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Plants that Clean the Air at Home and Office
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Posted by Eleni Prokopeas on Dec.13, 2008
Microbes living with several readily available houseplants help remove sickening pollutants from the air. This valuable information is derived from The Plants for Clean Air Council – an affiliate of the American Landscape Contractors Associations co-financed research by Dr. Roy Wolverton in 1987 at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Wolverton said the experiments showed that the plants effectively consume the toxins after they are digested by the soil bacteria.
Pollutants such as benzene from cigarette smoke, fumes from copy machines, cleaning compounds, paints and formaldehyde from carpeting, drapes and particle board in furniture are creating a condition called “sick building syndrome”.
People notice that the flue like symptoms (dizzy, irritable, tired, burning eyes) disappear when they are away from building for a day or two but return when they come back to work – or even their own home.
Two Boston Ferns can clean formaldehyde fumes from 100 square feet of floor area. Other plants that work well are Peace Lilly, Azalea, Poinsettia, Dieffenbachia (dumb-cane), Bamboo Palm, Mother-in-law’s Tongue, Gerbera Daisy, Chinese Evergreen, some species of Philodendron, Schefflera, English Ivy, Chrysanthemum and Ficus.
Posted under Green Clean Air, Home Environment.
Article By: Eleni Prokopeas
Profile: Eleni Prokopeas is a mother of three wonderful children and happily married. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Eleni’s son was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old. Unable to find help for him in conventional medicine, she turned to alternative medicine and healed her son of autism by his 6th Birthday. Rather than accepting the diagnosis as life-long, Eleni asked, “Why are neurological problems becoming an epidemic for so many young children, especially boys?” and “How can I help my son reach his full potential?” After spending endless hours researching, reading, calling and asking questions, she has helped her son heal and move through the Autism Spectrum World. It’s because of this experience and passion she created greendivamom.com. This experience changed how she looked and lived her life. “I now know that with knowledge comes power and that we ALL have the power to treat and overcome anything. Eleni Prokopeas is a mother with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve children’s health and the health of their parents. Eleni volunteers her time to serve as a consultant helping families with children on the spectrum, spending time with her three beautiful children and husband, creating healthy meals and juices daily, yoga and of course working on GreenDivaMom.com.
Website: http://www.greendivamom.com
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December 28th, 2009 on 1:47 am
Be sure to have a good mix of both nighttime and daytime respiring plants. Most of those plants listed respire O2 during the day and take up oxygen at night. Mother-in-laws Tongue respires O2 at night, so its good to have this plant along with Boston ferns for a good balance. Kamal Meattle gives a geat presentation on this topic at TED Greenspaces
March 26th, 2010 on 12:40 am
Hello, This is really nice article. I need some plants for my home and office and they are really useful for the healthy living.
May 30th, 2011 on 12:30 pm
Hi, thank your for this article. I did’t know that plants are so helpful at cleaning the air!