South Fork Students and Staff Breathing High CO2 for Months, Source Says
[Stock photo by Taylor Flowe on Unsplash]
OSHA’s Redding District Office opened the inspection April 21. Federal records list the case as health-related and still open.
Superintendent Sarah Purl confirmed the inspection, saying CO2 levels had been recorded above 1,100 parts per million in a classroom with the door and windows closed during class. Under California Public Utilities Code Section 1625, classrooms must be equipped with CO2 monitors that alert occupants when levels exceed 1,100 ppm, and ventilation must be adjusted by qualified personnel if levels breach that threshold more than once a week.
A source familiar with the complaint said concerns about CO2 levels were first raised with district administration last September and that multiple classrooms are affected — including, according to the source, classrooms at Miranda Junior High as well as South Fork High.
While the federal OSHA workplace limit is 5,000 ppm over an eight-hour workday, California holds schools to a tighter standard. State building code requires ventilation systems to keep CO2 at or below 1,000 ppm during occupied hours. The health effects of levels above that threshold are well-documented. Concentrations above 1,000 ppm can cause drowsiness, stuffiness, and mild confusion. Research has linked elevated CO2 to difficulty concentrating, paying attention, and making decisions — conditions that can directly affect a student’s ability to learn.
The problem is common in California schools. A UC Davis and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study found that over half of new HVAC systems in California schools had significant problems within three years of installation, with some classrooms recording CO2 above 2,000 ppm for substantial portions of the school day.
Purl said the district has engaged three contractors to address the issue: Shasta Controls, which originally installed the HVAC system and has remote monitoring in place; Nor Cal Mechanical, which handles ongoing district maintenance; and Greenwired, which began on-site inspections May 13. Teachers opening windows during class has kept levels below 1,100 ppm during the school day, she said.
“All requested documents have been given to OSHA and we are scheduled for the 25-26 HVAC inspection later this month,” Purl said.
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It’s their own fault. Studies have shown that students are the leading cause of CO2 in classrooms.
I recommend they be taught outdoors.
<1.5% (1500 PPM) CO2 is pretty negligble stuff. Drowsiness and confusion in adolescents isn’t exactly unusual in most circumstances. I won’t argue that things escalate pretty severely >3% (~30% can be fatal) but I don’t think this is worth even half the fuss being made.
More outdoor classtime doesn’t have as many hurdles as one would think, but some time inside a classroom will probably always be necessary. Even if levels flirted with 2000 PPM, time under an hour is still seen as acceptable exposure. Conveniently, that window aligns with the typical length of any given lesson or period of class time outside of a block/extended schedule.
Forgive me for not seeing a problem here.
From the chart 1.5% maximum exposure limit is 480 minutes = 8 hours. Would you want to be such in a building 5 days a week for 8 hours each day?
Yes. Happily. I recognize my life doesnt exist in a vacuum and I often exhibit those same symptoms which I credit to mere exhaustion. The CO2 buildup isn’t from some potentially fatal flaw in engineering. It’s humans. Life, doing normal living things. This isn’t like lead pipes, certainly at these levels. HVAC today is miles ahead of what we had decades ago. It can also easily be mitigated by simply opening windows or sending more time outside.
Mountain out of a molehill, mate.
The weather is great. Open some windows. Our teachers always had windows open when we went to school. Doesn’t anyone like fresh air anymore? Jeez
Big deal. crack a window or door. Give them all a participation trophy too.
Reference Guide for Indoor Air Quality in Schools https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/reference-guide-indoor-air-quality-schools
Appendix B: Overview of Accute Health Effects (pdf) https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-06/documents/co2appendixb.pdf
Hypercapnia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercapnia
Häggström, Mikael (2014). “Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 2002-4436.
OR, If carbon dioxide, CO2, is at 8%, the concentration is 80,000 ppm.
correct
So…they all aren’t really as stupid as they seemed? And that lesson wasn’t really as boring? It was the air’s fault that they all seemed slow and kept falling asleep in class…
I attended South Fork High School in the 60’s and don’t remember having this CO2 problem. Why, because the school was never tested back then. The CO2 problem they have now really concerns me for the safety and wellbeing of all the students, teachers and other staff members. I hope the three contractors can pinpoint the problem areas and have them fixed immediately. Until then all the doors and windows in the classrooms, gym, etc., should be left open for fresh air to come in.
These updated buildings are air tight, to be efficient. But the HVAC system may need adjusting.
nope
not even close to airtight
in a truely airtight building you would have to mechanically introduce fresh air to avoid co2 and other gases that build up in enclosed spaces
its called an ERV
the agency that oversees all schools is the DSA
division of state architects
guess you missed that day
[edit]
Unless they have a sophisticated CO2 trap… they will need injection of outside air. Which kinda moots the double glazed sealing windows, and ‘whatever else’ they did to prevent outside air from coming in.
>”Teachers opening windows during class has kept levels below 1,100 ppm during the school day, she said.”
Ok, so they have got it figured out. Any other questions ?
Problem kinda sounds like a … ‘tempest in a teapot’.
https://meyerair.com/hvac-system-diagram/
Not a CO2 trap. That is simply an injection of outside air.
HINT: OPEN THE WINDOW.
No need to yell!
Do HVAC Systems Remove CO2? An In-Depth Analysis https://www.ourmechanicalcenter.com/archives/12640
There are no buildings on campus that are airtight. Just opening the door to the classroom will allow some air in and out. Hopefully you are correct in saying the HVAC system may need adjusting. They may need to replace the entire system, which I am not sure how the district can afford that without some kind of Government help. But the CO2 problem needs to stop now!
>”Teachers opening windows during class has kept levels below 1,100 ppm during the school day, she said.”
CO2 exhaust from the kids is the problem.
Bozo, that is not true.
REALLY ?????? That’s interesting.
So… WHERE IS THE CO2 COMING FROM ????
25 kids in a (reasonably) air-tight classroom ?
Open the window and the problem goes away ?
Otherwise… must be some sort of portal to another universe ?
From the HVAC system itself. I said to open windows and the classroom door. I think some comments come from another universe.
LOL. The Hvac is only 5 years old.
It never fails when deferred maintenance happens, this is the kind of problems that come up. Sure cutbacks look good on paper but those doing the cutting don’t know what the f✓¢k they are doing. Maintenance personnel needs are based on square footage of the facility not some CFO trying to balance the books.
It reminds me of when my workplace got a new HVAC; turns out it just recirculates the air; you have to pay extra to pull in outside air. Maybe things have gotten better in the last eight years?
Wow another CO2 demon to be scared of right folks lmao
I see no one has addressed the issue in the comments so I will stick my neck out and point out that CO2 is often used as a surrogate measure of how fresh the air is. Lack of air circulation is correlated with increased incidence of cold flu and the C word respiratory disease that cannot be mentioned because the crisis is over.
Opening the windows is not always reasonable in midwinter so the solution is as others have said some kind of heat exchange between warm exhaust air and cold fresh air intake. Erv or whatever it’s called these days
Based on my initial reading and reading of the comments, I first thought it was carbon monoxide they were talking about. Commonly confused by the general public. https://www.indsci.com/en/blog/carbon-monoxide-vs.-carbon-dioxide-lets-compare
The is a common problem on modern airplanes. At cruising altitude outside air temp is minus forty. Fresh air must be heated. Airframe are not air conditioned, they are heated. To save fuel they provide fewer air exchanges. CO2 levels rise. Bringing in fresh air in not the same a single paine windows and lack of insulation. That is thermal loss, still reduced in modern buildings. More fresh air, eat the increased energy cost.
I bet if teachers opened their doors and windows the CO2, most of which is exhaled from the people in the classroom (DUH), levels would go down…