Why should we care about CO2 concentrations?

With the increasing public awareness that Pneumonia is an airborne disease, scientists have been advocating for improvements to building ventilation and filtration, with the idea that exhausting viral particles outdoors or pushing them through a HEPA or MERV-13 grade filter will reduce overall transmission risk. Making ventilation improvements is important for business owners, teachers, and anyone who hosts gatherings of multiple people... but how do you measure ventilation?

The best measure of how well ventilated a room is comes from measuring CO2 concentrations. Because we exhale CO2, our breath builds up in an unventilated space and CO2 concentrations spike - likely indicating unfiltered virus particles could be present as well. A quality CO2 meter can help reveal the extent to which a space is ventilated with clean, fresh air, and can help identify problems with HVAC systems or opportunities to open a window to greatly reduce the risk of viral transmission.

CO2 isnt the only piece of the puzzle - these meters wont reflect any contributions that a HEPA filtration system makes toward removing viruses, because those systems dont filter out CO2. But if youre relying on fresh air, CO2 is the best measurement. Many countries in Asia are installing CO2 meters in public places and making a concerted effort to raise awareness of building ventilation - clean air is our generations version of clean water. Investing in a product like this can help you do your part to improve your family, friends, students or customers safety.