Public libraries lending carbon dioxide monitors is a good idea in the fight against Covid-19

And academic libraries too?

Welcome back to the second issue of my Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter!

What I’ll be bringing you today is something that I’ve been thinking of doing over on my blog but somehow never got around to. And that’s highlighting the amazing job that public libraries are doing lending carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors to their communities.

Carbon dioxide monitors are useful in the fight against Covid because they give a sense of how fresh the air is. And the fresher the air is, the less likely there is going to be Covid aerosols present. And that’s a good thing. It’s not a guarantee, it’s not foolproof, it’s not perfect information, but it’s better than nothing.

And more than just better than nothing, it empowers people to be able to judge a little more about the right profile of an indoor space they may have to be in, like a classroom or workplace.

A lot of the progress on getting these monitors in public libraries is thanks to the amazing work of the CAVI - Community Access to Ventilation Information organization (Twitter). Cheryl White, Kate Nyhan and Danielle Cane in particular have done amazing work here and deserve all the credit in the world.

Enough of the talk, let’s get down to the business of sharing resources! I hope what follows will help you figure out how to best use CO2 monitors in your own context; to advocate for clean air in your work, home or school; to advocate for publicly available monitors for your local public library. And while I’m at it, I’ll also make the suggestion that academic libraries can be part of the solution here as well. There’s not reason why they couldn’t make CO2 monitors available to their communities of students, staff and faculty who should also be able to verify that their teaching, learning and working spaces have good, fresh air.

Some of the resources below are adapted from my earlier blog post.

General Resources

• CAVI  |  Community Access to Ventilation Information

• Map of Public Libraries with lending programs (via  CAVI): Library CO2 monitor programs

• Sample fact sheet for lending program: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Monitoring for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

• Another sample: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Monitoring for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

• Sample instruction page: How to Use Your C02 Monitor - Peterborough Public Library

• Indoor Air Quality • Ontario Society of Professional Engineers

• Philippine COVID-19 Living Clinical Practice Guidelines

A Few General Media Articles

• CO2 monitor lending library | Wisconsin University Union

• Where the public meets health: Libraries as key partners for advancing public health goals | National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health | NCCEH - CCSNE 

Media Articles about Library Lending

• Carbon dioxide monitors now available for loan at Peterborough Public Library to help fight COVID-19 | Watch News Videos Online 

• Peterborough library started a CO2 monitor lending program and Toronto may soon follow 

• Carbon dioxide monitors 'flying off the shelves' after 2 Metro Vancouver libraries stock them | CBC News 

• You can borrow a CO2 monitor from the Toronto Public Library — just don't use it to figure out your COVID-19 risk

• Toronto residents can now rent CO2 monitors at the library 

• Toronto Library is doing something new and people are overwhelmed with excitement

• Mississauga libraries now have air quality monitors you can borrow for free | insauga

• Borrow these CO2 monitors from North Shore libraries 

• CO2 Monitors Now in Circulation at Temiskaming Shores Library

• Borrow a carbon dioxide monitor : Prince Edward County News countylive.ca

Information Pages at Library Websites (Not intended to be a complete list)

• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Monitors to Borrow : Toronto Public Library

• Carbon Dioxide Monitors - Peterborough Public Library

• CO2 Monitor Kits | North Vancouver District Public Library 

• CO2 Monitors | Regina Public Library

• CO2 Monitors are Now Available / Waterloo Public Library

• CO2 Monitor | Burlington Public Library 

• Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Monitors to Go

• CO2 Monitor | Hamilton Public Library | BiblioCommons 

• CO2 Monitor / Princeton Public Library

• sustainable device lending - Greater Sudbury Public Library 

• West Van library now lending CO2 monitors and light therapy lamps

• Library of Things / Ajax Public Library 

• Cool Things - Kitchener Public Library

• Indoor Air Quality Meter: Carbon Dioxide CO2, Humidity, Temperature, Ventilation | Ann Arbor District Library 

• Aranet4 carbon dioxide monitor / Highland Township Public Library 

• Prince Edward Island Public Library 

• Prince Edward County Public Library 

Faculty Unions

• CO2 Monitors Available For Members / Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa.

• CO2 monitor lending library | Wisconsin University Union 

Reports from Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations

• Should carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors be used to reduce transmission of COVID-19? 

• What are safe levels of CO and CO2 in rooms? / Kane International Limited  

• Can CO2 sensors be used to assess COVID-19 transmission risk? / National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health

• Indoor CO2 sensors for COVID-19 risk mitigation: Current guidance and limitations / National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health

• Webinar Recording - Indoor CO2 Sensors for COVID-19 Risk Mitigation: Current Guidance and Limitations / National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health    

Research Articles

• CO 2 concentration monitoring inside educational buildings as a strategic tool to reduce the risk of Sars-CoV-2 airborne transmission by Alessia Di Gilio et al /  Environmental Research

• Monitoring carbon dioxide to quantify the risk of indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19 by Martin Z. Bazant et al / Flow

• Exhaled CO2 as a COVID-19 Infection Risk Proxy for Different Indoor Environments and Activities by Zhe Peng and Jose L. Jimenez / Environmental Science & Technology Letters 

• A guideline to limit indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19  by Martin Z. Bazant and John W. M. Bush / PNAS

My Blog has a bunch of COVID Information posts you can find here:

• Around the Web: Women in Science May Suffer Lasting Career Damage from COVID-19

• Around the Web: Scholarly Communications in the Age of the Coronavirus

• COVID-19 Resources for Canada & Ontario: Advocacy, Data, Visualizations, Health & Safety Standards, News

• Around the Web: COVID is airborne so enough with the bullshit hygiene theatre

• Around the Web: COVID-19 is airborne and hygiene theatre is the wrong response

• Around the Web: Using CO2 monitors to indirectly measure air quality and help reduce COVID-19 transmission 

• The COVID Information Series: Keep mask mandates!  Masks are vital to stop the spread of COVID-19! Read the research!

• The COVID Information Series: The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not Over!

• The COVID Information Series: Long COVID and the very real risks of long term health problems arising from COVID-19 infection

• The COVID Information Series: Scientific evidence supporting continued COVID protections such as mask and vaccine mandates at universities 

• The COVID Information Series: Dear Joe Biden, The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Not Over!

Oh, hey, and why not subscribe! See you again soon!