Growing Household Plants for a Cleaner Indoor Air

Growing Household Plants for a Cleaner Indoor Air
Find out why household plants are not only good for interior design but for overall health as well. Learn what benefits you can get by owning a houseplant.

How many times have you complained of air pollution when going outside for a walk or visiting the busiest part of town? Do you feel so much safer and at ease when you are in the comfort of your own home, away from all the gas-powered vehicles that cruise the streets and highways? If you think you are inhaling clean air at home, then you are mistaken.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed indoor air quality as one of the top five environmental risks to public health. What’s more alarming is that most homeowners do not know about this. In reality, indoor air is actually so much worse than the air outside, which can go up to as much as 100 times more harmful.

Indoor air pollution is a problem in all types of homes, regardless of where they are located, so it does not matter if you live in a city apartment or in a suburban home. People have gotten sick due to indoor air pollution and have gotten asthma, various kinds of lung disease, respiratory tract infections, and even lung cancer.

Fortunately for homeowners, there are certain methods that can improve the quality of air inside their homes, which are removal of the pollutant, cleaning of the air, and improving ventilation. One practical way to enhance the air quality in your residence is by growing household plants. Plants, although usually used and known for their visual appeal, are living organisms that help improve the quality of life of humans.

They interact with our body and are an excellent addition to any home. They provide us with the following benefits:

  • Makes Breathing Easier – Perhaps the most widely known use for plants is their ability to absorb what we exhale, which is oxygen, and give off what humans inhale, which is carbon dioxide. This natural exchange of gases between human and plants make for easy coexistence. By adding plants to your interior living space, you are helping residents of your home breathe with so much ease as compared to a home without any plant inside.

  • Helps Fight Respiratory Diseases – Another remarkable skill of plants is their capacity to release moisture vapors, helping humidify air around them. Releasing water vapor in the air helps ward off several respiratory diseases. The extra moisture also lessens the chances of getting dry skin, sore throat, colds, and dry cough.

  • Purifying Air – Plants are powerful in a sense that they can remove harmful toxins from the earth’s atmosphere, specifically up to a whopping 87 percent of volatile organic compounds or VOCs, as indicated in NASA research studies. This harmful compounds include formaldehyde and benzene.

  • Others – Plants are also known to help speed up the recovery of patients in hospital rooms, as well as contribute to better focus of students in rooms with plants inside.

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