New study: The plants that help indoor air filtration We take a look at a recent study on common houseplants and their ability to help clean air by filtering some frequently-found VOCs from the air you breathe.TRIGGER: - closeThe Research:We learn in elementary-school science class how vital plants are to our ecosystem, particularly because they convert carbon dioxide back into breathable air. But Vadoud Niri, an associate professor of chemistry at the State University of New York in Oswego, believes that the right combination of plants can also help prevent “sick building syndrome” — the dizziness, asthma, and allergies that come with breathing in ubiquitous in high concentrations. His, presented this summer, measure the efficacy of certain common houseplants at removing eight top VOCs.The Results:The research team placed five varieties of houseplant (jade plant, spider plant, bromeliad, Caribbean tree cactus, and dracaena) in sealed chambers. They then added eight VOCs — including acetone, benzene, and formaldehyde — into the chambers, and measured concentrations after a 12-hour period. All five plants greatly reduced acetone, the chemical in nail-polish remover and other household items like printer ink; the dracaena plant did the best, capturing up to 94 percent of acetone in the air. However, the bromeliad plant was the top overall performer, reducing concentrations of six of the VOCs tested by up to 80 percent.The Takeaway:Niri’s findings build on the ongoing study of biofiltration (that is, the use of plants to remove chemicals), but further research is needed to assess plants’ efficacy in real-world environments like homes, offices, and salons. Smartly selected houseplants may help manage VOCs in the home to a point; at the very least, they’re an affordable — and aesthetically pleasing — addition to any air purification or ventilation system already in place.
Recent research by Vadoud Niri and his team at the State University of New York at Oswego found five houseplants that really stood out for absorbing common VOCs. The fab five are the jade plant, spider plant, bromeliad, Caribbean tree cactus, and dracaena. Selecting the Right House Plant Could Improve Indoor Air (Animation). Courtesy of Vadoud Niri. Bromeliad plants are good at removing a wide variety of VOCs from the air. Niri says the next.
Note to journalists: Please report that this research is being presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.A press conference on this topic will be held Wednesday, Aug. 24, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Reporters may check in at Room 307 in person, or watch live on YouTube. To ask questions online, sign in with a Google account.PHILADELPHIA, Aug.
24, 2016 — Indoor air pollution is an important environmental threat to human health, leading to symptoms of “sick building syndrome.” But researchers report that surrounding oneself with certain house plants could combat the potentially harmful effects of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), a main category of these pollutants. Interestingly, they found that certain plants are better at removing particular harmful compounds from the air, suggesting that, with the right plant, indoor air could become cleaner and safer.The researchers are presenting their work today at the 252 nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
ACS, the world’s largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics. A brand-new animation on the research is available at. “Buildings, whether new or old, can have high levels of VOCs in them, sometimes so high that you can smell them,” says Vadoud Niri, Ph.D., leader of the study.VOCs are compounds like acetone, benzene and formaldehyde that are emitted as gases and can cause short- and long-term health effects when inhaled. They can come from paints, furniture, copiers and printers, cleaning supplies and even dry-cleaned clothes.“Inhaling large amounts of VOCs can lead some people to develop sick building syndrome, which reduces productivity and can even cause dizziness, asthma or allergies,” Niri says.
“We must do something about VOCs in indoor air.”The most common solution is to install ventilation systems that cycle in air from outside. There are also methods that can remove these compounds, using adsorption, condensation and chemical reactions.However, Niri is studying a cheap, simple tool to remove VOCs: house plants. Using plants to remove chemicals from indoor air is called biofiltration or phytoremediation. In addition to carbon dioxide, plants can take up gases such as benzene, toluene and other VOCs. NASA began studying this option in 1984 and found that plants could absorb these airborne compounds via their leaves and roots.Since then, other studies have looked at how plants phytoremediate specific compounds, such as the carcinogen formaldehyde, in a closed space.
Most of these studies focused on the removal of single VOCs by individual plants from the ambient air. However, Niri wanted to compare the efficiency and the rate of simultaneous removal of several VOCs by various plants.To test this, Niri, who is at the State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego), and his team built a sealed chamber containing specific concentrations of several VOCs. They then monitored the VOC concentrations over several hours with and without a different type of plant in the chamber.
For each plant type, they noted which VOCs the plants took up, how quickly they removed these VOCs from the air, and how much of the VOCs were ultimately removed by the end of the experiment.The researchers tested five common house plants and eight common VOCs, and they found that certain plants were better at absorbing specific compounds. For example, all five plants could remove acetone — the pungent chemical that is abundant at nail salons — from the air, but the dracaena plant took up the most, around 94 percent of the chemical.“Based on our results, we can recommend what plants are good for certain types of VOCs and for specific locations,” Niri says. “To illustrate, the bromeliad plant was very good at removing six out of eight studied VOCs — it was able to take up more than 80 percent of each of those compounds — over the twelve-hour sampling period. So it could be a good plant to have sitting around in the household or workplace.”Niri says the next step in the research is to test these plants’ abilities in a real room, not just a sealed chamber. He would eventually like to put plants in a nail salon over the course of several months to see whether they can reduce the levels of acetone that workers are exposed to.He acknowledges funding from ’s Scholarly and Creative Activity Grants.The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. With nearly 157,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.