In the late 1980s, America’s space agency (NASA) studied house plants as a way to clean the air in their space station. What they found was that several common plants are particularly good at filtering out many harmful chemicals.
And because many of us spend such a large part of our day indoors, it really matters that the air we breathe is as unpolluted as possible. Just like it needs to be for the astronauts on the space station.
And this can be hard these days because our homes are better insulated. While this makes our houses more efficient, it also more efficiently traps indoor air pollutants in with us.
These pollutants–such as benzene, formaldehyde and ammonia–are hard to detect by our senses and can cause minor problems such as eye and throat irritation and major problems such as respiratory disease and cancer.
These chemicals can be found in a number of common household items and building materials including:
- Carpets
- Perfumes
- Hairsprays
- Paints
- Glues
- Adhesives
- Foam insulation materials
- Household cleaners
- Pressed wood products (plywood, particle board and medium density fibreboard) and
- Moulds
So check out your local nursery for NASA’s top seven air filtering plants: Devil’s Ivy, Snake Plant, Red-Edged Dracaena, English Ivy, Spider Plant, Pot Mum and the Peace Lily.
