A recent study by the University of Georgia has found out that a car’s greenhouse effect, resulting from the sun’s shortwave radiation sneaking past the automotive glass, could kill the Coronavirus.
The study found out that even on days when the outside temperature was close to 21 degree Celsius, the temperature inside the car can go as high as 45 degree Celsius in one hour. And on a 31 degree Celcius day, the number can climb up to 55-degree Celcius inside the car in just one hour. This same effect, according to the study, can cause heatstroke and death to multicellular organisms as well as the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The study suggests that this heating dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to disinfect against the Coronavirus. It was earlier found out that the virus was able to live on paper and cardboard for about a day and on plastic and steel surfaces for three whole days. However, as the temperature inside the car increases to 54 degrees Celcius, 99.99 per cent of the virus were killed within 20 minutes and at 74 degrees, the timeline shortened to just 5 minutes.
“More testing needs to be done, but we know that the warmer you make it, the less time it takes for the virus to die," said Travis Glenn, professor of environmental health science at the University of Georgia. “We are all being encouraged to wear face masks when we are shopping or doing other essential tasks outside our homes. Parked cars get pretty hot on sunny days. So, you can either rotate two masks, leaving one in the car while you shop, or just leave your mask in your car when you get home, as long as you’re parking someplace warm."
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