No doubt the threat of the H1N1 flu has scared a lot of people. It’s frightening to know there is a flu out there that can actually kill you in its worst form.
It’s also got many of us thinking about ways to protect our families. While the H1N1 flu is complicated, protection is easy. Washing your hands, staying home when you are sick and even covering your mouth.
There’s also the desire to keep the objects we use as clean and free of bacteria as possible. To that end, our news director found a product in a magazine called the Nano-UV Disinfection Light Scanner. It has a big name, but its a pretty simple idea: the ability to kill bacteria and viruses on items before you use them. We’re talking about everything from a baby bottle to a computer keyboard.
We tested the product at the home of Kim Harshman of Greensburg. She keeps a pretty clean home, but she also has two very young children who bring germs into the home every day … and given the latest medical
So we had Kim assemble and use the Nano-UV on items around the house: the phone, one of her children’s toys, the TV remote, the counter top and the doorknob. All areas that come into contact with human hands and can easy have germs.
Kim Harshman of Greensburg running the Nano-UV Disinfection Light Scanner over the counter top in her kitchen. In the background, Herb Layman from U.S. Micro Solutions.
To assist on this Test It Tuesday, we asked for the assistance of Herb Layman of U.S. Micro Solutions. Also based in Greensburg, his company actually has the capability to measure bacteria on a given item. So for our purposes, we had Herb test all our items for bacteria both before and after Kim used the Nano-UV.
According to the instructions, two or three passes of the device over the item in question will kill 99.9 % of bacteria and viruses. Well, we found that was true only once … with the toy in the house. However, we did find that the Nano-UV killed more than 78% of bacteria in all cases – a significant amount.
The device retails for about $55 dollars and its older brother, the Nano-UV wand, claims to work on fruits and vegetables in much the same way for $154. Now remember, we are dealing with UV rays here and long-term exposure to those rays can be harmful. However, unless you plan on holding the UV ray to your face for an extended period of time, you should be OK.
The other nice thing with this product is that it has a child proof lock on the side so the kids won’t be able to use it … and the light does shut off after each pass to reduce exposure. Overall, I think its a good product if you have items in your house, in your office or maybe while you are out of town that you want to quickly disinfect. While it likely won’t get rid of all the bacteria, it does destroy a majority of it.
