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Old-school UVC lights do produce ozone, and it needs to be taken care of.

Newer lights (might) use LEDs that do not produce ozone. I only use LED uvc lights. Also, and this is key: DO NOT look at the uvc light. It can damage your eyes. It is safe for your skin, but it is not safe to look at.



This is incorrect, unless by "old school" UVC lights you mean 172nm xenon lamps. Those produce quite a lot of ozone. 254nm UVC lamps (also quite old school) do not produce ozone.

Ozone is produced at wavelengths below 242nm, but at very low levels. Significant ozone production only ramps up at wavelengths below 200nm (note the log scale in the figure https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/php.13391) Whether or not the light is produced by an LED is immaterial--what matters is the output spectra.

There are no UVC LEDs that I would consider "safe" for either eyes or skin, except insofar as they are safe because they output very little light, or no UVC at all. SilannaUV makes a 235nm LED, but much of its spectrum is outside the relatively safe "far-UV" band.

Krypton-chloride lamps produce near-monochromatic 222nm, and generally are sold filtered to remove even traces of non-far-UV wavelengths. These are relatively safe because at 222nm, protein absorption in the outer layers of human tissues is so high that the photobiological risk is likely low, especially in skin. I still don't recommend staring directly at those lamps for extended periods of time, especially close up, but this is the only kind of lamp that I might consider 'safe'.

Essentially, if it doesn't produce ozone, it is likely a significant photobiological hazard--unless it's just producing very low levels of light, or not producing UVC at all. Many "UVC" lights you can buy online aren't really UVC at all.




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