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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?

#291

Post by em-bee »

PeterisP wrote: post #169
em-bee wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what are you supposed to if the person claims they have no insurance?

If the person is able to tell you that they have no insurance, this by itself means they're able to talk reasonably, this means they are conscious and can breathe and so (absent heavy ongoing bleeding e.g. from a gunshot wound) they aren't dying right now - so urgent emergency healthcare isn't really required. If they can move on their own, then they can get to the clinic of their choice themselves if and when they c…

good point about using that as an assessment of the persons state of being. they still could be bleeding however which needs to be stopped unless it's just surface scratches, or have broken bones that need temporary stabilizing.

it seems other than for the first point the question only becomes relevant after any relevant first-aid actions are completed.

i have been in a situation where a guy fell out of his wheelchair. he wasn't injured, he just could not get back into his wheelchair and he was to heavy for any of us to help him without us risking to drop him in the process which might have then actually risked an injury. he looked like the kind of person who might not have had insurance. though he didn't make any statement about that and no-one even considered that to be an issue. we saw no choice but to call 911, which sent an ambulance with people who could help (and they knew him too).

i wonder now how we would have reacted if he had told us that he has no insurance. we might have been looking for alternative help with an outcome that could have been good or bad.

with that in mind i'd think other than for the reasons you mentioned the statement should be ignored.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#292

Post by Broken_Hippo »

wlll wrote: post #94
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 :)

It might not last long, but it might also lead to bad decisions based off of discomfort alone. Or distractions if someone's shirt is too thin for the rain.

Once you have an umbrella and decent enough temperatures (and/or proper clothing), the effect is lost.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#293

Post by gustavam »

xur17 wrote: post #166
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…

> 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. Any recommendations on CO2 monitors?

I did quite a lot of research trying to find the best CO2 sensor that would also do humidity/temperature. CaDi by nuwave* is what I settled on. An Irish company. I've been using it for a week now and it is working great! Things that surprised me: the difference it makes if I leave all the internal doors open in the apartment, not just the bedroom door. That even leaving one window open just a crack will help with ventilation. And of course how quickly a room with couple of people in it can go above 3000ppm CO2.

*https://nuwavesensors.com/product/cadi-ci-100/

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#295

Post by mcculley »

gnopgnip wrote: post #215
mcculley wrote: post #37

I did some research on this: https://enki.org/2018/06/06/co2-monitoring/ I now am very conscious about keeping a door open and getting some fresh air into the room. This is a challenge in modern, well-insulated buildings in Florida in the summer.

If human breath is in the 3.5-4% range, how does the difference between .05%(green building), and .15%(conventional building) in ambient air make such a large difference? It sounds like the small sample size exasperated the issues. The results are much less conclusive looking at other studies.

I can't speak to the study. My empirical results carrying a CO2 monitor around for just under one year show me that well-insulated buildings have much higher CO2 than drafty buildings. This is in Florida, where we generally keep doors and windows closed so as to not waste the energy we spend on air conditioning.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#296

Post by mcculley »

tomatsu wrote: post #128
mcculley wrote: post #37

I did some research on this: https://enki.org/2018/06/06/co2-monitoring/ I now am very conscious about keeping a door open and getting some fresh air into the room. This is a challenge in modern, well-insulated buildings in Florida in the summer.

There are ventilation systems with heat recovery. They are usually triggered by a timer or humidity, but it would be also possible to trigger them based on VOC or CO2 levels. Single-room heat recovery ventilation units are relatively affordable (about $400). There are also some which can be integrated into the window frame if drilling a 6" hole into a wall isn't an option.

I have read about such systems. I have not seen any in Florida. Do they work for keeping heat out while exchanging air? Where I live, we are trying to get rid of heat, not recover it.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#297

Post by ekianjo »

banku_brougham wrote: post #276
ekianjo wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Military has very little cost constraints. If they can show that CO2 impacts negatively the performance of troops they will get funding as needed. They are not run like corporations at all.

The 60s and 70s military may indeed have had.

You have seen the budget of the US military. You could hardly call that constrained.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#298

Post by Double_a_92 »

HuShifang wrote: post #168
Diederich wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on your second point, if you have a moment? I knew someone (in California) who crashed his bicycle on a curb in front of a number of people. He picked himself up and had a bloody but minor wound on his arm. But overall he was unharmed, just some surface bleeding. "Of course" multiple people called 911, and an ambulance arrived in short order. He had insurance, but he wasn't interested in getting in an…

Interesting. I'm an American, and once sustained a bloody but minor scrape of my knee when playing basketball in China. I went to the campus clinic/dispensary to obtain some bandages, since I couldn't find any that were the right size at the nearby convenience store; there, the staff practically tried to admit me, telling me that I had sustained a very serious injury and that I needed to take it seriously and start a…

In China it's much more common to take antibiotica for minor reasons.

Also big (area wise) skin wounds can get infected even if they are not bleeding.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#299

Post by prepend »

ezoe wrote: post #271
solveit wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re 2: Military research gets ignored all the time despite (because?) it often outpacing academia by decades. Not sure exactly why this happens, just wanted to note this phenomenon isn't specific to CO2 levels and cognition.

Maybe, Military has strong incentive to conclude that CO2 level not affecting the soldier's intellectual and physical activities so they don't need to spend extra cost for submarine to keep the CO2 level low.

I think the military has a strong incentive to not have submarine crews with impaired intellectual and physical activities so they can perform as designed.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#300

Post by iofiiiiiiiii »

ggreer wrote: post #240

If it is, it's not due to CO2. The US Navy's submarines are run with CO2 levels varying from 300-11,300ppm.[1] The military did plenty of studies in the 60s and 70s and failed to find significant cognitive effects in environments as high as 4% CO2.[2] > Thus, CO2 at 40,000 ppm for 2 weeks did not affect performance on multiple tests of cognitive function in physically fit young airmen, a population probably not unlik…

Thank you for linking some studies! This is very interesting to me, since I have noticed CO2 levels having a major effect on my work routine.

There is a CO2 sensor on my desk for 10 years already. Generally it is around 650 ppm during a working day but occasionally the building's ventilation system's power trips and air movement suddenly decreases. This causes CO2 levels to rise fast - once they hit 900-1000 ppm, I can definitely feel a decrease in my ability to focus and think clearly (and yes, I feel it even before looking at the numbers, ha!).

Obviously silly single anecdote but subjectively the link is very strong for me!

PS. On a sad note is that I remember the days when coming to work in the morning meant the CO2 level was at 350 ppm. These days clean air is 450 ppm in this city!

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