Never came across any info on this subject but just wondering.... Are the fumes that a primary fermentation giving off have any hazard to breathe by humans or animals? Sometimes it can stink up my basement pretty good!
I ferment all of my wines in my library, and we generally keep the door closed. I used to work on my laptop in there until I noticed I would end up with a horrific headache after a fairly short time.
'Light bulb' went on when someone in another thread mentioned the dangers of CO2
Well it is CO2 so in concentated enough doses it is not good, matter of fact CO2 can kill you. If you are worried get a co2 detector from lowes. It will go off long brfore you are in danger.
sour_grapes said:I think you may be confusing CO and CO2 (carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide). Small amounts of CO can harm or kill you. CO2 can kill you, but only by asphyxiation -- i.e., lowering the amount of O2 in the air to unsafely low levels. One thing we have going for us is that we do have built-in CO2 detectors in our bodies. The condition that causes you to feel short of breath and makes you want to breathe (like when you are holding your breath underwater) is not lack of O2 in your blood, but rather an excess of CO2. If you went into a room that was low in O2 because it was filled mostly with N2 or Ar, you wouldn't feel it -- you would just eventually faint (from lack of O2) and then die. But if you went into a room that was low in O2 because it was filled with CO2, you would be gasping for breath. Thus, although you can be asphyxiated by CO2, it is the hardest substance in the universe to be accidentally asphyxiated by.
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