Sunday, November 08, 2009
Pollution fighter English ivy (photo: Brock Memorial Library, Oklahoma State University)
Indoor pollution is increasingly becoming as much a concern as the outdoor kind, thanks to a host of chemicals used in building materials, clothing and appliances. But researchers have discovered ordinary house plants can help neutralize indoor pollutants, which in some cases can be 12 times worse than environmental threats outside of homes or commercial buildings.
Found in everything from paints to adhesives to solvents, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can wreak havoc on indoor conditions. Specific types of VOCs are benzene, xylene, hexane, heptane, octane, decane, trichloroethylene and methylene chloride. These harmful compounds can be removed, however, by simply adding certain types of plants to homes or businesses. After testing 28 houseplants, researchers found that the best ones were purple waffle plant, English ivy, variegated wax plant, asparagus fern and purple heart plant.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Common Plants Can Eliminate Indoor Air Pollutants (ScienceDaily)
Screening Indoor Plants for Volatile Organic Pollutant Removal Efficiency (by Dong Sik Yang, Svoboda V. Pennisi, Ki-Cheol Son, and Stanley J. Kays, HortScience)
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