subject: NASA Scientists Recommendation for Indoor Pollution? Plants! [print this page] Smog, smokestacks, acid rain, trafficare these the things you think of when you think about pollution? Well, think again. Evidently the air inside of our homes and offices are what we should be concerned with. Did you know that recent studies by the EPA show the air inside our homes is two to five times more polluted than the air in the most industrial cities? This alarming news makes a fascinating study done by NASA, in the late 1980's, more relevant than ever.
In 1989 a group of NASA scientists, led by Dr. B.B. Wolverton, designed a series of experiments to guage the effectiveness of plants at removing toxic chemicals from the air. In one experiment, they had the Chlorophytum elatum var. vittatum (more commonly known as the Spider plant) in an air tight chamber. They contaminated the chamber by pumping in formaldehyde. The formaldehyde concentration decreased rapidly from 14 ppm (parts per million) to 2 ppm in 6 hours and below the detection level of 2 ppm in the interval between 6 hours and 24 hours. Astounded by this result, they decided to repeat the experiment, but this time the formaldehyde concentration was increased to 37 ppm. After 6 and 24 hours, the formaldehyde measured 8 ppm and
