A newly published paper from Germany shows measured inhaled carbon dioxide levels over 13000 ppm for children wearing face masks. The federal limit for industrial workers is 5000 ppm for a 8-hour work day. Typical levels in office buildings are less than 1000 ppm.
Does requiring face masks for long periods of time violate federal law?
keep your carbon to yourself. if you take off the mask you’ll hurt the planet
Problems as pointed out in the comments of this paper:
The authors use an CO2 incubator analyzer (0-20%) that has an accuracy of 1% of the range (i.e. 2000ppm) and a time response T^90<=20 seconds for CO2. This device is unsuitable for measuring the transient concentrations during the respiration processes. A normal respiration cycle has a duration of 3 to 4 seconds. Thus, it is impossible to separate the concentration of CO2 in inhaled and exhaled air using this device. This also explains why the authors measure average concentrations of around 2700ppm-CO2, way above the ambient value of 740ppm, even when no mask is present.
The authors refer to the dead volume behind the mask as the main problem. The relevant data would be the comparison between this dead volume and the lung capacity and/or the volume of one respiration cycle. The lungs never collapse completely during respiration. Together with the rest of the respiratory airways, the respiratory system has also a dead volume that is much larger than the dead volume between the mask and the face. The comparison of these volume is of extreme importance for the discussion and may change the author’s conclusions.
I.e. the dead volume behind the mask would be swamped out by the dead volume in one’s lungs.
And the third comment makes the point that taking oxygen levels using a pulse oximeter would be an important companion piece of data to see if pO2 levels were changing while wearing a mask v not wearing a mask…and that this data was not provided.
The dangers of once again the common layperson looking at a study and imagining he/she has the knowledge to properly understand it.
Sigh…there are surgeons who will be in complicated surgeries for literally as long as kids are in school during the day…and yet somehow this effect of masks on people has never been seen.
Plus… I looked up the leads of this “study”
They are cranks
Yes, this question is already an issue for surgeons and other medical workers who are required to wear masks for long periods. Medical errors kill 150,000 people a year in the US. Are high CO2 levels affecting judgement?
The CO2 concentration in exhaled air is 40000 ppm. The tidal volume is about 400 to 500 ml/breath for a resting adult. Children exhale smaller volumes.
If the volume of behind the mask is more than about 10 to 20 percent of the tidal volume, then the average inhaled carbon dioxide level is likely to exceed 5000 ppm.
Physiology, Tidal Volume - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)
They are all in cages down in Texas.
Yes, while they are getting raped and getting COVID.
You missed the part where the equipment they were using to measure CO2 concentration was not suitable for the measurements they were taking in the time frame they were taking them…which ought to have been apparent when their baseline measurements without a mask were way higher than normal ambient CO2 concentration levels.
Three minutes is also nowhere near enough time to get accurate readings either.
So many things wrong with this study.
From your link…which you obviously didn’t read, or you wouldn’t have said something so absurd:
Rather, they say, most errors represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.
In other words, these people aren’t dying in surgeries where masks are being worn for a long period of time. The most common form of error is misdiagnosis that leads to incorrect treatment protocols…many made by doctors who aren’t always wearing masks for prolonged because they’re not surgeons.
Cranks is being nice to them.
Allan
The measured levels are over 2.5 times the OSHA limits. The results can have a large uncertainty and it would not affect the basic findings.
The OSHA limits were set for industrial workers. Where are the studies about the long-term health effects of children wearing masks? In Germany they use a limit of 2000 ppm for schools.
Can you provide a link that shows that children can safely wear masks for 6 to 8 hours per day?
When you don’t know what the uncertainty is and so cannot find error bars, (and the uncertainty can go either way), the basic findings are invalid. This is a basic tenet of scientific research. If you don’t know the error limits, the results are meaningless.
Could have easily been resolved by a longer study duration, better equipment and complementary data.
But you keep doubling down, like you did on that election results “study” by the MIT professor who committed a kindergarten-level math error in his analysis. That one embarrassed you so much you had the thread deleted.
Do high CO2 levels explain Biden’s mental issues?
I read the article. It is utter trash. Carry on!
I think the strangest recent political phenomenon (out of many possible examples) is the convergence of right-wing populism and New Age Woo.
It’s most apparent in the QAnon communities, sure - but it’s definitely bleeding into more (slightly) more mainstream right-wing thought - particularly linked to mask and vaccine denialism.
Next thing we know, you guys are gonna start talking about the power of crystals in curing COVID.
why do surgeons wear those masks?
To prevent them from infecting their patients.
through what means ?
