Plants That May Improve Indoor Air Quality

If you are concerned with indoor air pollution, you are not alone. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, your home’s air can be as much as 2 to 5 times more contaminated with pollutants than the air outdoors. These pollutants can include VOCs and other chemicals like pesticides, mold, cleaning products and certain gasses (nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide).

The good news is you can improve your home’s indoor air quality just by owning a houseplant. A few houseplants known to improve indoor air quality include:

Aloe Vera
Since Aloe Vera plants are known for their healing properties, many people have them in their home. The leaves have a gel inside them that is often used to treat cuts and burns. However, Aloe Vera is also great for improving the indoor air quality in your home. It can help to keep benzene (commonly found in certain chemical cleaners and paints) out of your home and it’s simple to grow, even if you don’t have a green thumb.

Spider Plant
Another plant that is simple to grow is the spider plant is found in many households. The leaves absorb harmful gases like nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. In fact, this plant is able to remove over 95 percent of toxins in indoor air in a 6 hour period, according to NASA. It is also known to help absorb other substances that are harmful like mold and other allergens as well as small traces of formaldehyde.

Chinese Evergreen
You can help to eliminate a number of air pollutants in your home with the Chinese Evergreen. It is another plant that is simple to care for and produces small red berries that help in removing toxins from air that you commonly find in household cleaners. The longer you have this plant in your home, the more toxins that will be eliminated; therefore, it’s wise to keep your Chinese Evergreen for as long as you can.

Other basic steps to cleaner indoor air quality include using the least toxic cleaning products in your home, ensure there is an exhaust fan over your oven to remove the gases like nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide and set your garage up so that it keeps car fumes from entering your home. Also, installing a whole house fan is a good idea too since it ventilates and improves the air quality in your home.