Best House Plants for Filtering Your Home’s Air!

To heck with those expensive, ozone-generating electronic air purifiers, which can actually do more harm than good. According to a study done by NASA, there are many common household plants that not only improve indoor air quality by replacing CO2 with oxygen, but do actually help CLEAN some harmful chemicals out of the air!  Here is a list of the best air-filtering plants, and the chemicals that they filter from your breathing space (as documented by the NASA study, as well as some additional ones included in a later book by the author of that NASA project, B.C. Wolverton):

THREE BEST:

• Peace Lily – benzene, formaldehyde & TCE
• Gerbera Daisy – benzene, formaldehyde & TCE
• Pot Mum or Florist’s Chrysanthemum – benzene, formaldehyde & TCE

ALSO PRETTY GREAT:

• English Ivy – benzene & formaldehyde
• Spider Plant – formaldehyde
• Golden pothos or Devil’s Ivy – formaldehyde
• Bamboo Palm or Reed Palm – formaldehyde
• Snake Plant or Mother-in-Law’s Tongue – formaldehyde
• Heartleaf Philodendron – formaldehyde
• Selloum Philodendron – formaldehyde
• Elephant Ear Philodendron – formaldehyde
• Red-Edged Dracaena – benzene & formaldehyde
• Cornstalk Dracaena – formaldehyde
• Janet Craig Dracaena – benzene & formaldehyde
• Warneck Dracaena – benzene & TCE
• Weeping Fig – formaldehyde
  
• Rubber Plant – formaldehyde
• Boston Fern – formaldehyde
• Kimberly Queen Fern – formaldehyde
• Dwarf Date Palm – formaldehyde

Oh, and also FYI, here is a little description of the chemicals listed above, and why you definitely do not want them in your house:

Benzene– Commonly used solvent present in much of the stuff you fill your house with, including (but not limited to):  Paints, plastics, rubber, gasoline, inks, oils, detergents and dyes.  Benzene has been known to cause irritation to the skin and eyes, and has been shown to be a contributing factor to cancer and birth defects in humans.  Acute inhalation and chronic exposure to benzene can cause dizziness, weakness, loss of vision, respiratory diseases, and on and on and on.  Gross.

Trichloroethylene or TCE– Also a common commercial product, found in dry cleaning agents, printing inks, paints, varnishes, and adhesives.  The National Cancer Institute considers TCE to be a potent liver carcinogen.

Formaldehyde– It’s not just for dead people, folks!  Formaldehyde is “a ubiquitous chemical found in virtually all indoor environments.” (According to the NASA paper.)  Major sources include insulation, particle board, and pressed-wood products, but it is also used in the treatment of many paper products: think tissue, paper towels, etc., and cleaning agents: clothing starches, fire retardants, and carpet adhesive.  It is also present in cigarette smoke, and natural gas & kerosene.  It irritates the eyes, nose and throat and can cause asthma and throat cancer.

So…if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get started turning my home into a veritable greenhouse!!