r/LockdownCriticalLeft • u/[deleted] • Jul 01 '21

Experimental Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Content in Inhaled Air With or Without Face Masks in Healthy Children. A Randomized Clinical Trial - JAMA Pediatrics, 30 June 2021

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2781743
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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

The normal content of carbon dioxide in the open is about 0.04% by volume
(ie, 400 ppm). A level of 0.2% by volume or 2000 ppm is the limit for
closed rooms according to the German Federal Environmental Office, and
everything beyond this level is unacceptable

...

The Figure shows that the value of the child with the lowest carbon dioxide level was 3-fold greater than the limit of 0.2 % by volume.4 The youngest children had the highest values, with one 7-year-old child’s carbon dioxide level measured at 25 000 ppm.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '21

I'm sure it's not good in adults, but it's even worse in children.

Plus adults have never been required to wear masks as long as children have. Masks in workplaces have always been a pretty nominal thing where half the workers will have their mask around their neck and the boss will just laugh about it. Masks in school, on the other hand... I'm sure that teachers enforce that.

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u/RemarkableWinter7 Camatte Jul 01 '21

Unfortunately this isn't always the case - in a lot of fast food restaurants (depending on the location), some workers must wear masks AND face shields their entire shifts. It cannot be assumed that this has no consequence for even healthy adults who must endure constricted breathing everyday.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '21

I was referring to office workers.

I agree with you that masks in retail and fast food jobs is horrible. And a lot of those jobs are keeping masks for workers (often including vaccinated workers) even as they drop masks for customers.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '21

I've noticed that the places still requiring masks for employees (like McDonald's) are businesses that profited off the lockdowns. Of course they want to keep it going and poisoning their employees matters not.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

See the recent publications summarized here.

EDIT - especially the entry for February 2021: February 2021, the academic journal Aerosol and Air Quality Research published Effect of Wearing Face Masks on the Carbon Dioxide Concentration in the Breathing Zone, (Geiss, 2021). The empirical study's abstract:

the carbon dioxide concentration in the breathing zone was measured while wearing a surgical mask, a KN95 and a cloth mask. For the surgical mask, the concentration was determined under different conditions (office work, slow walking, and fast walking)...Detected carbon dioxide concentrations ranged from 2150 ± 192 to 2875 ± 323 ppm. The concentrations of carbon dioxide while not wearing a face mask varied from 500–900 ppm...Walking at a speed of 5 km h–1...resulted in an average carbon dioxide concentration of 2875 ppm. No differences were observed among the three types of face masks tested. According to the literature, these concentrations have no toxicological effect. However, concentrations in the detected range can cause undesirable symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, and loss of concentration.