Can artificial UV light clean clothes ?

[Erina]

I suppose the answer is yes, but if so then why don't more people do it ?

Not everybody washes their clothes every day, so this could be a really good option to make them last longer. I know that it was popular one time to microwave underwear, so it's not like there isn't a market for it.

Take towels for example. Most folk don't live inside a hotel, so they don't have new towels every day, and once the towels are exposed to the heat and moisture in the air bacteria begins to grow, perhaps that would be a good example of using UV light.

So is it worth getting a couple of lamps to maybe blast clothes after a wash, just to be sure, or for accent clothing like scarves and gloves that don't often get washed.

[StringJunky]

It wouldn't be practical for domestic laundry and it's potentially dangerous in unfamiliar hands. You do have an immune system and microbiome to keep the little critters in check. A maximal aseptic strategy  is not good for  your long term health.... mental or physical.

Edited August 12, 2021 by StringJunky

[CharonY]

Also it is important to note that it does not clean, just sterilize. But even then it is difficult as the clothing would have to be irradiated inside and out and as StringJunky mentioned, would involve harmful levels of radiation. There are basically only a handful of scenarios where this would have tangible benefits, such as in hospitals perhaps.

That being said, I have heard that potentially driven by the pandemic there are efforts to produce and sell household versions of such devices. But realistically they are mostly money grabs.

[exchemist]

3 hours ago, Erina said:

I suppose the answer is yes, but if so then why don't more people do it ?

Not everybody washes their clothes every day, so this could be a really good option to make them last longer. I know that it was popular one time to microwave underwear, so it's not like there isn't a market for it.

Take towels for example. Most folk don't live inside a hotel, so they don't have new towels every day, and once the towels are exposed to the heat and moisture in the air bacteria begins to grow, perhaps that would be a good example of using UV light.

So is it worth getting a couple of lamps to maybe blast clothes after a wash, just to be sure, or for accent clothing like scarves and gloves that don't often get washed.

No, this would be a waste of money, for the reasons others have given. For towels in particular, so long as they are hung up where they can dry after use, they will generally last for a week before they need a wash, if only used by one person. After all, people dry themselves with them when they are already clean, right? So they don't pick up contamination very quickly. But if they are allowed to stay damp they will start to smell after just a day or two.

Modern hotels do not change towels every day any more, because of the waste and environmental impact. They nearly all ask the guest to put the towel in the bath if really they need a fresh one, and otherwise ask you to keep using the same one. 

As others have pointed out, there is no need to sterilise clothes or towels. Your body is designed to cope with ordinary domestic micro-organisms without trouble.  

[John Cuthber]

UV will not kill microbes which are hidden in dirt, because the dirt is opaque.
So you would need to start by washing things.

[iNow]

Also, what's "artificial" UV light? The light is either in the UV range, or it's not. 

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, iNow said:

Also, what's "artificial" UV light? The light is either in the UV range, or it's not. 

It is uv light which is not gmo free and organically harvested.

[TheVat]

Hehe.  The only natural UV readily available would be found by hanging your laundry on a clothesline outside (this works better where I live, in the semi-arid American West, than, say, Inverness, Scotland).  As others have pointed out, sterilizing things is not a good idea unless you happen to be performing surgery.  There is, in fact, mounting evidence that shielding young developing immune systems by well-meaning "helicopter parents" can contribute to lifelong health problems from a poorly-developed immune system.  My childhood, back in the sixties, was a bacterial festival of unwashed hands, eating stuff you'd dropped on the ground, picking up pebbles and sucking on them, kissing dogs (cats aren't into that quite so much), drinking unpasteurized milk at cousin's farm, drinking unprocessed well water, flinging rabbit "pellets" and other scat at one's playmates.....I could go on, but somewhere medical workers are swooning, so I'll stop. 

Did I mention cat poop and toxoplasmosis spores?  I'll leave that for another day....

Anyway, the upshot is that I get slightly sick about once a decade, if that.  Filth is good for you.  (in moderation, of course) 

[iNow]

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

It is uv light which is not gmo free and organically harvested.

Grass-fed free range UVs. Of course!

[Erina]

So no then.

Well, why do folk bang on about letting the sunlight clean clothes ?

[CharonY]

I would think it is more about drying clothes? While sunlight can accelerate deactivation of viruses and some bacteria do not like sunlight much, many bugs obviously survive sunlight (otherwise much of the planet would be dead).  Overall it could reduce contamination rate somewhat via a combination of radiation and drying (i.e. at very high humidity I would assume that much more fungi and bacteria will survive and potentially thrive in clothing outside).

[exchemist]

31 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I would think it is more about drying clothes? While sunlight can accelerate deactivation of viruses and some bacteria do not like sunlight much, many bugs obviously survive sunlight (otherwise much of the planet would be dead).  Overall it could reduce contamination rate somewhat via a combination of radiation and drying (i.e. at very high humidity I would assume that much more fungi and bacteria will survive and potentially thrive in clothing outside).

There is also some bleaching effect from sunlight, which can help remove stains that the detergent does not quite deal with 100%. I've observed this with white table napkins, for example. So there could be a bit of an old wive's tale about this, due to the superficial appearance of cleanliness due to UV bleaching.

[CharonY]

Just now, exchemist said:

There is also some bleaching effect from sunlight, which can help remove stains that the detergent does not quite deal with 100%. I've observed this with white table napkins, for example. So there could be a bit of an old wive's tale about this, due to the superficial appearance of cleanliness due to UV bleaching.

That is quite possible. I mean technically UV would also accelerate degradation of a range of compounds, though I doubt that it would very useful as a general cleaning proecdure. 

[iNow]

4 hours ago, Erina said:

why do folk bang on about letting the sunlight clean clothes ?

For reasons similar to why folks keep banging on about attracting more flies with honey instead of vinegar when the vinegar will definitely attract more flies than the honey does. 

Edited August 15, 2021 by iNow

[Sensei]

If UV light has enough energy to destroy microbes, it probably also has enough energy to damage pigment molecule in colorful clothes. So it will limit its usability only to perfectly white clothes..

[swansont]

6 hours ago, Sensei said:

If UV light has enough energy to destroy microbes, it probably also has enough energy to damage pigment molecule in colorful clothes. 

Not probably. We already observe this to be true, especially at the red end of the spectrum.

[mistermack]

A friend of mine used to bleach his towels every time he washed them. Later, he was complaining that his towels were literally falling to bits. I told him it was his habit of bleaching, and he stopped, and the towels stopped producing the holes and falling to bits. 

I suspect that UV would have a similar effect over time, probably not so rapidly. So it's not just pigments to worry about, it's fibres.

I would say that the best tactic would be just to ensure that the damp towel is promptly hung up in such a way that it dries quickly, and not shared around once used.