Plants are essential to human life, providing food, medicine, shelter and very importantly, oxygen. Of course you already know about these gifts from nature. But there’s more.

NASA has been researching how to keep the air quality in confined spaces, like a space crafts and space station for instance, suitable for maintaining human health. So what does that have to do with you when you are unlikely to be travelling in a space-rocket or to stay on a space station?
Well, you might be surprised how what NASA discovered may apply to your daily life. A basic on our planet is that plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and that humans do the opposite, release carbon dioxide and take in oxygen. So plants and people are a perfect synergistic combination providing mutual benefits. But plants do us humans a further great service.

Sealed Spaces
In a confined and sealed space, like offices in high rise buildings, or in enclosed shopping malls, and in our homes too, people are breathing out carbon dioxide and breathing in oxygen all day without any or with very limited top up of fresh oxygen coming in. The air can become stale and stuffy and the oxygen levels low. What is the side effect of that?

We close up the house and use air-conditioners to either cool and dehumidify in the worst of our subtropical summer in Brisbane, or warm up the house mid winter in cold regions, day and night, keeping out the outside air at all costs. But the cost long term could be our health.

Toxic Air
Our internal environments accumulate toxic gases from chemicals contained in perfumes, deodorants, body lotions, shampoo, cleaning products, solvents, plastic paints, plastic containers and products, synthetic fabrics, synthetic carpets, timber floor sealers, glues, dyes, photo copier and printer inks, you name it.

These pollutants remain trapped in unventilated buildings. Anything that has a toxic chemical component will gas off and you breathe it in as part of the air in your environment, along with the oxygen you need.

Up to 95% of what we use to keep ourselves and our homes and offices clean and attractive contain synthetic chemicals, most of which are toxic. Many products are petroleum derived, like acetone, camphor, benzenes, aldehydes, ethanol, g-terpins and others. Then there are pesticides for flys, ants, cockroaches, silverfish, and other insects.

In Australia about 75% of buildings are affected by “sick building syndrome” and 9% of the workforce takes off at least one day from work every fortnight because of sickness connected to this. And the indications are that our homes are no better, possibly even worse if your house is locked up all day while you are at work and the kids are at school.

Symptoms of Toxic Air
The signs that you are inhaling these gases into your lungs and they are entering into your blood stream and your brain, what are they? Common reactions to toxic chemicals in the air you breathe are fatigue, disorientation, muscular pain, joint pain, eczema, eruptions, dizziness, somnolence, nausea, body swelling, accelerated breathing, flu symptoms, asthma, palpitations, high pulse, sinusitis, eye irritation, anxiety, pneumonia, headaches, memory loss, decreased focusing capacity, insomnia, irregular heart rhythm, gut issues and mood disorders like depression and mood swings plus a whole lot more.

Personal Experience
For nine years my clinic was in a gym where I did massage and kinesiology. Later I shared rooms with an osteopath for a number of years. Both of these environments were internal rooms, with no view of sky or trees or plants. The rooms were artificially lit and air-conditioned. At times I would get quite desperate to be out of the “tomb” environment, and always took my breaks outside to reconnect with the world, breathe in the air, and be in the light.
That was long before NASA research was available. My desperate need to be outside as often as possible was my body communicating its need, and I instinctively rebalanced my energy and oxygen levels by getting out of the enclosed space, into the open air.

Bone density also suffers in high chemical, low oxygen, acidic environments. In Save our Bones, author Vivian Goldschmidt, MA, with a Master of Arts degree in Nutritional Sciences and Biochemistry, explains that exposure to carbon dioxide increases bone loss. The toxic chemicals have an acidifying effect in your body and as your blood operates in a very specific pH range, your body automatically alkalizes your blood in a variety of ways, including by drawing on alkalizing elements calcium and magnesium from your bones. Acidic internal and external environments can cause bone density loss.

NASA space station research has yielded new information about bone loss. One of the problems is the loss of bone density of people out in space for an extended time. “Results of this research, which may aid people on Earth who suffer from similar conditions, including osteoporosis, are being shared with the medical community’” said Guy Fogleman, director of Bioastronautics Research in NASA’s Office of Biological and Physical Research, Washington.

Nature’s Solution
In terms of the quality of the air we breathe, NASA research points to an unexpected, cost-effective, low energy, environmentally friendly, and completely natural method of detoxifying the air in our houses: the common indoor plants.

NASA aimed to assess environmental issues, both on Earth and in space habitats, and this new study has been led by Dr. Bill Wolverton, formerly a senior research scientist at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He has co-authored a book with Kozaburo Takenaka called Plants, Why You Can’t Live Without Them.

Plants, more specifically the leaves, have been known to function like air pumps. Under the influence of sunlight, they take carbon dioxide from the air to use in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen as a byproduct. Plants also sweat, mainly through their leaves and this helps keep the correct humidity levels in an enclosed room’s dry conditions.

“The study has shown that common indoor landscaping plants can remove certain pollutants from the indoor environment. We feel that future results will provide an even stronger argument that common indoor landscaping plants can be a very effective part of a system used to provide pollution free homes and work places,” said Wolverton, involved in this kind of research for over 30 years.

NASA’s Recommended Plants For Purifying the Air:
Botanical Names – Common Names

Philodendron scandens – Heartleaf philodentron
Philodendron domesticum – Elephant ear philodendron
Dracaeana fragrans – Cornstalk dracaena, happy plant
Hedera helix – Common European ivy
Chlorophytum comosum – Spider plant
Ficus benjamina – Weeping fit
Epipremnum aureum – Golden pothos
Spathiphyllum Mauna Loa – Peace lily hybrid
Philodendron bipinnatifidum – cut leaf philodendron
Aglaonema modestum – Chinese evergreen
Chamaedorea sefritzii – Bamboo or reed palm
Sansevieria trifasciata – Snake plant or mother-in-law tongue
Dracaena marginata – Red-edged dracaena
Gebera jamesonii – Gerbera
Chrysanthemum – chrysanthemum, pot mums

Three common offenders in our interiors that NASA tested are:
– formaldehyde, an extremely toxic chemical used in water repellents, fire retardants, adhesive binders in floor coverings, permanent press clothes, also in natural gas and kerosene
– trichloroethylene used in dry cleaning, printing inks, paints, lacquers, varnishes and adhesives, and
– benzene, the most common solvent in gasoline, inks, oils, paints, plastics, and rubber and also in detergents, foams and dyes.
It is likely that most plants can help to detoxify the air to make it safe for human consumption, but some are more effective with specific chemicals so the research continues to add to those already identified.

How to Keep Your House Healthy
For your house always have a clean air intake opening year round. Air your home regularly if it has been closed up. Open windows and doors to get a draft going to clear out the accumulated gases trapped inside the tightly closed rooms. Avoid cleaning agents containing multiple chemicals. Look for cleaners using natural ingredients.

How to Keep You Healthy In and Out of Your Home
To help your body to stay healthy and excrete toxic gases and chemicals
– eat an alkalizing diet including fruit and vegetables and
– drink plenty of water
– sleep with a window open
– physical exercise and saunas to help you to sweat toxins out through your skin
– empty the bottom of your lungs regularly with long exhalation followed by deep inhalation to ensure a regular turnover of what accumulates in your lungs
– daily take a walk around the garden or just spend time outside around trees and shrubs.

Plants are essential to human life as they produce oxygen through interacting with sunlight so get into and around abundant foliage, that’s a good place to breathe deeply. And of course, it’s not just plants that need light and water. We humans do too. More on that another time.
Cheers
Anna
anna@annamcrobert.com.au