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
In addition, you have a very significant amount of air that your lungs exhale and inhale back in anyways. Think of the last bit of air from the bottom of your lungs. It has to be pushed through your little bronchioles farther up to your trachea, through your throat and mouth before it leaves your body. After you stop exhaling, the next inhalation will bring this already used air, full of carbon dioxide and depleted of oxygen back down in the lung. This amount is by far not small, but 1-2 cc per pound of bodyweight.
Ever been snorkeling? The air inside the snorkel adds up to this. Ever wondered why 10 big breaths are better then 20 shallow ones? You breathe one liter ten times a minute. Every breath you waste 0.2 liter, 8 liter go to your lungs. You breath 0.5 liter 20 times? Still waste 0.2 per breath, but 20 of it. That’s 4 liters of waste, leaving only six for the lungs. Now imagine how little a mask adds to this and advice those people to take a deep breath – and probably relax.
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