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Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

nytimes.com

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Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#91

Post by syn0byte »

groby_b wrote: post #17
Mistletoe wrote: post #5

I own a CO2 monitor and it is shocking how high it can get in a house with two people just existing. 800 ppm or more. Outside air is 410. In a car with air on recirculate, it was getting to >1220 ppm, a level that impairs decision making and lowers brain function. I try to drive with air on fresh from now on. I don’t doubt the air in our conference room with 20 people gets super high in CO2 as the meeting goes on, an…

800ppm is a fairly typical value for indoor CO2 and not really that shocking. Fun fact: We've known since ~1850[1] that we should probably stay below 1000ppm for indoors, but we based the measure back then on body odor :) (It still bugs me that oddly cognitive impairment starts at the same point a body-odor measure from the 1800s put CO2 levels, and I keep wondering if we're seeing confirmation bias in action) In gen…

I would be interested to see if increased levels of CO2 alter our perceptions of smells/odors. It may become more unpleasant to encourage us to vacate the poorly ventilated area.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#92

Post by wlll »

batmanthehorse wrote: post #9
gugagore wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you recommend a CO2 monitor? How did you decide to purchase the model that you own?

Awair Glow is a very user friendly/cheap one: https://getawair.com/pages/awair-glow It has an app (and an API) and monitors CO2, humidity, temp, and VOCs. I like it a lot. For me, it mostly serves as a reminder to open the door for a few minutes before bed and let some fresh air in.

I have an Awair (the regular one, not the glow), it doesn't work with Ubiquiti wifi gear unless you turn on legacy mode for the access points.

Had I known that before I bought it I wouldn't have done so.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#93

Post by goda90 »

satyrnein wrote: post #55

My kid will get nosebleeds if the air is too dry, so I run humidifiers. Ventilating means I lose my hard won humid air. Any solutions?

Get your kid used to drinking more water. I used to get nosebleeds all the time in winter as a kid and teenager, but I've since been a very avid water drinker and my rate of nosebleeds has gone down considerably.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#94

Post by wlll »

mrfusion wrote: post #7

What if all of humanity’s bad decisions are caused by this? Imagine if we started holding board meetings, etc outdoors and we fixed all our problems. Maybe an idea for a book?

Also, it's a great way to make sure meetings don't go on too long, hold them in the rain :)

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#96

Post by tdumitrescu »

sevensor wrote: post #20
blattimwind wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

School classrooms (20-30 people, 1-2 hours, closed windows, no ventilation) are probably worse than any conference room.

Apparently there was a fad for building schools with no windows. There's a 70s era middle school in the (U.S.) town where I live; it won a design award for its total lack of fenestration. It was supposed to reduce distraction or something.

My HS in central NJ had neither windows in the classrooms, nor WALLS. It was designed like a giant open office bullpen thing and classes were supposed to congregate in vaguely defined areas. By the time I got there in the early 90s, they had already erected borders everywhere out of movable chalkboards, so you basically got a traditional classroom layout but with noise pollution from all the other classes going on nearby. Great job all around. (Though I suppose from the CO2 standpoint we were probably doing better than most!)

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#98

Post by blattimwind »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #41
Klathmon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I picked up a CO2 monitor a while ago myself, and the biggest surprise was having it on in the morning in our bedroom with the doors closed. It was easily over 1000ppm IIRC. Ever since then I've made sure to set my AC system to run the "house fan" for 15 minutes or so every hour at night just to circulate the air in the house, and while the numbers went down significantly, anecdotally I swear that I wake up easier in…

Helmets? That's interesting; I tend to open the visor a bit when at a stop, it gets really warm in there really fast. I know you shouldn't try to take off a helmet in case of an accident, but is opening the visor at least okay?

> I know you shouldn't try to take off a helmet in case of an accident,

At least here in Germany this advice is considered outdated and people in (mandatory for driving) first aid courses get taught a simple technique to remove a helmet safely (ideally with two people).

Reason being is that with the helmet on it is harder to monitor breathing and impossible / very difficult to do CPR, and the helmet will also interfere with the stable side position.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#99

Post by humblebee »

w-m wrote: post #76

How are CO2 sensors built? Can you make them small and cheap enough to put in a phone, so I'd get a notification if the CO2 levels are rising?

Most co2 sensors I've seen on Amazon are in the $100 range.

I found some good information though[0], and the smallest form factor (CozIR-LP) retails at $109 [1].

[0] https://www.co2meter.com/blogs/news/6010192-how-does-an-ndir...

[1] https://www.co2meter.com/products/cozir-lp-ambient-air-co2-s...

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#100

Post by berberous »

batmanthehorse wrote: post #9
gugagore wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you recommend a CO2 monitor? How did you decide to purchase the model that you own?

Awair Glow is a very user friendly/cheap one: https://getawair.com/pages/awair-glow It has an app (and an API) and monitors CO2, humidity, temp, and VOCs. I like it a lot. For me, it mostly serves as a reminder to open the door for a few minutes before bed and let some fresh air in.

I'd love a good looking consumer device like this, especially if it synced with Apple Health and/or Homekit or otherwise allowed data export, but all (Netatomo, Awair, Uhoo, etc) seem to get very poor reviews on Amazon, often claiming they are inaccurate. Has anyone seen a good comparison of whats out there with a suggestion for the best?
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