The European Commission has recently published the Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) on the risks posed from the use of UVC-lamps.  UV-C defines the ultraviolet radiation within the wave length range of 280 to 100 nanometres.  Most people have heard of the dangers of UV-A (400 - 315 nm) and UV-B (315 - 280 nm) exposure from the sun or from sunbeds.  UV-C is also produced by the sun but it is almost entirely filtered out by the atmosphere before reaching the earth's surface. 

Artificially produced UV-C has been used successfully as a germicide and bactericide for decades and due to its effectiveness and advantages is being used for an increasing range of applications.  Usually, mercury-vapor lamps are used for generating germicidal UV-C.  Technological advances hav now made it possible to have UV-C light emitting diodes (LEDs) as well, which has led to an even larger number of applications including in medical devices.

Download the full opinion of SCHEER here.  You can also download a UV-C safety factsheet here.