Sterilization Through Utilization of Ultraviolet Radiation

Soon after the discovery of microorganisms, biologists began to observe that many varieties of these creatures were able to be incapacitated by exposure to sunlight. Following the discovery of the ultraviolet bandwidth in 1801, scientists attributed the sun's lethal effect to this invisible energy. Facilitated by the findings of a large body of experimental evidence collected in the decades following these initial hypotheses, contemporary scientists have determined that nearly all bacterial activity can be eradicated or at least attenuated by some wavelength of ultraviolet energy. Due to the overwhelming diversity of microorganisms present in the environment, the resistively and rate of lyses of each species varies greatly. Generally bacteria who live in environments saturated with sunlight are more resistant to UV sterilization when compared to those species whose domain is general absent of solar exposure. The practice of sterilization via ultraviolet energy exposure was discontinued around the early 1900's due to the development of sterilization technology utilizing chlorination and ozonation. However, there has been a general trend in industry during the last few decades towards the use of UV for germicidal purification due to its lack of toxic chemical byproducts.