Posted on 04/21/2021 3:02:40 PM PDT by daniel1212
...a study published ...reports that workers showed significantly lowered cognitive functioning after spending a day in a simulated office environment featuring high concentrations of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds. By contrast, in conditions set to simulate a green building — or better yet, a green building with enhanced ventilation — cognitive performance was higher....
Carbon dioxide levels, in particular, seemed to have a major effect. “Cognitive function scores were 15% lower for the moderate CO2 day (~945 ppm) and 50% lower on the day with CO2 concentrations around 1400 ppm than on the two Green+ days,”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The indoor built environment plays a critical role in our overall well-being because of both the amount of time we spend indoors (~90%) and the ability of buildings to positively or negatively influence our health. The advent of sustainable design or green building strategies reinvigorated questions regarding the specific factors in buildings that lead to optimized conditions for health and productivity.
We simulated indoor environmental quality (IEQ) conditions in “Green” and “Conventional” buildings and evaluated the impacts on an objective measure of human performance: higher-order cognitive function.
Twenty-four participants spent 6 full work days (0900–1700 hours) in an environmentally controlled office space, blinded to test conditions. On different days, they were exposed to IEQ conditions representative of Conventional [high concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)] and Green (low concentrations of VOCs) office buildings in the United States. Additional conditions simulated a Green building with a high outdoor air ventilation rate (labeled Green+) and artificially elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels independent of ventilation.
On average, cognitive scores were 61% higher on the Green building day and 101% higher on the two Green+ building days than on the Conventional building day (p < 0.0001). VOCs and CO2 were independently associated with cognitive scores.
Cognitive function scores were significantly better under Green+ building conditions than in the Conventional building conditions for all nine functional domains. These findings have wide-ranging implications because this study was designed to reflect conditions that are commonly encountered every day in many indoor environments.
Allen JG, MacNaughton P, Satish U, Santanam S, Vallarino J, Spengler JD. 2016. Associations of cognitive function scores with carbon dioxide, ventilation, and volatile organic compound exposures in office workers: a controlled exposure study of green and conventional office environments. Environ Health Perspect 124:805–812; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1510037
Also see thread "Lying and misleading headlines: "Researchers find face masks don't hinder breathing during exercise:" Science past and present - and common sense (study) . Yes, I wear a breathable mash in certain situations outside due to the law requiring it, but if one is healthy and fit then by the grace of God one should not be afraid of Covid, and recover from any infection.
So people perform poorly in a stuffy room. Got it.
Did anybody tell these morons that these damn Covid masks significantly increase CO2 intake?
They needed a study for this ? Who paid for the ‘study’ ?
Without stating the levels of CO2 and VOC’s these results mean nothing and are not surprising. Depending on where you live/work these levels vary greatly. Natural settings can have very high VOC’s. This is why the Blue Ridge Mountains are call such. The high VOC levels in that region is what causes the discoloration of those mountain and is what causes the light-headedness and head-aches when you visit that region.
Everybody in Beijing should be dead by now.
That’s 3 1/2 times current levels. If they did that with nitrogen everyone in the experiment would be dead. If they did that with oxygen levels it would result in oxygen toxicity.
At the current alleged rise in CO2 concentrations, it would take a thousand years to get to that level. By then all the reserve fossil fuels would be gone.
I can believe that....
The study is from 2015, else WaPo would not publish it.
When mask were removed they functioned normally.
No mention of installing a lot of indoor plants in the building to process the CO2 into more O2? I guess continuing to demonize CO2 takes precedence over suggesting an obvious solution.
Did they really need a study to determine this?
The more fresh air you bring into a building (ventilation) the more air you have to heat/cool. That uses energy. So I don't see how they claim that is "green" by their use of the term.
Those of us who do HVAC/controls have been doing this as long as I remember. With electronic control systems we kind of perfected it 20-25 years ago. So what is their point?
Sick Building Syndrome will be used by Greenies to retrofit buildings.
They’re probably “assuming” the extra juice for HVAC comes from Big Wind and Sleazy Solar...so it’s politically correct.
Did they mention that the location of the “green” building matters?
Cognitive function in a green (or not) building in SF is essentially non existent.
I think their point was that better ventilation improved the work environment, but they muddied that up with the bias toward green energy. I still think that if the greenies could figure out a way to make batteries out of coal instead of rare earth minerals everybody would be much happier.
That’s why God invented house plants. To suck up all the CO2.
They needed a study for this ? Who paid for the ‘study’ ?
Rhetorical question to you: who do you think?
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