Halton detailed products that can be used on cruise ships to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

This was explained during the Nov. 18 virus mitigation webinar for the cruise industry.

All three engineered solutions involve the use of Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI).

Mobile Unit

According to Henrik Hansen, marine sales development director at Halton, the advantage of this product is that it can be moved around: it can be used or it can be locked.

“Mentally for people, it’s good to see [the product] to feel safe,” Hansen said, talking about the 1.5-meter tall product. “They cannot see when you hide things inside the duct… It’s giving this safe feeling for people sitting in a waiting room, coming into the reception on a cruise ship, going into a restaurant.”

The Halton Sentinel Mobile Filtration Units come in black and white. When they are in use, the probability of airborne infection decreases by four times.

The higher the occupancy of the room where the unit is used, the more mobile units are required. For a room with 50 people, two units would suffice to achieve the fourfold decrease of infection possibility, according to tests done by independent laboratories, Hansen said.

At under 4,000 euros per unit, these are “very, very reasonable price compared to what they can do,” Hansen stated.

Return Air Grill

The square-shaped return air grills are good for cleaning the air that comes out from a particular room according to the company.

This makes it a suitable product for self-isolation rooms where diagnosed COVID-19 patients normally stay.

“It can also be used in places where you maybe cannot access the ductwork,” Hansen said. “But it’s very, very useful for isolation rooms, hospitals, or very clean rooms where you don’t want to have any of those things inside the room anywhere outside.”

Overhead Lighting

The third product, the UVGI overhead lights, is used to kill germs on surfaces.

“We have to remember our surfaces as it’s not enough to just clean the air,” Hansen explained. “It can be restaurants, gyms, meeting rooms, or wherever you have different people inside, and then you can simply clean the surfaces.”

Since looking at UV light is harmful, the overhead lights should only be used when there is no one in the room, which can be ensured by checking physically or having movement sensors installed.

The UVGI overhead lights take six minutes to inactivate germs that are on surfaces that are up to three meters away. However, to ensure the sanitization of a particular surface, the surface needs to not be obstructed by any objects. So, if a chair is tucked under a table, the light won’t be able to reach it.

“But if you put up different lamps covering each six-seven squared meters, you can clean really huge areas. And all that can be connected to the automation system with motion sensors so that you’re sure nobody’s in there,” Hansen said.