How Home Plants Improve Air Quality By Filtering Toxins

The plants being kept in residences can actually improve not just the mood but also the air quality of the surrounding.

According to Ryan Lee, founder of plant shop Rooted NYC, the plants often help in the process of filtering the air because of photosynthesis, or the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen.

"The fact of the matter is that all plants help with air filtering because of the normal photosynthesis process where they take in sunlight and carbon dioxide and they let out oxygen," Lee told AccuWeather.

Lee said plants are constantly working to improve the air quality because they have respiratory systems.

According to Lee, plants remove airborne pollutants which can cause a variety of health problems such as itchy throats as well as more serious illnesses like the deadly cancer.

"There's things like xylene, benzine, formaldehyde, and these are all airborne small particles that are surrounding us because of things like -- common things -- like vehicle exhaust and cigarette smoke and household cleaners and rubber or leather products, and so we don't actively see these things. But the plants -- they do take care of it by harnessing those toxins and releasing out pure oxygen," Lee said.

Lee, however, said one needs a lot of plants for the air quality to improve and not just one that is going to be put in one corner of the house.

Reducing NO2

An earlier article from Phys.Org said a research, conducted by the University of Birmingham and in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), found that in some conditions, "the plants could be able to reduce nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by as much as 20 percent."

The researchers then tested three houseplants that are easy to maintain such as the Peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans) and fern arum (Zamioculcas zamiifolia).

Each plant was placed into a test chamber containing levels of NO2 comparable to an office situated next to a busy road. Over a period of one hour, the researchers calculated that all the plants, regardless of their species, were able to remove around half the NO2 in the chamber.

The experts further noted that the performance of the plants was not dependent on their environment and whether the soil was wet or dry.

Cancer-causing compounds

Meanwhile, in a study of the University of Technology Sydney, it was discovered that plants can efficiently remove toxic petrol fumes, including cancer-causing compounds, from the indoor air.

One cancer-causing chemical that it can eradicate is the benzene, the study said. The research on this was led by UTS bioremediation researcher Associate Professor Fraser Torpy, in partnership with the leading plantscaping solutions company Ambius.

The researchers also revealed that Ambius small green wall, containing a mix of indoor plants, was highly effective at removing harmful, cancer-causing pollutants, with 97 percent of the most toxic compounds removed from the surrounding air in just a span of eight hours.

Related Article: Top Picks: Indoor Plants For Clean Air