Would you entertain the idea of stressing about CO2 levels being more harmful than elevated CO2?
* 10,000 years ago, the average atmospheric CO2 was about 280ppm.
* In 2022, the average atmospheric CO2 was about 420ppm.
* OPs baseline indoor CO2 is 700-800ppm.
* For a brief time when cooking, OPs indoor CO2 is 3000ppm
But when it comes to the effect on the body, and I am not a medical professional of any kind, but normally exhaled air contains about 4.5 percent CO2 ( or 45,000ppm), so while breathing in air with 3,000ppm or 0.3% CO2 probably isn't optimal for us - our lungs are constantly dealing with much higher concentrations. So nervous shallow-breathing worrying about CO2 levels of your home probably has a similar effect to OPs cooking. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
>our lungs are constantly dealing with much higher concentrations
After gas exchange. Not with inhaled air.
gas exchange is continuous, not a discrete event that only takes place just after fresh air enters the lungs.
Is sitting next to someone bad for health?
It trained me to open windows to create circulation, but unfortunately some of the reduced airflow was unsolvable short of me like... installing more ventilation into my room.
I am glad I am aware of CO2 stuff (and definitely feel like I've reduced headaches and the like from being more mindful) but sometimes you will be informed of a bad CO2 environment but be totally incapable of doing anything about it and that really sucks.
- an office (fortunately not my case)
- rented apartment that would not let me drill a hole in the wall
Good info to have though! I feel like I would definitely look at setting that up in most cases
In fact, lots of people who do these sorts of things actually enjoy what amounts to a health hobby, in the same way any other hobbyist likes to geek out about their respective hobby.
However, putting that effort into fixing those small things for millions of people usually is worth it. For example, could OP contact their local building standards department and push for CO2 monitors in all new buildings? Could they do a study and publish the results to give a better scientific backing for any changes? Could they publish designs for a combined smoke and CO2 alarm?
If they are truly powerless to do anything like that, then they should just ignore the whole thing and worry about more day to day risks, like slipping on ice on their front yard.