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Including plants in your home décor plan is an aesthetic choice. But it is also a functional choice. From beautifying your space to boosting your mood, plants can improve your overall feeling of well-being, while also impacting your home’s indoor air quality.
Plants are indispensable to humans. They convert the carbon dioxide exhaled by human beings into fresh oxygen, which we inhale to sustain life. Moreover, they have been found to remove toxins from the air which can help purify it, allowing us to breathe a little easier.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a document entitled “The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality,” in the mid-1990s which stated that in the preceding several years, there was a body of scientific evidence that showed that “the air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities.” It states further that other research available indicates that people spend up to 90% of their time indoors, making the health risks from indoor air pollution greater than those from outdoor air pollution. With this data in mind, taking as many measures as possible to improve indoor air quality is vital to health and wellness.
So, can plants positively impact indoor air pollution? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), many in the media and house plant industry claim that research conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) indicates that plants actively remove indoor air pollutants. Based on this research, some scientists assert that house plants can effectively purify the air in residences, especially if they are large and leafy because “[t]he amount of leaf surface area influences the rate of air purification,” according to Bill Wolverton, a former NASA research scientist who conducted a plant study for the organization in 1989. In an interview by Markham Heid for TIME magazine in 2018, Wolverton reflected on his plant research for NASA. He said that it is impossible to solidly state an exact number of plants that might be needed to purify the air of any given room without additional expensive testing, but that he would recommend two “good-sized” plants, such as golden pothos, per 100 square feet of space.
Frederico Brilli, a plant physiologist at the National Research Council of Italy—Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection authored an article entitled “Plants for Sustainable Improvement of Indoor Air Quality” that lends support to Wolverton’s claim. In the article, Brilli and his co-author colleagues state that plants are a sustainable solution for the enhancement of indoor air quality, and there is clear evidence that demonstrates this. They note that research has been ongoing since NASA’s work in the 1980s, but that even more needs to be done to fully utilize plants effectively to this end.
Other experts disagree with Wolverton and Brilli, however, claiming that the evidence that plants can effectively clean the air is inconclusive at best. Opponents include people like Luz Claudio, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Stanley Kays, a professor emeritus of horticulture at the University of Georgia. They have reviewed and participated in research on the topic of plants improving indoor air quality and has concluded that, while plants are capable of reducing contaminants in and removing a variety of toxins from the air, there have been no definitive studies showing a significant improvement in real-world scenarios (as opposed to laboratories). Claudio and Kays are among experts who claim that there is no proof that plants are an effective tool for the reduction of air pollution.
So, it seems that the jury is still out as to whether plants improve indoor air quality in general or in a significant enough way to function as a substitute for modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. But incorporating plants into your home design is still not a bad idea: plants do support health and wellness by decreasing stress and improving mood while enhancing home décor, even if their impact on indoor air quality is only negligible.
The Coolest is your go-to team of professional HVAC service and installation technicians in Austin, Texas. The competent and experienced HVAC technicians at The Coolest are ready to assist with your HVAC needs, including finding HVAC solutions to help you maintain excellent indoor air quality. Contact The Coolest via their website or by phone at 512-468-6140 for more information.
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