Torontonians may soon be able to rent a carbon dioxide (CO2) monitor at the public library as part of the city’s pandemic response.
In April, the city of Peterborough became the first municipality in North America to facilitate such a program, loaning residents CO2 monitors for a week so they could determine the quality of air ventilation inside their home. , office or other indoor place. spaces.
The devices use a “traffic light system,” officials said at the time. A green light means the air quality in the space is good, yellow means it’s okay, and red means there’s poor ventilation in the area.
The higher the CO2 levels within the space, the more recycled air a person will inhale.
“Good ventilation and filtration are important because they help lower the risk of illness by reducing the levels of aerosols that contain viruses and bacteria, and other air quality problems that can make us sick, including the virus that causes COVID-19,” Dr Thomas said. Piggott, medical officer of health for Peterborough, said in a statement issued in April.
Piggott added that it’s relatively easy to reduce CO2 levels if residents test high. Actions like opening windows, reducing the number of people in a room, and using air filtration devices will help increase air ventilation. Wearing masks will also help remove potential airborne contaminants.
Around the same time the Peterborough program was launched, some residents contacted the Toronto Public Library to ask if they had plans to do something similar. At the time, officials said on social media that they had been contacted by organizations interested in donating CO2 monitors and that updates would come at a later date.
Months later, it appears that a formal program may be underway.
In a tweet posted on July 2, the library said they plan to introduce a CO2 monitoring program in mid-July with more information expected “in the coming weeks.”
CTV News Toronto has contacted the library for more details, but has not yet received a response.
CO2 monitors have been used extensively during the pandemic, though not consistently. In 2021, the Quebec education minister said monitors would be installed in all classrooms.
However, when an Ontario Public Health Unit tried to enforce a policy that any classroom with a CO2 reading of more than 800 parts per million receive an additional HEPA air filter, the Ontario medical director of health the province said experts “were not aware at this time.” of any correlation between CO2 levels and viral transmission.”
The use of CO2 monitoring has been widely tested in scientific journals as a tool to measure the risk of COVID-19 infection.