Burien’s Marlaina’s Mediterranean restaurant is now a very safe place to gather and enjoy your favorite meal and wine.
Along with additional sanitation practices, we have installed low-dose germicidal ultraviolet C (GUV) light in our front dining room. In addition, we have installed ceiling fans to pull everyone's exhaled air upward, where the GUV annihilates the coronavirus. Added to usual ventilation, this achieves the equivalent of more air changes per hour than the CDC standard of 12 air changes per hour for hospitals.
You may have heard that UV disinfection can be dangerous for someone in the room. The high-dose close-up UVC that is used in heating ducts or water disinfection could give you sunburn and make your eyes itch, but we don't use anything like that. Our GUV is a low-dose CDC-and WHO-established technique used safely for many decades around the world in tuberculosis (TB) clinics, homeless shelters and similar places. It is very effective at killing TB and the coronavirus. People understand that with medical devices, as with drugs, the dosage and how it is used are especially important. The maximum UVC exposure in the people zone, everywhere in our new system, is 30 nanoWatts/square centimeter, less than one-tenth of continuous permitted exposure for 8 hours.
We made this investment so our staff would have a safe work environment and so our customers would have a safe environment that they can come to enjoy themselves.
We hope other shops, restaurants, waiting rooms, etc. will also help make our indoor environments safe with properly installed GUV, so we can re-open our lives in America!
For more details and information see this recent article in NPR featuring Marlaina's efforts and ultraviolet light:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/07/13/890387205/coronavirus-sparks-new-interest-in-using-ultraviolet-light-to-disinfect-indoor-a