Air pollution
When you think about sources of air pollution, your initial thoughts are most likely to be car exhausts or pollution from burning coal.
BUT did you know? The air indoors is as much as 30 times more toxic than the air outside.
A healthy home environment is vital to a person’s well-being.
What can you do?
You can buy indoor plants. Simple!
Why?
Though you would normally associate NASA with aeronautics research and space research and not indoor plants, the research institute did a study in the late ’80s on plant abilities to purify the air. NASA found that houseplants contribute to it more than you might think. NASA did a Clean Air Study to find out which are the best indoor plants at removing benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene, and ammonia from our surroundings – chemicals that have been linked to adverse health effects like headaches, dizziness, eye irritation, and others.
NASA recommended having at least one plant per 10 square metres – in a room that is 10 square metres, one 15 cm diameter plant is said to absorb 87% of the toxins in the room. Most rooms in a house will require two plants, so in a house with five rooms, you will need ten plants.
Although this research is quite old, it is still regarded by many as the most comprehensive and accurate to date.
Which plants?
This table produced by CNM, the College of Naturopathic Medicine summarises the best plants to buy and highlights those that are poisonous to cats and dogs.
| Toxin | What it is | Where it’s found | Potential health risks | Best plant |
| Formaldehyde |
Colourless gas with a strong odour used as a preservative and disinfectant |
Furniture, paints, glues, carpeting, softener in napkins, toilet paper and tissues, cosmetics, baby creams, washing up liquids, plywood, foam insulators, fertilizers and pesticides, vaccines, animal feed. |
Irritation and burning to the skin, lung, eyes, nose and throat. It’s a known carcinogen linked to cancerous tumour growth. |
· Bamboo palm
· Spider plant · Golden pothos · Dracaena marginata * · Peace lily * · Snake plant *
|
| Benzene |
Solvent to dilute other substances |
Household cleaning products, personal care products, paint, fabrics, pesticides, cigarette smoke, plastics, rubber, oil. | Drowsiness, headaches, loss of appetite, neurological problems, heart and lung complications, anaemia and bone barrow diseases. |
· Bamboo palm · Gerbera daisy · English ivy * · Snake plant * · Peace lily *
|
| Trichloroethylene | An industrial degreasing solvent | Cleaning wipes, carpet cleaners, printing ink, paints, varnish, paint removers, tool cleaners, dry cleaning spot removers. | Irritation to skin and eyes, headaches, dizziness, nausea, confusion, mood depression. It’s a known carcinogen – linked to kidney and liver cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. |
· Bamboo palm · Gerbera daisy · Dracaena marginata * · Peace lily *
|
| Ammonia | Colourless gas with a pungent, suffocating smell used as an industrial chemical | Cleaning products to remove stains, glass/mirror cleaning products, leathers. | Burning, itching and irritation of the nose, throat and respiratory tract. | · Bamboo palm
· Flamingo Lily · Lady palm · Peace lily *
|
| Carbon monoxide | Odourless, colourless gas produced by burning carbon-based fuels | Cigarette smoke, central heating boilers, gas stoves and heaters, open fires – both wood and gas. | Lack of oxygen delivery to the brain causes dizziness, confusion, headaches, fatigue and in some cases, death. | · Bamboo palm
· Golden pothos · Dracaena marginata * · English ivy *
|
* Poisonous to cats and dogs
Go out and buy as many of the house plants listed above as you can to help detox your home. Avoid the ones that are toxic to cats and dogs if there are any of these furbabies living in your home.
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Mushrooms to support your body’s own detoxification processes – helping your body to eliminate toxins.
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