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France is mandating clean air in the classrooms, requiring CO2 levels of 800 ppm. I hope this is rolled out in other countries. Apart from lowering #covid risks in the classroom, it will also address other respiratory issues. #CleanAir #COVID #SafeSchools
Unfortunately, I don't think that French texts contain more than recommendations which are not applied because public schools have no means.
My wife, a teacher, measures levels above 800 ppm in each of her courses.
@Lylamehta it certainly will.
But for 800 ppm they need technical ventilation at least during the winter and the summer heat. Is France actually going to install the necessary air conditioning systems?
Do you know how they want to address this issue?
@wiesendonk sorry I don’t know anything more & replies to my post from those in France suggest that not much has been done as yet
I'm involved with a project leading us to install CO2 instrumentation in the crew spaces of some sample boats.
When the weather is cold and ventilation is reduced, concentration can quickly reach 4,500ppm and stay there for hours, with higher excursions.
Meanwhile the research on cognitive effects remains hazy but it's notable that the ISS started with US Navy levels and has steadily reduced, now limited at ~2kppm more by technical considerations as opposed to "don't need to."
"Hazy," but research as well of late better refined and with a general trend toward "this does have cognitive effects, non-obvious." Such as indications of lassitude even while no strong problem-solving deficits were observed, which IIRC was a key driver to reduce the concentration on ISS.
(background for folks not as close to the topic, not mansplaining to Dr. Mehta!)
@Lylamehta
Yes please! (Called in today due to colleague having Covid-19 again)
Quite some time ago, as a result of the last energy crunch in the 1970's, there was a spike in "sick building syndrome" complaints. Headaches, sore throats, wheezing, and so on. After maximizing insulation and sealing against drafts, a typical office building in the 1980's might have had less than one fresh air exchange every four hours.
/1
It turns out that indoor CO2 concentration is a decent proxy for all the volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) emitted by building materials, cooking, and other activities. There have been building code changes and improvements (mostly thermal exchangers for recapturing heat/chill from exhaust air). But ventilation still isn't adequate by historical standards. This is especially concerning given increasing use of artificial furnishing and finishing materials with VOC emissions.
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In the U.S., the OSHA regulatory limit for personal CO2 exposure is 5,000 ppm. The vintners I've worked with set room alarm limits at 2,000 ppm as a matter of comfort, to avoid headaches, increased respiratory rate, and diminished work capacity. [Yes, CO2 generation is a hazard in most commercial fermentation operations.]
@janasanchez @Lylamehta Interesting. Reduced CO2 should improve cognition, not necessarily SARS-CoV2
@crosscutanne @janasanchez @Lylamehta it's being used as a proxy for how often fresh air is being brought in.
It's a good proxy for ventilation, but doesn't account for things like HEPA filtration (which wouldn't reduce CO2 while reducing virus levels).
Or, I guess, CO2 scrubbers on the space station (but they have HEPA filtration there also).
@apukwa @janasanchez @Lylamehta yes understand that CO2 is a proxy. It is a hard metric for the avg consumer to understand as you can have high C02 but good air quality if enough air filtration (CADR).
Healthy Air EvangelistCountries are lining up to usher in a new era of cleaner indoor air.
Belgium requires public displays of CO2 monitors
The US demands that federally funded buildings clean air through MERV 13 filters.
And now news that France is protecting school children. 
Everyone can add a #CorsiRosenthalBox to their home, office or classroom.
As @Jimrosenthal4 says, “We are not helpless.”
@Lylamehta From what I hear from France, that's a nice graph, but that's not what's happening in classrooms where nothing has changed since before the pandemic.
@Lylamehta was just trying to figure out how to get local school districts (the ones my nibblings attend) to do the same.
@Lylamehta Please note that the French education ministry has a history of passing measures without consulting with the workers, and without funding their implementation.
This might look great, but I doubt it will actually happen in every classroom.
@Lylamehta #Funfact: Weren't #schools explicity exempted from #LabourProtection laws and #MinorEmploymentRegulations, #classrooms would've been illegal in #Germany for decades...
@Lylamehta it will also improve cognitive function.
@Alby wrote about this before COVID was even a thing https://schoolsweek.co.uk/school-hopes-fresh-air-will-help-clear-exam-minds/
@Lylamehta That's Great, and then when they see the mechanical and electrical costs of putting things right after the assessment, they won't bother doing anything about it. I look after many educational buildings post construction where modifications have meant little to no ventilation in rooms.
@Lylamehta The cost effective option if the rooms have outside walls is to place Heat Recovery Units into the the ceiling, to provide fresh air. These are around 10K per unit per install on a retrofit.
They can be ducted into multiple rooms, that said, they rarely have the ability to control more than one space at once. S if you have a class which has 30 people in and one with 2. Its tricky.
@Lylamehta
I do hope France's classroom CO2 reduction measures are swiftly adopted, but I doubt the UK will follow suit. Here children and teaching staff seem to be the last on the list regarding implementation of preventative measures. Some parents have even bought air filters for classrooms themselves. Why the UK government cares so little for the country's children I do not know. Sunak wants them to study maths until they are 18, this might not be so easy if they have long covid.
@Lylamehta I hope this is rolled out in France...
@Lylamehta That so good to hear - happy to see such progress on clean air 
A nice thread on reasons, details, and effects of clean air can be found here (unfortunately German only): https://twitter.com/leseerlaubnis/status/1608508472257286146
@Lylamehta @EU_Commission 
Time for EU regulation!
@Lylamehta
Heres a nice way to monitor that per classroom
Here people making a cheap ikea co2 sensor connected to #iot
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/ikea-vindriktning-air-quality-sensor/324599/14
And the ikea sensor here
#airquality
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vindriktning-air-quality-sensor-60515911/
There's really no obstacle to really monitor this well and direct in the classroom
@Lylamehta it’s happening in Scotland- certainly in some authorities!
@Lylamehta it'll never happen under UKIPTories
@Lylamehta worked in indoor CO2 monitoring pre-covid and it has benefits even without disease risks because people tend to start to get sleepy at around 1000ppm
@Lylamehta Damn, and 800ppm is quite an ambitious threshold. Hats off.
I had done a couple CO2 mesuares for a school project and I've seen values up to 3600ppm once in a classroom during a heatwave
@Lylamehta
Seems that CO2 monitors should be in every classroom.
@Lylamehta well, nothing is done here. I mean, i'm french and there's 0 money for clean air in schools, administrations etc...
Nobody cares.
@Lylamehta I call BS on that one. They haven't been able to provide masks to most teachers at all (forget ffp2), they did not give them access to early shot despite classes being open, few have even seen a single air purifier in their school. They are great at announcements and creating toll-free phone number, nothing else
@Lylamehta Was looking forward to something like this regulation for years.
@Lylamehta 800 ppm is already pretty high!
@Lylamehta they’re mandating it, but with no plan on how schools are actually going to implement it, no funding etc. It’s basically just PR, sadly.
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抱抱龙
⏚φ @Lylamehta But about 0 budget is given to public schools, and this is already a 4 years old struggle between teaching structures/teachers and government. This is just another vapor thing without any real effect from Ceaucescu like government.
@Lylamehta In (unrelated) news, France also seems to have excess death numbers under control, unlike other places.
@Lylamehta sadly nothing here says they can't just open windows before the reading. I've worked in a place (in ireland) where they just put CO2 detectors in each room and it was on us to open the windows when it turned orange, whatever the temperature and weather.
@Lylamehta Thanks for posting this. Geez, I wish we had this in the so called states. All covid19 mitigations have been thrown out the window. My daughter has only been attending remote learning since Covid-19 began, but I will share this with her school. Even though we are extremely isolated, we are still frequently ill. My health and my child’s health has substantially lessened since catching covid19.
@emilyfern I’m so sorry to hear about your child & your health problems. It’s terrible how #LongCovid & covid have been minimised all over. I hope #cleanair will be rolled out universally but that’s going to be a long wait I think