Gardening : October Declared National Houseplant Month
In a recent proclamation, the Plants for Clean Air Council announced that “with the support of the Congress of the United States of America and with special thanks to Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, (the council) does hereby declare October, 1992, to be ‘National Houseplant Month,’ honoring our lovely indoor greenery not only for its beauty, but for its unique ability to purify the air in our homes and offices.”
We all know that plants live by taking carbon dioxide out of the air and breathing water vapor and oxygen back into it. But what wasn’t generally known until recently is that along with the carbon dioxide, plants are able to “vacuum” away far more threatening substances--substances which, at the 1992 International Conference of the American Lung Assn. in Anaheim, were identified as representing a major portion of our exposure to air pollution overall.
Ten years of experimentation funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. B. C. Wolverton has proven conclusively that certain indoor plants are almost totally effective in removing most of these very dangerous poisons from the air.
The three most toxic of these substances--formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene (TCE)--are present in everybody’s home or office, being emitted as they are by the most common items of our everyday lives: permanent press clothing, kitchen cabinets, carpeting, paper towels, facial tissues, detergents, dry-cleaning bags, plywood, foam insulation, grocery bags, room deodorizers, inks, oils, paints, plastics, etc.
According to the Plants for Clean Air Council, where Wolverton is continuing his experiments to discover more plants that are even more effective against these toxins, TCE has been cited by the National Cancer Institute as a potent carcinogen affecting the liver. Formaldehyde can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and prolonged exposure can cause permanent short-term memory loss, decreased muscle control and cancer.
And, according to the EPA, high levels of benzene can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, blurred vision, irregular heartbeat, liver and kidney damage.
Wolverton’s experiments have proven that the most effective plants against formaldehyde are aloe vera, date palm (Phoenix robellini), Dieffenbachia, and the common but beautiful Philodendron.
Most effective against benzene are the bamboo palm (Chamaedorea erumpens), snake plant (Sanseveiria laurentii), and all dracenas, mainly corn plant (D. massangeana), dragon plant (D. marginata, and the variegated dracena (D. warneckii.)
Plants that will remove up to 80% to 90% of the TCE in your home or office include pothos and English ivy (Hedera helix).
All these plants are easy-to-grow foliage plants that need no more than medium sunlight, water when their soil begins to dry out, and regular feedings with a good liquid houseplant food. (Miracle-Gro as used in the NASA experiments.)
The best news is you don’t need a jungle in your home to help eliminate these deadly toxins. According to Wolverton, assuming you have an eight-foot ceiling, all you need are two or three of the above named plants in eight-inch pots to go a long way toward purifying every 100 square feet of floor space.
For a free pamphlet containing all this information as well as a great deal more about plants and cleaner indoor air, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to “Plants for Clean Air Council,” 12200 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 22091.
