Quartz Containers or Bottles for Solar/Sun Charged Water - Giving You Better Water to Fight Against the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19
In a research paper titled "Predicted Inactivation of Viruses of Relevance to Biodefense by Solar Radiation" by C. David Lytle and Jose-Luis Sagripanti at the Research and Technology Directorate, Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, U.S. Army, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, it predicted the effectiveness of natural sunlight inactivation of different kinds of viruses.
The novel coronavirus COVID-19 is a single-stranded (sunlight radiation more lethal to them because single-stranded viruses cannot repair themselves well compared to double-stranded viruses) RNA virus (RNA viruses are more unstable and they mutate more easily than DNA viruses). It has the largest known genome size among RNA viruses, thus more likely be damaged at a given level of sunlight radiation exposure. In fact, among all RNA viruses, coronaviruses are the most sensitive ones to ultraviolet light radiation, measured by size-normalized sensitivity and D37 values (decimal reduction time to reduce viable virus to 37%).
Therefore, ultraviolet (UV) light radiation is more effective against coronavirus compared to other RNA viruses or double-stranded DNA viruses.
The most commonly used ultraviolet inactivation wavelengths range between 250nm to 260nm in the UVC range spectrum. In natural environments, this spectrum of UV light is absorbed by the earth atmosphere and the ozone layer. Earth's ground-level virucidal solar UV wavelengths fall above 290nm, which is in the UVB and UVA spectrum range.
As you can see from graph below, standard 2.5 mm glass filters out more than 50% of the ultraviolet radiation below 330nm, and a 5 mm regular glass filters out more than 50% of the ultraviolet radiation below 340 nm.
Quartz, on the other hand, allows over 90% of the UV lights over 280 nm to pass through. Therefore, having a quartz made container will allow your drinking water to absorb solar virucidal ultraviolet radiation more easily than a regular glass container (see below).
You can obtain a quartz beaker or container from some of the technical glass companies. You can do a search online. They are fairly expensive because they have to be hand-made one by one, and they range from $200 to $300 per container (with a cover) for a 500 ml to a 1000 ml container. Suppliers in China have quartz containers or bottles that are less expensive.
If cost is a concern, then you may wish to put a bowl of water under sunlight. However, germs and bacteria from air may fall into your bowl.
Please let us know if you are interested in a list of suppliers that sell quartz containers or bottles.
Also see: