

Teens create $13 door handle that kills 99.8% of germs on contact - ryanwgreen
http://inhabitat.com/chinese-teens-create-13-door-handle-that-instantly-kills-99-8-germs-on-contact/

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goldenkey
I'd rather have germs than cancer.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_light_and_cancer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_light_and_cancer)

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pascalmemories
I'm not sure that's a good reference :

"The article examines the connection between natural ultraviolet light (UV)
radiation and the incidence of cancer in human beings."

This device uses artificial UV and then it's to activate titanium oxide on the
handle (presumably some type of catalytic reaction is set up).

It's possible, on external handles, it could use natural UV but they state the
main application is indoor, hence the capture of the door movement to generate
the power for the UV light. Does sound rather clever.

However, as another poster has already said, the 'old fashioned' tradition of
brass door knobs and general brass fixtures in toilets and even [very] old
hospital beds has been shown to be very effective in killing bacteria. It was
only after these were phased out in places such as hospitals, that resistant
bacteria became a serious problem. (Though the time to disinfect seems to be
much longer than this UV/titanium oxide version, so it could be an improvement
in high traffic areas.)

Quite simply, I don't think this is setting up a binary choice between
bacteria and cancer.

