Hypercapnia, also known as carbon dioxide poisoning, is the poisoning of the blood with carbon dioxide. Even a small concentration of CO₂ can induce dizziness, nausea, and sleepiness. A noticeable amount of CO₂ is present in specific classrooms especially, and overall the school contains higher than normal levels of CO₂ . In math teacher Cole Pouliot’s room, D-6, the CO₂ is specifically noted as being significantly high. “I have noticed personally when it gets above a thousand parts per million, which we can see on all of our thermostats, students get groggy. Some students would put their head down and start to fall asleep,” Pouliot said.
Sleeping isn’t abnormal; however, the CO₂ levels aren’t the only thing that could cause these symptoms, but they could definitely reasonably contribute to it. And even if students are just sleepy, the high CO₂ concentration in the school is undisputed.
“Sometimes they don’t get enough sleep, but other times the CO₂ is way too high, and I actually will open a couple windows, and it helps the students to stay awake. The downside of that is, especially in the winter, students will complain because it’s cold,” Pouliot said, “but I tell them I’d rather be cold than dead. Or cold [rather] than sleepy.”
The thermostat doesn’t alert anyone with an alarm when there’s a high CO₂ concentration. The thermostat just has to be carefully and consistently monitored. Sometimes, the concentration is so high that teachers who notice it have to take drastic measures to preserve their learning environment.
“I will open the windows, and there has been at least one occasion where I’ve had to take my entire class out of the room because that day it was close to 2000, and it was just like, wow, this is not healthy for us. We need to leave,” Pouliot said.
Other than sleepiness, which causes a significant disruption to learning, there are other harmful effects of CO2. “When kids are tired, they don’t learn as much. When kids are asleep, they surely don’t learn as much. I’ve had days when it’s really high, and at the end of the day, your throat is sore, sometimes you get a headache, it’s not fun,” Pouliot said.
Most of the issues of CO₂ are built into the building, with the lack of air filtration and flow in an old building. The dangers of CO₂ were likely not considered, with most of the construction of the old building done in the 1950s.
“I wish it [were] better, but I’ve emailed the district about it, and they don’t seem to have a response. I think it’s not something that’s easily fixed. If they could fix it, they probably would, but nothing’s really happened,” said Pouliot.
The threat of excess CO₂ is not only an issue in West Albany High School; it is potentially a threat to the entire world, with global warming being caused by a greater amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. CO₂ is emitted through the burning of fossil fuels that go into the atmosphere, and through the greenhouse effect, which is where CO₂ traps heat inside the atmosphere when heat is produced on Earth by the sun. According to NOAA, global average atmospheric carbon dioxide was 419.3 parts per million. The effects of CO₂ are clear on students; carbon dioxide impairs their thinking and their alertness. The entire world may be feeling these effects on the earth, where there are no windows to open, and where there is no escape.
