The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine

Some Good Covid News From France

They are going to put CO2 monitors in all classrooms, with a limit of 800ppm.

This sort of thing is what has  needed to be done for a long time now. We need to clean up our air the way we did our water to get rid of waterborne diseases. Aggressive ventilation, filtration and UV (with ozone detectors to make sure it isn’t too much) should be standard in all buildings.

As a plus, as CO2 rises due to climate change, we’ll know how bad it is. Leaving aside pathogens, CO2 is toxic. One of the larger problems we have, but fail to acknowledge is also the reduction in oxygen content in cities and buildings, which is also bad for us. Were I rich, I’d have a positive pressure house built with filtration, CO2 monitors and scrubbers, and oxygen concentrators and O2 monitors. (Positive pressure is more than doable. The SciFi author Robert A. Heinlein created one back in the 50s.)

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Water monitoring and filtration/purificiation in all houses would also be wise. For the first time in history, rainwater is no longer safe to drink.

Generally speaking the world is going to become a lot more variable: forest fires, droughts, pollution and erratic weather. The US just got hit by a huge massively cold winter storm, meanwhile Europe had a heatwave in January. We need to prepare.

 

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6 Comments

  1. marku52

    Japan has been posting CO2 levels inside movie their movie theaters for a while now. It’s
    just a smart thing to do. We won’t do anything like that in the US, not enough money to be made by some monopolist

  2. Bill H.

    CO2 is has risen to 0.04% of our atmosphere. In submarines that I served in, the CO2 levels after lengthy submergence commonly reached 0.1% which is 2.5 times the natural level. We never noticed it. At 0.5% the “smoking lamp” was put out, meaning we were not allowed to smoke until we surfaced and refreshed our air.

    CO2 does not become dangerous to human life until it reaches a level of about 5% (not 0.5%, but 5%), 125 times the natural level, and even then it would need to be breathed for several hours to kill. CO (carbon monoxide) is deadly at far lower levels, of course.

  3. Ian Welsh

    Non toxic, but high concentrations, often reached in buildings, have negative cognitive effects and cause tiredness.

    https://www.pranaair.com/blog/harmful-effects-of-carbon-dioxide-co2-on-human-cognitive-function/

  4. Joe

    We used to go caving a lot. Some of the caves were vertical. We would bring a cigarette lighter to test the oxygen level as we descended. The further the flame appeared above the burner orifice the less oxygen present. We didn’t have any technical calibrating equipment but we got a sense of under what flame height conditions one had to head for the surface.

  5. capelin

    “The effects of carbon dioxide are significant. High CO2 concentrations reduce IQ by 25 percent. And a 400-ppm increase in CO2 concentrations can lead to a 50% decrease in complex strategic thinking. This study shows that it is crucial to start addressing the effects of CO2 on human thinking.”

    Greta was “born at 350ppm”. I think i’ll put my money on Bill H’s submarine study, as he didn’t mention a ship-wide 50%+ IQ drop, just not being allowed to have a smoke.
    Interestingly, CO2 levels are considered a major issue with masks. Given the physics, probably not insignifigant.

    Don’t get me wrong, good air is super important. Most indoor air, especially institutional, is terrible. Offgassing plastics and carpets and cleaners and scents and construction glues and circuit boards and molds . In my experience it’s all that, and low oxygen levels that more of the issue. I’m always the one opening the windows, even if it’s just to do an air exchange.

    Of note, “smoke eaters” are simply ozone (o3 ?) generators; the extra oxy thingy makes the molecule want to bond with reactive stuff, like tobacco smoke, mold spores, etc. Also of note; there is more ozone in fresh air than stale air because the ozone has been used up.

    The core elements of Naturopathic Medicine are: Air, Water, Sun.

  6. capelin

    “In a prospective observational study on healthy volunteers, CO2 levels were measured during regular breathing … for 15-min…”

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33858372/

    “Use of face masks (KN95 and valved-respirator) resulted in significant increases in CO2 concentrations, which exceeded the 8-h NIOSH exposure threshold limit value-weighted average (TLV-TWA). However, the increases in CO2 concentrations did not breach short-term (15-min) limits.”

    Thank goodness millions of people were not forced to wear a mask for more than 15minutes (while breathing “regularly”).

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