"Including nausea, loss of attention... uhhh...."

"Bedroom's can reach up to 4000ppm" *Immediately opens window*

2:58 So, inside cars, you sometimes have a decrease in cognitive function of over 50%? You know, that actually explains A LOT.

I’m a flight attendant and I can confirm lack of fresh air in the workplace gives me what I call “plane brain”

At my school here in Switzerland the windows open automatically when the CO2 levels rise above 600 ppm

I live in a small town in a very vegetated place, so my lack of cognitive function is all me baby

I didn't expect to feel this breathless. As someone who has lived in relative isolation in a 1 room homeless hostel for 8 years with anti suicide windows that only open 4 inches, and the absolutely devastating cognitive decline I've observed over that near decade, this seems like a legitimate piece of it.

In my school, we have a CO2 meter in every classroom. The idea behind it is to open up a window if it is too much. Most teachers don't even bother looking at it, most of the time it is at 4400 in alarming red. This is where i have to learn...

But if I open a window and a fly comes in, i will suffer a 100% productivity decrease as i try to capture it...

"I'll make this short" oh, okay "I want to go back 60 years ago"

I'd be interested to know how long it takes to regain full cognitive function after you're in an environment like that

My god! This makes so much sense! I'm a audio production engineer in an old office building, my recording booths have no ventilation in them! I am always seeing people stumble their words progressively more the longer they stay in there, woooooow I've been trying to get ventilation installed for ages, NOW I HAVE A STUDY TO BASE A CASE ON THANKS GANG

Starts video: *instant anxiety* Opens window: *instant relief*

Teacher:”Why won’t you step away from the window?” Me:”If I were to step away from this position I would experience an immediate 40% drop in my deductive reasoning skills.”

That "short of breath" line made me breathe manually.

I've wondered about this with respect to shopping malls since the 70s. Every time I've been in a giant shopping mall I end up feeling light headed and "out of it". I am fine once back outside. I always wondered if their mostly airtight construction, including double doors at all the entrances, caused the CO2 level to rise inside.

I measured my schools CO2 levels a while back. Specifically because I found myslef a lot more sleepy, unatttentive and short of breath in some specific classrooms (mainly our math wing upstairs) it was around 5000 PPM in the worst places and about 1000 in the best

Now it blows my mind when people say “Going to get fresh air”

I did a search and found that the peak CO2 levels on Apollo 13 before they implemented the canister hack, highlighted by the scene in the movie, were 19,600 ppm. Wow.

I can relate to this, as I have barely left my bed or opened a window in 5 days. Nothing beats debilitating depression like cognitive impairment.

Dude 1: "Sorry I missed that shot bro I just-" Dude 2: "What's the excuse this time?" Dude 1: "Too much CO2 in my room, can't concentrate"

2:37 "including nausea, loss of attention..." *loses attention*

The moment he started listing the side effects was when everything clicked, such as why it's nearly impossible to think normally in some classrooms and not in others, or at home compared to at school or a library. My high school had zero windows and the ones that were there had no way of opening, were usually covered, and there was never more than one in a classroom. It's literally the layout of a prison and in some classrooms it's almost intoxicating to stay in whereas others feel relaxing or lets your mind think clearer depending on the location. American schools are not the greatest and yet that's still not even the biggest problem or threat they have to face. Honestly a big part of me wonders just how much of a difference it would've made going to school in another country or out in the country with less students and more air, light, or fear.

That empathy warning at the start is fascinating. Are there really that many humans that can subconsciously mimic a physiological state just by watching that state in others?

Here in shanghai... its better to NOT open windows...

Label on plastic bags: "keep away from children" Kurtis: *"I'm not a child"*

I work in a clean room where we have something like 600 air exchanges an hour. I work 7 on 7 off and the whole off week is just my body and lungs trying to deal with non stop shitty air. It’s almost nice to get back to work and suddenly breathe clear and easy again! Its hard to imagine so many people live having no idea what it’s like to breathe nothing but purified, filtered, and calculated for quality top tier air… people would actually realize how polluted their community’s air is.

I used to work at McDonald's, they placed the sensors as far away from the grills as possible (they would pay off the inspectors) and the levels would still routinely reach over 2000 ppm, until my bosses got tired of hearing the alarm and ripped the wires out

Geez, I had no idea CO2 levels were so much higher inside buildings and whatnot.

This reminds me of that spongebob episode where they go into sandy’s dome without helmets

Our small classroom, which can fit 40 chairs and a teacher's table, was so suffocating when we were moving around. There were windows on one side but the other 3 sides were just walls (1 for the blackboard). I'm still amazed that 41 people would stay inside for 4 hours on average (except on recess and lunch breaks).

I’m depressed, I spend a lot of time in my apartment. I want to open up my windows to get as much fresh air in as possible, because even before this video, I was wondering about the drawbacks, and I could feel them too. But I don’t open my windows. Because if I do, I let in so much other bad stuff. For instance, the smoke from my neighbours who smoke cigarettes and something undertermined that smells more fruity on their balconies or in their apartments with open windows. The exhaust from the cars and trucks that drive on the road in front of my apartment building, as well as the cars unnecessarily idling down in front of the kiosk down beneath my apartment on the ground floor. And the chimney smoke, from a neighbouring house about 30 meters away on the other side of the road, which has a chimney about 2 meters lower than my apartment. Also, the noise from It all really gets to me. Especially young men in their fancy cars playing music loudly from their open car windows. I shouldn’t live in place like this. No one should live in a place like this. A place like this shouldn’t even exist in a modern world. This all sucks. I hate it. And just moving somewhere else even isn’t as easy as it sounds. And also, that still doesn’t fix anything. We really need to be better at taking care of the limited space that we all share within a city. And to me, it seems doable, but when I see how other people live, I quickly lose that hope. Good grief... So for now I remain in my apartment. Even having clogged up as many ventilation sources as possible. Still wondering which is worse to do? And why a clearly better alternative just isn’t present. Why must other people carelessly create so much bad air? So that I am faced with this unfortunate circumstance? It seems selfish, unfair and unnecessary.

Me watching this in my basement studio with NO window and One door to a Hallway.... Hmm, this could explain my lack of work haha 😅

*cracks open a window* *_remembers it's 14 F, -10 C, outside_* *cracks the window back shut, sits next to the heater*

This is a video I watched when it came out originally and ever since then multiple times a week I think about it again wondering what the air is like in my bedroom, especially with quarantine and it being my main work area.

A problem that has been plaguing schools here in Norway for decades as well, quite a few generations that got less out of school than they could have because of it. After watching this video Im now googling for an affordable detector of such low levels.

"...So you'll be breathing the same room full of air for the rest of your life." -Glados.

Tom wasn't lying. His labored breaths made me feel sick.

I greatly appreciate that the captions specify each and every time he noticeably takes a breath. It actually adds a lot to the video

My window is already open but watching this made me feel short of breath

0:06 oh dont worry, I already feel out of breath just because you're saying it

Gas detection system technician here. To put this video in perspective, the systems we supply to monitor for CO2 leakage in pressurised beverage dispensing systems work over a range of 0-5% Volume, equivalent to 50,000ppm. We set alarm thresholds at 1.5% (15,000ppm) to set off a visual warning strobe, at this concentration you will pass out within a couple of minutes. A "high level" threshold at 3% (30,000ppm) sets off a warning siren, since this kind of concentration can kill you very quickly in a confined space. CO2 is heavier than air, so any sensor must be installed near ground level at the lowest point in the cellar to warn of gradual CO2 buildup.

So that's why I feel like I'm dreaming while playing laser tag

you know most of the times i look at your videos and go meh whatever but i can say thank you for this one and it put in to perspective why everything was boring a few years ago when i was living in a room with one window never opening the door

I remember being back in school years ago and feeling ill and tired so much, this explains it. We had no ac and weren't allowed to open windows because it was a considered a distraction. We also had to ask permission to take off our blazers while the classroom was boiling. I swear prisoners had more rights than we did.

My science classes have these sensors, the teachers are supposed to turn the fans on at over 1000ppm, but they don't bother as they are load and disrupt the class. The ppm often reaches 6500ppm. Probably not good for us.

Thanks to this video I started to ventilate my room once a day, before that I had headaches quite often and I didn't know why.

So this was why they were so adamant with making sure the window vanes were open back in primary and secondary school. Kinda just something we did but never rly thought or would imagine just how much it impacted us and our learning/brains....

this vid hits different right now

"I'm gonna lay down" - isn't CO2 heavier than O2 and hence more concentrated nearer to the floor, wouldn't laying down exacerbate his condition?

It is unfortunate... but the symptoms he was forced to read back... All of those, I recognize in myself and my colleagues, back when I was working a callcenter job. We measured the humidity, and it was appauling... Now I'm starting to wonder just how dangerous office work really is, not just mentally but _physically_ as well.

This is a great way to raise awareness.

They must have a lot of carbon dioxide in Parliament then!

Thank God people have started addressing this issue, it really is a breath of fresh air.

thanks Tom i needed this ✌🏻👍🏻

4:09 I feel like this could be an answer to the Fermi Paradox

I can attest to this, at my university some (if not most) levture halls are not ventilated properly, after about 30 min of lecture you can physically feel how it’s harder to think, people in the room start to complain about the bad air and if possible we try to open windows. Still blows my mind how every damn hall can be so poorly designed, especially when some of our classes involve airflow. It’s like ”here’s the skills you need to properly ventilate a room. Do we use this in practice? Naaah, that would be too expensive!”

In his book Endurance, astronaut Scott Kelly talks about wanting to reduce the accepted CO2 levels on the ISS as it gave him a headache. Not the situation where you want your cognition to be impacted.

Thanks for that heads up. ♡

I really appreciated that disclaimer as a high empathetic person, thanks Tom!

This must suck for those of you who require breathing.

Me who works outside all day and always drove with my car windows open before watching this: "I guess I'm just naturally an idiot."

Now i know why i was always so tired in class.

Most plants use carbon dioxide *ONLY* during the day in conjunction with Photosynthesis; at night they use oxygen, due to the lack of sunlight. So be careful of which plants you use to store yourself in a box.

I was short of breath just at the warning!

Thanks for making me conscious of my breathing, Tom.

Thank you for the warning!

me sitting in my room all day with the windows and door closed and theres no ventilation: haha maybe this is why im terrible at video games and school

Stale air, *can explain bad school performance :-)* and when in dense traffic. Thx. to this experiment we can learn for how to make our world better. This experiment is a good demonstration for poorly ventilated schools, offices, and space stations :-)

Stale air. Not even once.

This explains so much.... I always have my bedroom windows shut tight at night because I live nextdoor to the ER and the sirens really are something. I feel all those symptoms deeply, especially after sleeping a whole night in said airtight room😅😅

I mean, if this video did nothing else, I did go and open my window. Like, just watching the video had me FEELING how muggy the room was, placebo or not. It's an old video, but I only just found it, thanks for always hitting us with good, educational, content, Tom

Video: "get some plants in your house" Me: "isn't that right, ivan? **Ivy plant stares back at me silently** Me: "you're not that useless"

This explains why I am a lot less performing in areas in my school that are not well ventilated or just the school in general.

That was very interesting , thanks !

I love how this isn't an argument about climate change, but an argument for better air circulation/filtration.

This is your brain on drugs: *Fries eggs* This is you brain on stale air: *Shoots eggs*

Our school's classrooms have CO2 monitors... they regularly reach 3500-4000 ppm...

Thank you for your educational videos! ^__^

After watching this video, i bought an air quality monitor, just 2 hours home from work in my living room and the c02 level is over 1300, explains the headaches i get around this time every night, i just thought it was not drinking enough water. Fascinating!

The problem is when I open the window and breath in, I smell heavy metals and the air purifier readings are 10 times higher. You can’t win

* *_Turns all the oxygen cylinders to open, waits to become genius..._* *

This was one of my conspiracy theories as a kid. The air inside school was toxic. The conspiracy was that it was intentional.

Reminds me of the incident where people thought that using a bunch of dry ice in a nightclub was a smart idea. Turns out that carbon dioxide and a bunch of guests inside a sealed room can be a rather lethal combination.

The amount of methane in my room is higher than the CO2.

After watching this I went to my teachers (really the science teachers) and asked if maybe we could add some plants in the classrooms to help with the oxygen/CO2 levels. Turns out my school isn’t allowed to have plants outside of the green room, which students aren’t supposed to go into.

Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I honestly thought the whole idea of "stale air" was mostly a subjective thing that didn't actually matter much. I'll be opening windows more often... here in Canada. I guess I'll have to figure out ventilation systems for Winter.

Here’s an interesting fact: you’re not breathing real air. It’s too expensive to pump this far down. We just take carbon dioxide out of a room, freshen it up a little, and pump it back in. So you’ll be breathing the same room full of air for the rest of your life. I thought that was interesting.

His stale air chamber looks like a hotboxing stoner’s dream.

This feels like the most important video I've ever watched. It seems to explain so much about the world and people over time.

I kind of laughed at the start when Tom said the thing about empathetic people, but by the end of the video I felt so light-headed and dizzy that I had to get up and open my windows immediately

I always leave my window cracked in the winter, I don't know how new air even gets inside houses with all the doors and windows closed 💀

oh, that explains why I was getting difficulties in school and suddenly it was easy again when I switched to evening adult school. It had almost empty classes and empty aired pout classes after regular school. In uni sleepiness and difficulty to concentrate returned...

I cannot open my windows because I am using ubuntu

I would open a window, but here there's an Orange Alert for air quality. (It's from the smoke of the Oregon fire.) Yay... What a great time to have asthma...

To be honest, I feel like I got used to that the longer I lived in a city. Coming from a small town in the middle of nature into a city, I felt these effect for a couple years but over time I really felt these effects less and less to the point I got used to them and feel as healthy as ever. :) Also decisionmaking in stressfull situations has been getting better and better for the past couple years. Maybe that's just me or maybe it's more comon?

I'm so glad to find out that it's not just me being silly or hypersensitve (at least not completely) when I feel that I can not concentrate or be productive in poorly ventilated classrooms and the like. At bad moments, it also massively tends to add to my levels of anxiety, especially when coupled with high temperatures and humidity.

Damn i hate stale air, really ruins it

That's fascinating!