not the same UV lamps as we find, for example, in a solarium. – It will therefore not be harmful for people to take the lift at the school in Drammen, he believes. FUTURE: Jörn Klein talks about the technology behind UV lamps, and how they can be used in the future. Photo: Eirik Leivestad Hall / news He believes that it will not only be the shipping industry that will benefit from the project. – We can use this information in hospital buildings, among other things. Like, for example, at the new hospital here in Drammen, says Klein. He hopes that the new technology means that workplaces can be kept running during a pandemic or flu season, without people falling ill. – The dream is that the next pandemic does not lead to drastic measures. We must be able to live an approximately normal life. Hi! Do you have questions about the story you just read? Or do you have tips for something else I should write about? Send me an email, of course!
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Can UV lamps prevent infection on Hurtigruten during the next pandemic? – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
