Carbon dioxide (chemical formula CO2) is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a colorless odorless incombustible gas present in the atmosphere, CO2, formed during respiration, combustion, and organic decomposition and is used in food refrigeration, carbonated beverages, inert atmospheres, fire extinguishers, and aerosols. It is also responsible for global warming.
Measuring CO2 concentration is one of the most practical investigative tools available to a practitioner for determining that specific occupied spaces are adequately ventilated. Building design may provide for appropriate ventilation on paper, but in the real world the actual delivery of dilution air to specific occupied areas often doesn’t achieve design goals or is disrupted, to the detriment of the occupants of those specific “problem” spaces.
Carbon Dioxide is very rarely a pollutant of direct health concern, itself! Rather, because building occupants exhale CO2 (at close to 40,000 ppm), the CO2 that they breathe out is used as a tracer gas that is an excellent indicator of adequate (or inadequate) ventilation. Insufficient ventilation can lead to occupant complaints of discomfort and reduced productivity as human and building generated pollutants build up. Some combinations of these elevated pollutants may have short or long-term detrimental health effects.
As the concentration of carbon dioxide increases, people start to experience carbon dioxide intoxication, which may progress to carbon dioxide poisoning and sometimes death. Elevated blood and tissue levels of carbon dioxide are termed hypercapnia and hypercarbia.
Symptoms of Carbon Dioxide Intoxication and Poisoning
- deeper breathing
- twitching of muscles
- increased blood pressure
- headache
- increased pulse rate
- loss of judgement
- labored breathing
- unconsciousness (occurs in under a minute when CO2 concentration rises about 10%)
- death
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