<
https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/04/co2-ventilation-research-virus-airborne-life-haddrell-celebs/>
"Carbon dioxide monitors have been around for decades. But in 2020, they
became, almost overnight, a hot commodity. All of a sudden, people wanted them
to help assess the safety of indoor spaces — to gauge the likelihood of
breathing in coronavirus-laced particles that until very recently had been in
someone else’s lungs.
No sensor can monitor how many infectious aerosols are swirling around us in
real time. But carbon dioxide, or CO₂, can act as a convenient proxy. People
exhale it when they breathe, and in spaces that aren’t well ventilated, the gas
accumulates. High CO₂ concentrations can provide a warning sign that a lot of
the air you’re inhaling is coming out of other people’s respiratory tracts.
For decades, that’s how aerosol scientists and ventilation engineers have
mostly thought about CO₂ — as a sort of indicator for the health of indoor
environments. But over the last three years, researchers in the U.K. working
with next-generation bioaerosol technologies have discovered that CO₂ is more
than a useful bystander. In fact, it plays a critical role in determining how
long viruses can stay alive in the air: The more CO₂ there is, the more
virus-friendly the air becomes.
It’s a revelation that is already transforming the way scientists study
airborne pathogens. But on a planet where burning fossil fuels and other
industrial activities inject 37 billion metric tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere
each year, it could also have huge implications for human health."
Via Diane A.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
