I’ve heard a lot of anti-maskers use the argument that since we breathe out CO2, it will become trapped in the mask and is dangerous to breathe back in.
Obviously, this isn’t the case, because doctors wear their masks for hours and hours on end while doing surgeries. However, I am wondering, how does it work?
In: Biology
The air is about 400 parts per million CO2, or around 0.04%. It takes 3-5% before you start showing any symptoms from excess CO2, and more like 10-12% before it kills you, so around 100-250 TIMES higher concentration. Its very hard to achieve that in an unsealed environment like a mask. Even buried in an avalanche, people usually remain conscious for around 15 minutes with their face pressed directly into the snow.
Also, you’re able to smell CO2 at high concentrations, its the sharp tingling burning smell above a freshly opened can of soda. If there was enough CO2 building up to be dangerous, you would know about it.
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