Ever since my first severe sunburn as a child, I have been scared of getting too much sun exposure.
I get an extremely painful reaction to severe sunburns that some refer to as ‘devil’s itch.’ It’s an unbelievably itchy feeling with stings of nerve paint mixed in that feel like red hot needles being stabbed into the skin.
All I knew at the time about UV light was what is produced by the sun itself. I knew that continued sun exposure and UV light led to my horrible sunburn reactions. From that point on, I associated UV light with bad health. I didn’t realize that UV lights were actively being used to sanitize and disinfect indoor spaces, especially at hospitals. They will get these towers with large UV bulbs connected and they’re placed inside the room that needs to be cleaned. All the curtains and entry points are covered, because they don’t want someone accidentally staring into one of the bulbs and getting vision damage. When I learned that similar UV bulbs were being used inside residential heating and cooling systems to effectively sanitize indoor air, I was immediately intrigued. I called my HVAC supplier and asked them about UV air purification bulbs, and I was happy to learn that they are within my budget. The bulbs are replaced once a year after they start to lose their energy. Now that I have a UV air purification in my central HVAC system, I feel more at ease about my indoor air quality. I also no longer associate UV light with poor health. In fact, the opposite is now the case—I’d recommend UV bulbs to anyone interested in good respiratory health.