Oct 30, 2009

Eco-Friendly Friday

Do you worry about the quality of the air in your home? I know I do. I live in a city that has a major issue with pollution, so I want to make sure that the air in my home is as healthy as possible.

We all know from of biology classes (I hope!) that plants and trees use carbon dioxide and release oxygen as part of photosynthesis. What you may not have known is that they can also remove VOC’s (volatile organic compounds, released by man-made products like plastics and paint).

A former NASA scientist, B.C. Wolverton, has spent 30+ years (most of which was done with NASA) researching how plants can clean the air (and water) in indoor systems. If you would like to read some information on the research has done, click here. He wrote a book in the late 90’s, How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office. This book describes how the plants clean the air and highlights house plants that he has found to do a good job at cleaning the air.

I haven’t read the book yet (I just found out about it while researching how to naturally clean your indoor air) but will be purchasing it the next time I pass my local book store. This seems like a perfect fit to my needs. I hate to buy a separate air purifier that would require more energy use. Anyway, who doesn’t love to have plants in all the rooms of their house?  Bring the garden inside and help create a healthy living environment!

1 comment:

Whitastic said...

I got really excited when I read this tonight. I googled that book and got the list of the 50 plants. As it turns out, I think we have two types in the yard. We have so many palm trees I'm certain I've seen some of them. John was really excited that I was up for putting them inside. We are trying to remove as many toxic substances as possible (i.e. ripping up carpet) but most projects take time and money. This is a far better/economical way of improving air quality in the home! Thanks for sharing this post. (Harper's getting a Bamboo or Lady Palm in her room!)