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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?

#131

Post by GuiA »

blattimwind wrote: post #98
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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know you shouldn't try to take off a helmet in case of an accident, At least here in Germany this advice is considered outdated and people in (mandatory for driving) first aid courses get taught a simple technique to remove a helmet safely (ideally with two people).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 interfe…

It’s interesting to see how differently first aid is taught across countries. Eg the last training I did in the US (California), I was surprised by two things that I had not encountered when I was trained in France:

- a big concern around pathogens - always have gloves with you and put them on when administering first aid especially if the person is bleeding; use a mouth dam for mouth to mouth and if you don’t have one don’t do mouth to mouth, just chest compressions, etc

- training first aid responders around what to do when a person needing medical attention tells them not to help because they don’t have health insurance (this point was repeated numerous times by the EMT training us, saying it was routine for them to have to deal with it)

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#132

Post by segfaultbuserr »

boarnoah wrote: post #127
segfaultbuserr wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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? Yes! It's possible. But the air circulation inside a smartphone is limited and newer phones are completely sealed for waterproofing, so there are still some doubts. > How are CO2 sensors built? Based on my very limited experience on playing with electronics, I would say... 1. Previously, many CO2 sens…

>it only costs 5.76 USD per 1000 pieces Curious where you are getting those figures from. Looking at the usual suspects (newark, digikey, sparkfun etc...) gives figures like $5-20 a piece (even at bulk). Ive run into this before with some hobbyist electronics (high fov IR LEDs) where the prices were much higher than one would expect.

> Curious where you are getting those figures from. Looking at the usual suspects (newark, digikey, sparkfun etc...) gives figures like $5-20 a piece (even at bulk).

edit: I meant to say the cost is 5.76 USD each per 1000 pieces, I should've been clear. In the industry, it's common to quote the price as "1k price", which is the 1 pcs price per a bunch of 1000 pcs.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/ams/CCS811B-JOPD500?qs=...

> I've run into this before with some hobbyist electronics (high fov IR LEDs) where the prices were much higher than one would expect.

Hobbyist electronics are more expensive than the raw price, sometimes an order of magnitude, mainly because they're not mass-produced. If the part is expensive, this effect is there. But usually the cheaper the part, the stronger the effect.

In electronics mass-production, when you already have a PCB and you add a new chip, the cost is often close to the chip itself.

On the other hand, a breakout board or a devboard usually only has few chips on the board, sometimes nothing more than the soldered chip, with a voltage regulator and some pull-up resistors for "plug-and-play" experiments. Also, they are produced in small quantity so the cost cannot be low, and finally vendors like Sparkfun usually sell them to the hobbyists at a premium. For hobbyists, the point is to have something ready to work with, plus it's increasing impractical to solder some chips by yourself due to the increasingly small footprints, and anyway, even if you are gonna run a production, you need to see how it works first. So these hobbyists electronics are more expensive compared to the cost in the industry.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#133

Post by leadingthenet »

gvd wrote: post #70
Symmetry wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be surprised if it was, especially given that we evolved in a C02 concentration between 180 and 280 ppm, as opposed to the 410 ppm outside today.

We are ending up being to stupid to solve climate issues

too

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#134

Post by irrational »

Klathmon wrote: post #19
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…

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…

How does kissing affect CO2 levels? I know I've done some stupid things after kissing.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#135

Post by em-bee »

GuiA wrote: post #131
blattimwind wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 interfe…

It’s interesting to see how differently first aid is taught across countries. Eg the last training I did in the US (California), I was surprised by two things that I had not encountered when I was trained in France: - a big concern around pathogens - always have gloves with you and put them on when administering first aid especially if the person is bleeding; use a mouth dam for mouth to mouth and if you don’t have o…

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

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#136

Post by lilgreenland »

scionthefly wrote: post #118
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.

I ran a CO2 monitor in my classroom and found it exceeded 2000ppm on some occasions. Typically it would be 1200-1600. I discussed this with architects when building a new facility, and the new facility tests at I think the high levels before led to worse behavior and lower academic performance. Both seem generally better now.

Same. I run a CO2 monitor in my classroom too. It gets up to 2000ppm very fast without the fan on.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#137

Post by amluto »

wlesieutre wrote: post #80
graeme wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buildings used to be much draughtier, so it wasn't so much an issue. My landlord at my old place was always adding new insulation. Co2 levels there would get really high with windows shut. My new apartment has much lower ambient co2. Both were built 100 years ago. I think people also used to leave windows open a bit, even in winter. My (Canadian) grandma always did, and I hear it was the custom in Germany. Modern bui…

Definitely true. You can measure how leaky a building is by sealing it up, blowing air in the door, and measuring how the pressure changes. If it’s very leaky the pressure doesn’t rise as much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blower_door We used to assume that you’d get enough fresh air from infiltration through accidental sources. With a better sealed building, that’s not always the case and you may need to deliberate…

HRVs also let you control where the fresh air comes in and where the stale air leaves. This means you can do clever things like bringing fresh air into bedrooms and removing air from bathrooms.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#138

Post by mcculley »

drivers99 wrote: post #109
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.

> Yesterday I carried my CO2 monitor around to various meetings in different places (much to the amusement of those with whom I was meeting). Every place I checked was at least 200 ppm higher than outside. In one office, two guys are working in a room that read over 1,500 ppm. I wonder if they would be more productive with proper ventilation. That's worrying. Did you let them know? What was their reaction?

Yes, I let them know. They are moving into a new office very soon.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#140

Post by rootusrootus »

olivermarks wrote: post #130
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…

Your post has made me consider getting a C02 monitor, will something as simple as this 20 buck Chinese version suffice? https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADJN8NP4... Seems a useful thing to have. Separately it is very stressful being on stage at conferences that are stuffy with no fresh air, hot stage lights and probably very low oxygen. I had a friend who did press ups before going on stage to ener…

IIRC the thing to be aware of is that a monitor that actually measures CO2 is going to cost several hundred dollars. The cheap ones don't measure CO2, but some kind of VOC as a proxy. So depending on the source of the CO2, they can be more or less accurate.

Something to research. I'm not an expert, just someone who recently did some shopping for CO2 monitors for my home.

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