Elevated carbon dioxide may impair reasoning

[xchrom]

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345791/description/Elevated_carbon_dioxide_may_impair_reasoning

Carbon dioxide has been vilified for decades as a driver of global warming. A new study finds signs that CO2, exhaled in every breath, can exert an equally worrisome threat — impaired cognition — in nearly every energy-efficient classroom, meeting hall or office space.

The work assessed decision-making in 22 healthy young adults. Their performance on six of nine tests dropped notably when researchers raised indoor carbon dioxide levels to 1,000 parts per million from a baseline of 600 ppm. On seven tests, performance fell substantially more when the room’s CO2 was boosted to 2,500 ppm, scientists report in a paper to be published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

These data are surprising, says Roger Hedrick of Architectural Energy Corp. in Boulder, Colo., because “1,000 ppm of CO2 used to be considered a benchmark of good ventilation.” Hedrick, an environmental engineer, chairs the committee that drafts commercial ventilation standards through the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, & Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Carbon dioxide levels are often substantially higher in buildings than the 350 to 400 ppm typically found outdoors. Indoor values of 600 ppm are considered very good. But depending on how many people inhabit a room and how many times per hour its air is exchanged with outdoor air through ventilation, “there are plenty of buildings where you could easily see 2,500 ppm of CO2 — or close to it — even with ventilation designs that are fully compliant with current standards,” Hedrick says.

[flamingdem]

1. I'm going over to open the window, I reason nt

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Like over crowded classrooms...

But depending on how many people inhabit a room and how many times per hour its air is exchanged with outdoor air through ventilation

[leveymg]

3. . . . we are Devo. D-E-V-O (May explain much of the American electorate)

[AverageJoe90]

4. Many buildings are in need of better ventilation.

Of course, it doesn't help that many of the world's major cities are still badly polluted, even including some of our own. We need more clean fuels and possibly a new Clean Air Act.

[xchrom]

5. We could do with open windows.

Planes used to leave their vents open to run air through the cabins.

But that 'wastes' fuel - we get sicker as a result.