City dwellers who have no choice but to breathe a cocktail of noxious gases can turn to house plants to beat airborne pollution, according to research carried out by NASA.
Our city air is becoming more polluted. Research by King’s College in 2014 found nitrogen dioxide levels on London’s Oxford Street to be the worst on Earth – a shocking revelation that is prompting new restrictions on the type of vehicles permitted to enter the city.
Dr David Carslaw, Environmental Research Group, was quoted in relation to air pollution levels on Oxford Street. He said: ‘To my knowledge this [level] is the highest in the world in terms of both hourly and annual mean. NO2 concentrations [in Oxford Street] are as high as they have ever been in the long history of air pollution.’
Despite these shameful figures and the thousands of deaths each year attributed to exhaust gases, it would be wrong to assume that the internal combustion engine is the only source of air pollution. Many of the items we use every day, from printers and plastics, to paper towels, are responsible for chemicals such as trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, benzene, xylene and ammonia.
When NASA was building the international space station thirty years ago, it carried out research on which plants could be used to filter the air within the capsule. It concluded that certain indoor plants provide a natural way of removing toxic agents from the air and that this effect could be optimized by placing at least one plant per 9 square metres.
Best house plants to beat pollution
Many common house plants, including bamboo palm, weeping fig and spider plants, were found to be effective at filtering pollutants. Ivy (hedera helix) was found to remove benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene and xylene.
The research continues to this day aboard the space station, where plants are considered a vital source of bioregenerative food, atmosphere recycling and psychological benefits for future space travel.
Gardening website lovethegarden.com has produced a useful infographic to illustrate the best houseplants to beat pollutants.
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John HILL
Well done for the incredibly useful information that you have provided. I am dependant on supplementary oxygen, both at home and whilst out; and now I know what plants to buy to help the machines to keep me alive. Thank you!