In 1989, NASA conducted its famous Clean Air Study to see whether common houseplants might purify indoor air by removing toxins¹ in addition to absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. It worked, and while plants are still capable of absorbing harmful toxins in the air, new research suggests that potted plants’ ability to improve air quality in the home or office is largely overstated and buries a more effective solution to keeping the air clean.

 

1989年，美國國家航空航天局進行了著名的清潔空氣研究，以觀察普通室內植物除了吸收二氧化碳和釋放氧氣之外，是否還能通過排除毒素來凈化室內空氣。當時的研究證明這種方法起到了作用。但盡管植物能夠吸收空氣中的有害物質，新研究卻表明，盆栽植物改善家庭或辦公室空氣質量的能力在很大程度上被夸大了，使我們忽視了一個保持空氣清潔的更有效的辦法。

 

Writing in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, researchers found that natural ventilation of indoor environments dilutes² concentrations of potentially harmful air pollutants³ much faster than a plant is capable of extracting them.

 

"The best way to have a healthy home is to try to reduce indoor emissions⁴, ventilate well (especially when doing high impact emissions like cooking), and using filtration for certain pollutants (e.g. particulate⁵ matter),” study author Michael Waring of Drexel University told IFLScience.

 

Where NASA and similar studies went wrong is that they conducted their experiments in sealed chambers⁶ in laboratories, which do not accurately⁷ mimic⁸ the many factors that influence our indoor environments.

 

"In a small office, you would have to have somewhere between 100 to 1,000 plants to have the same air cleaning impact of ventilation at 1 air change per hour," said Waring.

 

That doesn't mean you should chuck out your plants just yet. Waring says that although houseplants do not clean the air under typical settings, houseplants have many benefits, most of which are psychological.

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