IEC PAS 63313:2021

Position statement on germicidal UV-C irradiation - UV-C safety guidelines

IEC PAS 63313:2021 The safety advice in this document applies to UV-C sources and UV-C products which emit in the wavelength range of 180 nm to 280 nm.
Not within the scope are:
- devices having their own product safety standard, such as IEC 60335-2-109 applicable to UV-C water disinfection equipment and IEC 60335-2-65 applicable to UV-C air disinfection equipment
- application environments of UV-C devices
- products combining UV-C irradiance with chemicals and additives
- products that do not emit UV-C radiation such as UV-A, UV-B and near-UV devices
- requirements for performance and functional characteristics
- requirements for preventing material degradation and material damage

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 26-May-2021
• ICS: 29.140.01 - Lamps in general
• Technical Committee: TC 34 - Lighting
• Current Stage: PPUB - Publication issued
• Start Date: 02-Jul-2021
• Completion Date: 27-May-2021

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC PAS 63313 ®
Edition 1.0 2021-05
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
SPECIFICATION
PRE-STANDARD
colour
inside
Position statement on germicidal UV-C irradiation UV-C safety guidelines

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IEC PAS 63313 ®
Edition 1.0 2021-05
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
SPECIFICATION
PRE-STANDARD
colour
inside
Position statement on germicidal UV-C irradiation UV-C safety guidelines

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 29.140.01 ISBN 978-2-8322-9843-5

‒ 2 ‒ IEC PAS 63313:2021 © IEC 2021
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION TO THE PAS . 5
Foreword to this guidance document . 6
1 Introduction . 6
2 Scope of this guidance document . 7
3 UV-C radiation safety requirements . 7
3.1 Summary of UV-C safety requirements of photobiological safety standard
IEC 62471 . 7
3.1.1 Effective UV-C irradiance . 8
3.1.2 Effective irradiance at a distance d . 9
3.1.3 Effective irradiance at a distance d = 200 mm . 9
3.1.4 UV-C risk groups . 9
3.2 Effective UV-C irradiance distribution . 10
3.3 UV-C irradiance safeguards . 10
4 Ozone safety requirements . 10
4.1 Long-term exposure limits for ozone . 10
4.2 Ozone safeguard requirements . 11
5 Information requirements . 11
5.1 Warning symbols . 11
5.2 Warning labels . 11
5.3 Installation instructions and user manual . 12
5.4 Instructional training . 13
6 Compliance . 13
7 Terms and definitions . 13
8 References . 14
Appendix A . 15
Appendix B . 16

Figure 1 – UV-C Risk Groups (UV-C RGs) . 9
Figure 2 – Example of UV-C warning label . 12
Figure 3 – Example of an ozone warning label . 12

Table 1 – Spectral weighting S(λ) . 8
Table 2 – Maximum exposure time per UV-C RG for an 8 hours’ time interval . 10
Table 3 – Alternative ozone exposure levels . 11
Table 4 – Instructional safeguards for ultraviolet hazard 180 nm to 280 nm . 12

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
POSITION STATEMENT ON GERMICIDAL UV-C IRRADIATION
UV-C SAFETY GUIDELINES
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
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A PAS is an intermediate specification made available to the public and needing a lower level
of consensus than an International Standard to be approved by vote (simple majority).
IEC PAS 63313 has been processed by IEC technical committee 34: Lighting.
The text of this PAS is based on the This PAS was approved for
following document: publication by the P-members of the
committee concerned as indicated in
the following document
Draft Report on voting
34/795/DPAS 34/812/RVDPAS
Following publication of this PAS, which is a pre-standard publication, the technical committee
or subcommittee concerned may transform it into an International Standard.
It is based on the Global Lighting Associations's Position Statement on Germicidal UV-C
Irradiation – UV-C Safety Guidelines. The structure and editorial rules used in this publication
reflect the practice of the organization which submitted it.

‒ 4 ‒ IEC PAS 63313:2021 © IEC 2021
This PAS shall remain valid for an initial maximum period of 2 years starting from the publication
date. The validity may be extended for a single period up to a maximum of 2 years, at the end
of which it shall be published as another type of normative document, or shall be withdrawn.

IMPORTANT – The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates that it
contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its
contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PAS
UV-C irradiation is a proven methodology for inactivating microorganisms (including viruses) in
water, in air and on solid surfaces. UV-C devices, that intentionally generate effective UV-C
radiation, are considered safe if they meet the electrical, thermal, mechanical, human exposure
to electromagnetic fields (EMF) and photobiological safety requirements provided in
international safety standards. Guidance on the effectiveness of UV-C irradiation is given in
publications like CIE 155. Currently, a few UV-C devices are supported by dedicated product
standards, like for air purifiers (IEC 60335-2-65, which also provides information on ozone
limits). However, related to the present COVID-19 pandemic, many UV-C devices are entering
the market for which no adequate product standards exist yet. IEC/TC 34 recognizes this
standardization gap and will start working on the development of required product standards.
Pending the development and publication of comprehensive product safety standards, the
Global Lighting Association (GLA) issued the GLA "UV-C Safety Guidelines" (May 2020) with
safety measures and compliance criteria, these to be taken in conjunction with the requirements
of IEC 62471:2006/CIE S 009:2002 (in the GLA document abbreviated to IEC 62471). In
addition, the GLA "UV-C Safety Guidelines" include safety measures and compliance criteria to
avoid excessive ozone exposure.
IEC/TC 34 considers the GLA "UV-C Safety Guidelines" as a good starting point for developing
any missing IEC safety standard(s) for UV-C devices, although it is recognized that the GLA
"UV-C Safety Guidelines" were considered as initial guidance and its contents are not complete.
For example, the photobiological safety assessment is limited to the actinic hazard in the
UV-C spectral region, referring to risk groups specified in IEC 62471:2006/CIE S 009:2002;
additional radiation such as UV-B/A is not addressed. Furthermore, the effects of ozone
production are only mentioned with limited guidance.
However, since the development and publication of a full IEC safety standard will take at least
2 to 3 years, it has been agreed to publish the GLA "UV-C safety guidelines" as an intermediate
IEC Publicly Available Specification (PAS), to offer an IEC document that helps manufacturers
introducing safe UV-C devices which tackle the present COVID-19 pande
...