I have often seen many of my colleagues put their media plates (mostly LB agar plates) along with the usual tip boxes and pipettes and switch on the UV for 15-20 minutes before starting their work! Won't the UV light lead to degradation of labile components in the media?
The UV effects the DNA of any organisms contaminating the area...the labile compounds in the media would require longer exposure times to be degraded UNLESS they were light sensitive. If that were the case ANY light exposure would cause degradation and the media would need to be handled under darkroom conditions (RED light) conditions.
I'm sure your colleague is just trying to surface sterilize their tips and plates. Will there be some degradation of the components in LB, I imagine probably so. However if the bacteria still form nice colonies then empirically you have determined it isn't a big problem.
Probably, the UV-light will not penetrate the petri dishes or flasks. Yet, I recommend to keep the dishes in the dark until use (wrapping in silver foils sunny side down).
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