Improve Indoor Air Quality with These 3 Air Purifying Plants
The festive season is knocking at the door; have you prepared yourself for this Diwali yet? Cleaning the households, preparing exotic feasts, wrapping up gifts for your loved ones and Diwali shopping are the common traditions we follow every season but you are missing out one important thing – working towards improving the air quality of your home and workplace.
With the deterioration in air quality every year, especially around Diwali, the overall AQI (Air Quality index) is constantly marking severe levels. Many of the credible news houses and government officials had reported alarming AQI levels and a pall of smog all across Delhi NCR last Diwali. The inhabitants were advised to stay indoors but is the air indoors really clean and pure?
We might think that only the air outdoors is polluted but the reality is that the air inside our homes and offices might as well be polluted by lead, formaldehyde, fire-retardants, radon and carbon dioxide. Medical issues like respiratory infections, asthma attacks, allergies, heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, headaches, eye irritation, fatigue, and exhaustion are attributed to indoor air pollution. According to WHO, 4.3 million people a year die due to household air pollution.
A solution to improve air quality indoors is planting houseplants. “Mother nature has provided us with an amazing technology that we can actually place inside our homes and bring the CO2 levels down which will give us fresher air to breathe,” says Barun Aggarwal, CEO, Breathe Easy Consultancy. NASA researchers have also found that a group of common indoor plants are successful in the removal of organic chemicals from the air indoors. Here are the three plants recommended by NASA which you can plant at your home and workplace to breathe in cleaner air.
- Areca Palm
Commonly called a living room plant, Areca Palm converts CO2 into oxygen during the day. It shows compelling results in improving indoor air quality by removing formaldehyde from the air.
- Money plant
Traditionally used as a wealth and prosperity booster in the Chinese culture, this plant works wonders in removing pollutants from the air. It’s also believed that a money plant absorbs negativity and spreads optimism when planted indoors.
- Mother in law’s tongue plant
NASA considers mother in law’s tongue plant as one of the most efficient plants in purifying the air. Also known as variegated snake plant, this plant is easy to maintain. It effectively filters benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene from indoor air. This plant converts CO2 into O2 during night time, making it a wonderful plant to keep in the bedroom to inhale cleaner air while sleeping.
The plants listed above are easy to manage and are resiliently perfect to plant indoors since they acquire only a limited amount of sunlight. The only concern one should have is to keep these out of reach of children and pets. Avoid ingestion of the leaves of these plants since they are toxic to consume.
References:
- World Health Organization (WHO),
Indoor Air Pollution, official website (accessed on 2nd October, 2017)
http://www.who.int/indoorair/en/ - Wolverton B.C. , NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS),
Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement, PDF (accessed on 2nd October 2017)
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930073077.pdf - Wolverton B.C. ,NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS),
A study of interior landscape plants for indoor air pollution abatement, archives (accessed on 2nd October 2017)
https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19930072988
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information.
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