According to a recent study, carbon dioxide plays a crucial role in the lifespan of so-called airborne viruses in the airas for SARS-CoV-2 which was responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic.
CO2 and viruses go well together, and that’s not good news
Numerous pieces of advice were given to citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic to limit the risk of transmission of the virus. Among them, for example, we could note the fact of ventilating rooms in which several people could meet.
Record ocean temperatures: greater acidification, less oxygen and loss of biodiversity
According to a study published recently in the journal Nature Communications by researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, this particular advice was sound, even more than scientists could previously imagine. Indeed, researchers have looked into the link between CO2 and airborne viruses and discovered that the level of CO2 in the air allowed, from a certain threshold, the virus to survive longer.
The scientists in charge of the study tested the behavior of SARS-CoV-2 at CO2 concentrations ranging from 400 parts per million (ppm)corresponding to the average level of outside air, at rates up to 6,500ppm. According to their results, it turns out that viral aerostability increases significantly from an air CO2 concentration of 800 ppma level considered “well ventilated”.
Plastic and lobbying: how does the fossil fuel industry influence global decisions?
After 40 minutes, compared to pure air, experiments also showed that approximately 10 times more viruses remained infectious when the air had a CO2 concentration of 3000ppmor a concentration similar to a crowded room.
A greater risk of infection with global warming?
According to scientists, this phenomenon is linked to pH. Indeed, if exhaled droplets containing SARS-CoV-2 have a high pH which quickly reduces their contagiousness, the acidity of CO2 makes them less alkalinewhich therefore increases the lifespan of airborne viruses and therefore the risk of infection.
Pollen weather: what to expect in the coming days in France?
So, it would just be enough to open the windows in your home to physically remove this type of virus from a room. Ventilating a room, as we were advised to do during the Covid-19 pandemic, actually allows you to bring in air less loaded with CO2 and therefore prevent the water droplets exhaled by infected individuals from losing toxicity.
However, this solution may no longer be one in the more or less near future. The average CO2 level in our atmosphere continues to increase with human activity since many decades. If it was located around the 310ppm during the 1950sfor example he reached 414.7 ppm in 2021the highest rate on Earth for more than 3 million years!
Researchers estimate that the average CO2 level in our atmosphere could exceed the 700 to 800 ppm by the end of the centurywhich, in addition to an increase in global warming, could also promote the transmission of these airborne virusesas this recent study demonstrated.
