[canadiantim]

Dang can we please change this editorialized title?

When you click through the actual title is: Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years

[zugi]

The study points out that CO2 levels are rising, and in 50 years might cause blood HCO3- to exceed 30mEq/L. It then references https://journals.lww.com/cjasn/abstract/10.2215/cjn.11941017... as to why that level is dangerous.

But if you read that abstract, it's about diagnosing blood diseases, and suggests based on surveys of different studies of current people's blood levels that levels above 30mEq/L be flagged as out of normal. It doesn't discuss harms or outcomes.

So even "potentially toxic" seems baseless.

[OutOfHere]

High bicarbonate in blood is not a blood disease, in the same way that high glucose in blood is not a blood disease either. High bicarbonate leads to severe and serious problems that can be fatal in those with weak lungs or a weak heart and in children and the elderly. Even in healthy persons, high bicarbonate will lead to low extracellular potassium which is immediately detrimental to the heart. I have experienced it first hand. There is a reason why bicarbonate in blood has a reference range.