"Air Flow & Oxygen"

Yesterday at work, I was feeling like it was as hot as the Sahara Desert, so I checked my thermometer and confirmed the sensation with the scientific information that it was 28 degrees (28C - 82.4F). Being a modern building, none of the windows are openable; and being the era in which we are currently living, all doors are security lock protected, so the doors to the emergency stairwells (which do have openable windows) must be kept shut at all times (other than momentarily being opened for entry and exit).

The result is that not only is it very uncomfortably hot (something that could be adjusted, except there are several sickly people on the floor who act as though they will drop over dead from frostbite if the temperature drops below about 25C), but the air is very stale and so the combination of hot and stuffy makes it feel even hotter still. Add to this the fact that the approximately 120 people sharing the same space are all consuming oxygen, and you have a fairly hellish workspace air-quality wise. It's a shame too, because otherwise, it's a good group of people and it should be a pleasant place to work. If only I didn't have to work while fighting off the sensation of approaching death from heat and lack of oxygen.

This is something I really envy past generations - who were able to work in buildings with openable windows. ISO energy savings are a good thing, but the amount of oxygen in the air and the general quality of the air should also be taken into consideration - if there are to be oxygen-fueled bipeds working in the space that is. Fill it up with machinery and keep the bipeds out, and there's no need for oxygen, but if people are working there... please give us some more live-giving oxygen!

It's the same thing with new trains - they've done away with the roof vents, and made half the windows are unopenable. Even the openable ones people seem to be afraid to open. Here's the other thing - not only is new design putting us into sealed boxes, but too many people seem to think that's just fine. I guess they have special low-oxygen demand bodies? Or... they're getting sicker and sicker and don't even know it? When I see someone sitting in 27-degree heat with a blanket on because they feel cold, I can't believe that they're healthy.

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/