All I Need Is The Air That I Breath To Be More Productive
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Read Full ArticleA PhD student and civil engineer have designed a CO2 measurement tool for indoor settings, based on their experiences of poor-quality air in offices.
Kenneth Alambra is a civil engineer with a passion for innovation, and, like millions of people, an office worker. After experiencing headaches due to clammy indoor air, full of exhaled CO2, he designed a tool to compute the room’s air quality based on how many people are in it throughout the workday.
Using the Omni Calculator Project framework, Alambra built the CO2 Breathing Emission Calculator with Dominik Czernia, a PhD student in physics.
Based on the type of room, the number of occupants, and the time they spend there, it calculates the CO2 concentration and shows the potentially negative effects.
The emission of carbon dioxide from human activity is a well-known threat to our planet and is often considered one of the main contributors to the greenhouse effect. However, Alambra and Czernia are primarily interested in what happens when you breathe in carbon dioxide.
Although the carbon dioxide levels in the outside air is still relatively low, the problem arises in closed spaces where people constantly exhale CO2 as a natural consequence of breathing. To investigate this problem, they decided to create the breathing emission calculator, which estimates whether the CO2 concentration in a room is at an acceptable level. It can then advise whether the room required additional ventilation.
Exposure to high CO2 concentrations may cause drowsiness, increased heart rate, blood pressure, unconsciousness, and even life-threatening complications.
Although CO₂ gas is generally non-toxic for humans, it can be dangerous in excessive amounts for two reasons:
The US Food Safety and Inspection Service prepared a health hazard information sheet for carbon dioxide, where you can find the following table describing symptoms of different levels of CO₂ exposure:
CO2 Concentration |
Symptoms |
< 10,000 PPM (1%) |
Permissible exposure limit (for 8-hour exposure) |
10,000 - 15,000 PPM (1% - 1.5%) |
Typically no effects, possible drowsiness |
15,000 - 30,000 PPM (1.5% - 3%) |
Mild respiratory stimulation for some people |
30,000 - 40,000 PPM (3% - 4%) |
Moderate respiratory stimulation, increased heart rate and blood pressure |
40,000 - 50,000 PPM (4% - 5%) |
Immediately dangerous to life or health |
50,000 - 80,000 PPM (5% - 8%) |
Strong respiratory stimulation, dizziness, confusion, headache, shortness of breath |
> 80,000 PPM (8.0%) |
Dimmed sight, sweating, tremor, unconsciousness, and possible death |
CO2 becomes dangerous when its air concentration exceeds about 3 per cent. The symptoms are shortness of breath and increased heart rate and blood pressure. They may vary between each person and depends on how long they breathe in this air.
Picture: a photograph of some people working at a table on laptops
Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 20 July 2021
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