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Air Purifying Plants Use of Plants to Purify Indoor Air
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Introduction • In offices, homes, and other indoor areas, poor air quality can both cause health problems and make existing health problems worse. • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) currently ranks indoor air pollution as one of the top five threats to public health.
Introduction • Indoor air pollution results from the release of chemical vapors and the suspension in the air of particulates such as dust and microorganisms. • In response to increasing Energy costs and the need to conserve energy resources, buildings and homes have been designed to be more energy efficient. Thus, many offices and new homes have tighter construction, sealing the building from the outside air. This makes it easier for indoor air pollutants to accumulate to dangerous levels. With people spending up to 70–90 percent of their time indoors, long-term Exposure to indoor air Pollution can cause various health problems.
Introduction • Air pollution can build up in any confined space, but gases from synthetic materials used these days to construct or furnish offices and homes can, among other factors, result in “sick building syndrome.” • People who are hypersensitive to the pollutants can develop serious symptoms including eye, nose, and throat irritations, allergies, asthma, blurred vision, dizziness, fatigue, headache, skin irritation, nervous System disorders, and upper respiratory and sinus congestion.
Sources of emissions of air pollutants • The major sources of indoor air pollutants are combustion by products, Building materials, household products and chemicals, and bio-effluents. • Combustion by products include carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur dioxides, formaldehyde. • Combustion by-products Are produced by gas ranges, cook tops, water heaters, clothes dryers, smokers, and internal combustion engines turned on in enclosed spaces.
Introduction • Household products and chemicals that cause indoor air pollution include furniture waxes, paint strippers, adhesives, cleaning products, disinfectants, degreasers, and cosmetics. Some of these products release chemicals into the air during use, whereas others emit chemicals as they age, dry, or cure; this is known as out-gassing.
Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality • There are various ways to reduce indoor air pollution and improve air quality. Increasing ventilation and air exchange with the outside will help prevent the accumulation or reduce the amount of air pollutants indoors. • Exhaust fans can be Installed in the kitchen and bathrooms, and air filters such as high-efficiency particulate air filters, which have a carbon filter component, can be used.
Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality • Combustion appliances should be vented directly to the outside and regularly inspected, cleaned, and maintained. • A by product of propane gas combustion is carbon monoxide. The house should be well ventilated when cooking or heating with propane.
Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality • Use only wood products that are formaldehyde-free or have low formaldehyde emissions. Seal the surfaces of wood products with surface finishes that are water-based. • Select low-emission building products and carpets. Avoid household products that have hazardous vapors, and do not store hazardous products in the home.
House Plants help Clean Indoor Air • While developing technologies that allow humans to live in closed environments such as the International Space Station, NASA discovered that plants help reduce volatile organic chemicals/compounds (VOCs) and can be an efficient way to filter the air in living compartments.
House Plants help Clean Indoor Air • The Plants for Clean Air Council and wolverton Environmental Services have tested different houseplants for their ability to remove various toxic gases such as formaldehyde, xylene/toluene, and ammonia. • Plants absorb volatile organic compounds from the air into their leaves and then translocate them to their root zone, where microbes break them down. Microorganisms in the soil can use trace amounts of pollutants as a food source. • Some organic chemicals absorbed by plants from the air are destroyed by the plant’s own biological processes.
House Plants help Clean Indoor Air • Plants add aesthetic and biological comfort to interior paces. When plants are added to rooms, relative humidity can increase and particulate matter (dust) accumulation can decrease. Increasing relative humidity has a relaxing effect on people, and removing dust aids by reducing potentially allergy-inducing particles. • Reducing particulate matter in a room may also be beneficial to computers and other electronic equipment by limiting the amount of dust collecting on circuit boards and clogging.
House Plants help Clean Indoor Air • During photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is taken in through plant foliage, and oxygen is produced and released by The Plant as a by product. • At night or when no photosynthesis is taking place, plants, like people, respire and Give off carbon dioxide. • Volatile photochemical released by plant leaves appear to be important in controlling airborne microbes and mold spores in surrounding air.
House Plants help Clean Indoor Air • Plants release water vapor via transpiration through the leaves and into the air, raising humidity. • High transpiration rates create convection currents that cause toxin-laden air to be pulled down into the soil around the roots, where microbes in the soil break down the gases into a source of food and energy. Air also moves into and out of leaf stomata (pore-like openings).
NASA List Of Best Air-Cleaning Plants • NASA did a Clean Air Study, that found which plants are effective at removing benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene, and ammonia from the air – chemicals that have been linked to negative health effects like headaches, dizziness, eye irritation, and others. • Dr. B. C. Wolverton led the study about 27 years ago and although this research is quite old, it is still regarded by many as the most comprehensive and accurate to date.
The Air Cleaning Experiments • Most people have heard at some point that house plants are good for your health because they can clean, filter and purify the air of various toxins and pollutants. • A lot of people know that this has been proved by science, although most people don't know about the actual studies or which plants are best for the job.
The Air Cleaning Experiments • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began to think about future life-support systems so humans could live on the moon and other planets that the ability of plants to filter and purify the air was exposed in full detail.
The Air Cleaning Experiments • NASA proposed that if humans travelled to inhospitable planets then small biospheres would need to exist in order to support them, much like a spacecraft provides a suitable environment for its passengers as they travel through space. • The issue however was that at the time spacecrafts could only be used for short periods due to the quick build up volatile organic chemicals, coming both from the people themselves as well as various equipment and machinery used on the craft.
The Air Cleaning Experiments • Between 1980 and 1984 NASA proved plants in sealed test chambers that were exposed to volatile organic chemicals could remove them from the air. Including formaldehyde which is found in, or used to produce, a multitude of everyday products, from fabrics and furniture to tobacco smoke and gas stoves. • In 1984 people were very excited by NASA's findings and as a result they funded significant research looking at house plants and their air purifying abilities.
The Air Cleaning Experiments • Dr Bill Wolverton was one of the scientists brought on board to help research and study the effects of houseplants on air quality in contained spaces and produced some of the most popular and commonly referenced research papers about the topic.
The List of 50 Plants • The list is ranked in order of plant effectiveness in a typical home according to Dr Wolverton. So the 1st plant in the list (Areca Palm) is the most effective and the 50th (Kalanchoe) is the least
The Areca Palm The Areca Palm • The Areca Palm or Butterfly Palm is a relatively easy care indoor houseplant that has much going for it. Its attractive nature has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, which for a plant grown more commonly indoors than out, is a pretty rare feat.
The Areca Palm • The Areca Palm took first place among 50 plants that were tested for their ability to filter the air around scoring highly in all categories meaning it was ranked the best houseplant at cleaning the air in homes and offices
The Areca Palm • Benefits: It is known for being one of the better performers in purifying the air.
