Headline June 09, 2019/ '' 'SURRENDER FUZZY THINKING!' '' : STUDENTS

'' 'SURRENDER FUZZY THINKING!' '' :

 STUDENTS

IN A CLOSED WORLD : nothing but a risk of hopeless, self-centered, fuzzy thinking. Studies suggest inhaling CO2 in a conference room might make you dumber.

YOU'RE HOLED UP with colleagues in a meeting room for two-hours, hashing out a plan. Risks are weighed, decisions are made.

Then, as you emerge, you realize, it was much, much warmer and stuffier in there than in the rest of the office.

Small rooms can build up heat and carbon dioxide from our breath - as well as other substances - to an extent that might surprise you. And as it happens, a small body of evidence suggests that when it  comes to decision making, indoor air may matter more than we have realized.

At least eight studies in the last seven years have looked at what happens specifically in a room accumulating carbon dioxide - a main ingredient in our exhalations. While the results are inconsistent, they are also intriguing.

They suggest that while the kinds of air pollution known to cause cancer and asthma remain more pressing public health concerns, there may also be pollutants, whose most detrimental effects are on the mind, rather than the body.

So can you trust the decisions made in small rooms? How much does the quality of air indoors affect cognitive abilities? And as our knowledge of indoor air's effects grows, do we need to revise how we design and use buildings?

IS IT WARM IN HERE?
Buildings in the United States have grown better sealed in the last 50 years, helping reduce energy used in heating and cooling.

That's also made it easier for gases and other substances released by humans and their belongings to build up inside.

Although indoor air quality is not as well monitored as the air outdoors, scientists and ventilation professionals have extensively monitored carbon dioxide indoors.

Higher CO2 levels - say, above 1,200 parts per million [ppm] - often indicate a low ventilation rate.

Worrisome substances emitted by new furniture, office supplies and carpets could be accumulating in the air.

''It's long been thought of as an air indicator of how bad the air in a space might be,'' Brent Stephens, a professor of architectural engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology.

While other indoor air pollutants  may be linked to respiratory problems and cancers,  carbon dioxide itself has generally has been considered harmless at these levels.

But researchers have started reexamining that assumption.

TAKE A DEEP BREATH
Inhalation of carbon dioxide at much higher levels than you'd ever expect to see in a workplace has been found by biomedical researchers to dilate blood vessels in the brain, reduce neuronal activity, and decrease the amount of communication between brain regions.

But how much lower amounts, like those found commonly indoors, might effect brain has not been studied much.

About 10 years ago, William Fisk, a mechanical engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and his colleagues put together in rooms where the carbon dioxide levels varied.

They exposed subject for hours to concentrations as low as  600 ppm, fairly low for indoors, and as high as 2,500 ppm - a high but not astronomical amount that is probably not uncommon in crowded spaces.

Carbon dioxide levels in some classrooms can be twice as high, Mr. Fisk noted in a later article.

The Scientists had their subjects take a problem-solving test that measured real-world productivity  and decision making skills, said Usha Satish, a professor of psychiatry at SUUNY Upstate Medical University and a co-author of the research.

The test generates scores for broad attributes like basic strategy and initiative. The team found a strong relationship between seven of the nine headings they looked at and carbon dioxide levels.

The higher the carbon dioxide, the worst the test-takers did; at 2,500 ppm, there scores were generally much worse than at 1,000 ppm.

Other scientists, who who read the study got interested in the subject. A team led by Harvard Researchers published similar results in 2016.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Humans, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and Thinking, continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher Veronique Greenwood.

With respectful dedication to the Students. Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on Facebook : and prepare and register for Great Global Elections on : wssciw.blogspot.com and  Twitter - !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Closed & Clever '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless