Santa Maria growers adopt new technology to combat powdery mildew, reduce chemical use and address labor shortages in wine production.

Santa Maria growers adopt new technology to combat powdery mildew, reduce chemical use and address labor shortages in wine production.

Background: Virtual reality (VR) headsets are increasingly used in healthcare settings for a variety of clinical indications, yet processes to ensure safe use between patients are not well established. Centers vary in how these processes are performed. Most use disinfection wipes that require manual contact with VR devices for a specified dwell time to allow for sufficient pathogen killing, which may introduce manual error and device degradation over time. Ultraviolet-C light (UV-C) devices offers a no-touch, low-cost, and passive method to achieve pathogen killing without the harms of chemical contact-based disinfectants. Use of UV-C for disinfection has been studied for some medical devices, but efficacy for microbe killing on VR headsets is not well established. Objective: To determine the bactericidal efficacy of UV-C on VR headsets through quantifying UV-C irradiance and bacterial killing of three, commercially available UV-C devices. Methods: Three commercially available, low-cost, UV-C devices were tested for UV-C energy output at multiple positions, angles, and times across the devices’ zone of disinfection. The top and lens of a VR headset, the Meta Oculus Quest 2, were artificially inoculated with high quantities of three different strains of bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus epidermidis and subjected to UV-C light according to each devices manufacturer’s instructions for use. The primary outcome was amount of bacterial killing after exposure to UV-C light. Results: All three UV-C devices produced UV-C dose that ranged from 3.57 to 195.37 mj/cm2 depending on proximity, angle, irradiance, and time the sensor received. At least three-log10 killing of all three strains of bacteria was achieved for each of the tested UV-C devices; however, there was variability by organism with respect to UV-C device and VR headset location within the device, notably with the proximity of the bacteria to the bulb. Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were more readily killed than Staphylococcus epidermidis, with increased bacterial killing occurring with increased UV-C exposure doses. In no experiment was all bacteria killed. Conclusions: UV-C dosage increased with exposure irradiance, time, proximity, and angle to the bulb for all three UV-C devices. Bacterial killing on the top and lens of a VR headset occurred in all three UV-C devices when run according to their manufacturer’s instructions for use, though full bacterial killing did not occur in any experiment. UV-C may be an effective method for microbial killing on VR equipment with low-level contamination.