Toronto library may launch CO2 lending program in mid-July
Toronto residents may soon be able to rent out a carbon dioxide (CO2) monitor at the public library as part of the city’s pandemic response.
In April, the City of Peterborough became the first municipality in North America to facilitate such a program—lending out CO2 monitors to residents for a week at a time so they could determine the quality of air ventilation within their home, office, or other indoor spaces.
The devices use a “stoplight system,” officials said at the time. A green light means the air quality in the space is good, yellow means it is okay, and red means there is little ventilation in the area.
The higher the CO2 levels within the space, the more recycled air an individual will be inhaling.
“Good ventilation and filtration are important because it helps decrease the risk of illness by reducing the levels of aerosols containing viruses and bacteria, and other air quality concerns, that can make us sick, including the virus causing COVID-19,” Dr. Thomas Piggott, Peterborough’s medical officer of health, said in a statement issued in April.
Piggott added that it’s relatively easy to lower levels of CO2 if residents get a high result. Actions such as opening windows, reducing the number of people in a room and using air filtration devices will all help with increasing air ventilation. Mask wearing will also help remove potential pollutants in the air.
Around the same time that Peterborough’s program launched, some residents reached out to the Toronto Public Library inquiring if they had plans to do something similar. At the time, officials said on social media that they were contacted by organizations interested in donating CO2 monitors and that updates would come at a later date.
Months later, it appears as though a formal program may be underway.
In a tweet posted on July 2, the library said they plan on introducing a CO2 monitor program in mid-July and more information is expected “in the coming weeks.”
CTV News Toronto has reached out to the library for further details.
CO2 monitors have been widely used throughout the pandemic, although not consistently. In 2021, Quebec’s education minister said that monitors would be installed in every classroom.
Yet, when an Ontario Public Health Unit tried to enforce a policy in which any classroom with a CO2 reading of more than 800 parts per million receive an additional HEPA air filter, the province’s chief medical officer of health said experts were “not aware at present of any correlation between CO2 levels and viral transmission.”
The use of CO2 monitoring has been widely proven in scientific journals as a tool to measure risk of COVID-19 infection.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Former Air Canada employees among suspects identified in gold heist at Pearson Airport: police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
MPs summon ArriveCan contractor to the House to be admonished in rare parliamentary display
Enacting an extraordinarily rarely used parliamentary power, MPs have summoned an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to be admonished publicly for failing to answer their questions.
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
Ancient skeletons unearthed in France reveal Mafia-style killings
More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France.
10 years in U.S. prison for Canadian man who stole millions with fake psychic fraud
A former Montreal resident has been sentenced to 10 years in a United States federal prison for a multi-decade fraud that manipulated more than one million Americans into sending money to fake psychics.
'Enormous sum of money': Actor Hugh Grant settles privacy lawsuit against tabloid
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.