Buy A Houseplant

Regardless of how drafty or well-sealed your house is, the air inside is less than pristine. Everything within your house’s walls, and quite possibly the walls themselves, are contributing to your air quality problems.

What Is In Your House
Synthetic carpets are made from recycled soda bottles, which out-gas chemicals into the air. Furniture, carpeting and draperies are all treated with fire retardant chemicals that outgas and slough off as air particles. Formaldehyde and benzene outgas from anything synthetic. Carbon monoxide and the many forms nitrogen oxides occur with use of gas stoves, furnaces, wood burners and (sorry to say it) poor cooking.

These problems can occur at home or work and have lead to a recognized illness – Sick Building Syndrome. The materials used to make the building and then to furnish it cause the people working/living within its walls to become ill or feel ill while inside.

Fortunately, there is a low-tech solution to this problem – Houseplants. NASA did extensive research, which has been duplicated around the world, on houseplants improving indoor air quality.

The Solution
By having 1 or 2 plants per room you can remove the majority of toxins from the air. This is an average since not all rooms can support plants and air circulates quite freely within a building. The best part is, plants don’t take time off. Even after the sun goes down and the lights are turned off, the plants continue to filter the air, supported by the microbes in the soil assisting in breaking down noxious chemicals.

An important plant for our area is the Peace Lily. It is very effective at removing Benzene and TCE.
Aloe Vera plants remove Formaldehyde very well.
Spider Plants are perfect for removing Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Oxides
Pothos Ivy removes both Formaldehyde and Benzene.

A great supporting cast to these leading plant filters includes:
Chinese Evergreen, Corn Plant, Philodendrons, English Ivy, Arrowhead Ivy, and Snake Plant.

Caring for the plants is simple. Don’t over water them - they hate having wet feet (root ends). Some like low light and some like sun. When you buy one, ask what the plant likes best. Feed them occasionally – once a month is more than adequate. Keep their faces clean (dust their leaves). Leave them alone! Loving them too much tends to kill them, so don’t pay too much attention to them.

Sources for the information:
http://www.sgaonline.org.au/info_indoor_plants.html
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ssctrs.ssc.nasa.gov/indr_landscape/indr_landscape.pdf