Simone Smith
Governments from around the world have made nose and mouth covering or face masks compulsory for schoolchildren, yet there is no concrete evidence that the mask will protect our children from the COVID-19 VIRUS. The question; is nose and mouth covering increasing the levels of carbon dioxide inhaled. A large-scale survey was conducted in Germany about the adverse effects on parents and children. Using data collected from 25 930 children, results have shown that 68% of the participating children had problems when wearing nose and mouth coverings.
What is normal? Well, let us take a look at that. The normal content of carbon dioxide in the open is about 0.04% by volume (ie, 400 ppm). A level of 0.2% by volume or 2000 ppm is the limit for closed rooms according to the German Federal Environmental Office, and everything beyond this level is unacceptable.
The researchers measured the carbon dioxide content of inhaled air with and without 2 types of nose and mouth coverings in a well-controlled, counterbalanced, short-term experimental study of volunteer children in good health. The study was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki and submitted to the ethics committee of the University Witten/Herdecke.
Something that was done that has not been done with our current global experiment is all children were given written informed consent, and parents were also given written informed consent for children younger than 16 years.
A 3-minute continuous measurement was taken for baseline carbon dioxide levels without a face mask. A 9-minute measurement for each type of mask was allowed: 3 minutes for measuring the carbon dioxide content in joint inhaled and exhaled air, 3 minutes for measuring the carbon dioxide content during inhalation, and 3 minutes for measuring the carbon dioxide content during exhalation.
There were some limitations of the study. The study was of short-term nature in a laboratory-like setting and the fact that children were not occupied during measurements might have caused some apprehension. Most of the complaints reported by children can be understood as consequences of elevated carbon dioxide levels in inhaled air.
This can lead to impairments attributable to hypercapnia. A recent review concluded that there was ample evidence for adverse effects of wearing such masks. We suggest that decision-makers weigh the hard evidence produced by these experimental measurements accordingly, which suggests that children should not be forced to wear face masks.
Let me guess; this is a conspiracy theory too!
