WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER: Keep Air Clean at Home or Work - with House Plants

Study: Common House Plants Can Reduce Air Pollution in Homes and Offices – by as Much as 20%

Certain houseplants can actually clean up the air in your home or office.

University of Birmingham researchers have found that certain, common houseplants can reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a common pollutant, by as much as 20-percent.

High levels of NO2 can irritate our airways, and can be particularly damaging for people who have respiratory diseases, such as asthma.

The researchers tell us that these plants, the peace lily, the corn plant, and the fern arum are all able to remove about half of the NO2 in a controlled chamber, over the course of just an hour. And this finding held, whether conditions were dark or light, or wet or dry.

Study leader, Dr. Christian Pfrang adds, “There was no indication, even during longer experiments, that our plants released the NO2 back into the atmosphere, so there is likely a biological process taking place also involving the soil the plant grows in—but we don’t yet know what that is.”

Finally, our plants take the carbon dioxide (CO2) which we discard in our breath, and return fresh oxygen to us.

Branch out here, for more: (Daily Mail)