House plants can suck dangerous toxic chemicals out of the air

House plants are definitely proving to be worth the effort, with new research showing that certain species can suck dangerous toxic chemicals out of the air and leaving it cleaner to breathe - almost like a natural air freshener.
House plants can suck dangerous toxic chemicals out of the airHouse plants can suck dangerous toxic chemicals out of the air
House plants can suck dangerous toxic chemicals out of the air

Research has shown that 'sick building syndrome,' a severe effect of indoor air pollution that causes the victim to suffer a range of symptoms, has been estimated to blight the lives of up to three in ten office workers and cause an annual of nearly 100,000 people to die, of the pollutants. The symptoms include headaches, fatigue, difficulties in concentrating and respiratory problems.

Five of these miraculous plants have been tested for new research, with the Scarlet Star (Guzmania lingulata), from South America, getting rid of more than 80 percent of illness pollutants, and the popular Dracaena Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans massangeana), from Africa, soaking up virtually all of a particularly pungent chemical common in nail salons.

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Typical features found in offices and around the home, such as printers, cleaning products, furniture, and even dry cleaned clothes, give off potentially harmful chemicals known as VOCs (volatile organic compounds). These compounds are emitted as gases and can cause short term and long term health effects when inhaled.

Dr Vadoud Niri, of the State University of New York, said: “Buildings, whether new or old, can have high levels of VOCs in them, sometimes so high you can smell them.”

He explained further, that: “Inhaling large amounts of VOCs can lead some people to develop 'sick building syndrome,' which reduces productivity and can even cause dizziness, asthma or allergies. We must do something about VOCs in indoor air.”

The most common solution is to install ventilation systems that cycle in air from outside, or to attempt methods using adsorption, condensation and chemical reactions. However, using plants to remove these dangerous chemicals is much simpler, and cheaper.

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In 1984, NASA began studying this idea and found that these plants could absorb even more airborne compounds, such as benzene, toluene and other VOCs, via their leaves and roots.

Since then, other studies have looked at how plants can use the cleanup technique of phytoremediation to even eliminate the cancer causing chemical, formaldehyde.

Unlike most of the past studies which focused on the removal of only single VOCs by individual plants, Dr Niri wanted to compare the efficiency and the rate of simultaneous removal of several VOCs by various plants.

His researchers ultimately built a sealed chamber that contained a rotation of five different common house plant types, in order to test the types of eight common VOCs, and the speed and amounts in which they were removed by the plants. The plants used were: the Dracaena, the Bromeliad plant, the Jade plant, the Spider plant, and the Caribbean Tree Cactus.

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The overall result found that certain plants were better at absorbing specific compounds than others, for example: all five could remove acetone, the pungent chemical abundant at nail salons, but the dracaena plant took up the most, around 94 percent of the chemical.

Dr Niri said: “Based on our results, we can recommend what plants are good for certain types of VOCs and for specific locations.

“To illustrate, the bromeliad plant was very good at removing six out of eight studied VOCs - it was able to take up more than 80 percent of each of those compounds - over the twelve hour sampling period. So it could be a good plant to have sitting around in the household or workplace.”

Dr Niri says the next step in the research is to test these plants’ abilities in a real room, not just a sealed chamber, and he would eventually like to put plants in a nail salon over the course of several months to see whether they can actually reduce the levels of acetone that workers are exposed to.

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