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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?

#261

Post by kortilla »

wishrider wrote: post #34

When I was a student I had a little room and one time I had a co2 monitor in my room for a few days. The monitor had 3 leds, green yellow and red. While sitting in the room for three consecutive hours (at the computer) the co2 would slowly rise from green to red and after opening the window for a while it was back at green. Now the interesting part is that I felt a strong correlation between tiredness and high co2 le…

You sure the tiredness wasn’t from sitting in a room for three consecutive hours?

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#262

Post by Tade0 »

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…

My take is that it's the oxygen level. A drop from the usual 21% to 19.5% is enough to have a significant effect.

That's barely a few hours worth of breathing in a typical office setting.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#263

Post by solveit »

quibono wrote: post #242
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…

If it's not CO2 the real cause might be even more interesting, if a real negative effect does exist (which it seems to do, given the recent studies). I find it interesting that 1) they disagree based on the tests/methodology used 2) no one seems to be acknowledging the military research from back then (which I have to say, I didn't know about myself).

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.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#264

Post by skeleton »

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?

Yeah I always open my visor when I'm stopped/riding slowly for longer than I can comfortably hold my breath. Depending on the temperature outside, if I don't open my visor it will fog up real fast.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#265

Post by 83457 »

grzm wrote: post #257
83457 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to guess English is not your first language. Breath is also a verb. Example: "I don't want to breath in all the exhaust fumes". It sounds like you misunderstood my original comment. Edit: welp sometimes you learn English as your first language for the second time and today is that day for me

> "Breath is also a verb." I think the verb you're looking for is breathe . Breath is a noun.

I stand corrected. Thank you

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#266

Post by pvaldes »

c0vfefe wrote: post #208
rndgermandude wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most surprising things I was taught when taking classes in Germany (which went beyond the mandatory classes you have to take to get a driver's license) are the following. Well, not really surprising once you think about it... - Mouth-to-nose is usually better than mouth-to-mouth, at least when there is no obstructions (like bleeding, broken nose, snot, etc). - If you're doing chest compressions, expect a high pro…

> "Don't be shy, no time for false modesty, it may cost a life." Or it may cost the rescuer quite a bit when a woman regains consciousness half-naked with a man on top of her.

This should not happen. Another rule is that you must not to put yourself on top of the victim or walk crossing over the body of other people. Is disrespectful and can be dangerous also. You have to sidestep it and approach from one of the sides.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#267

Post by rileymat2 »

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…

> but showed moderate increases in anxiety, apathy, uncooperativeness, desire to leave

Sounds like a good recipe for poor decision making, AKA dumber.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#268

Post by dredmorbius »

avar wrote: post #251
dredmorbius wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that the article refers to both carbon and carbon dioxide fixation. CO2 weighs more than the carbon it contains, by a lot. Carbon has an atomic weight of 12, CO2 a molecular weight of 44 (12 + 2 16), or just shy 4x the mass of the carbon* component of CO2. The 4.4 kg I gave was carbon , the 16.3 kg CO2 . Your 9.16 kg refers to CO2, fixed per square meter per year, which is less than the CO2 fixation value I'd us…

I understand the difference, but perhaps I misunderstood the article. What it says (and you're correctly referring to) is: > We will be conservative and say that our algal beds fix 2.5 kg of C per square meter per year and 2.5 kg of C works out to 9.167 kg of CO2. But then a couple of paragraphs later: > the maximum CO2 assimilation rate of algal beds which we will say is 9.167 kg of C per square meter per year. I.e.…

That looks sloppy on their part. Point for my OP was just to note that a couple of potted plants wouldn't keep your apartment breathable.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#269

Post by h3throw »

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…

Very valuable to know. Thank you.

Re: Is Conference Room Air Making Us Dumber?

#270

Post by phonypc »

graeme wrote: post #48
brilee wrote: post #22

No. I wrote up the computations explaining why. See http://www.moderndescartes.com/essays/co2_closed_rooms/

....did you actually test if breathing rate changes? If not, on what basis can you say you're correct?

It is known in physiology that respiration rate is more or less determined by concentration of CO2 in the blood. Probably doesn't need to be independently tested.
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