Want a great, green way to clean the
air in your house?
A new study by a California teenager suggests that a
not-so-usual suspect -- the English ivy plant -- might
be just the ticket.
Ryan Kim, the son of an allergy researcher, found that
an English ivy plant does a significant job of cleansing
the air of mold particles and other nasty particulates,
including canine fecal matter.
"This may be a better alternative, and more cost-effective"
than an electronic air purifier, said study co-author
Hilary Spyers-Duran, a nurse practitioner and investigator
at West Coast Clinical Trials in Long Beach, Calif.
But an indoor-pollution specialist is skeptical of the
plant-as-air-cleaner approach. He suggested that concerned
residents try an old-fashioned method: ridding the house
beforehand of contaminants that make the air dirty.
Some house plants, including English ivy, have been touted
for their air-cleaning properties. But it hasn't been
entirely clear how effectively they work, said Spyers-Duran,
who wrote the paper with Kim, the son of her company's
CEO, Dr. Kenneth Kim.
The younger Kim put moldy bread and dog feces in individual
containers and measured how many particles spread into
the air. Then he put an English ivy plant into the containers
to see what happened, and then repeated the experiment.
The study findings were released this week at the annual
meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology in Anaheim, Calif.
According to the study, the plant reduced airborne particles
of fecal matter by an average of more than 94 percent
over 12 hours. The level of mold in the air went down
by 78.5 percent.
How does a plant manage to clean the air? "Aerosolized
proteins are actually absorbed through the roots and soil
of the plant," Spyers-Duran explained.
So should health-conscious Americans rush out and buy
an English ivy plant? There are a few caveats, experts
said. For one thing, English ivy is toxic and shouldn't
be placed near small children or pets. Also, the study
only examined what the plant does in containers, not in
entire rooms.
Then there's the matter of allowing dirt into your home.
The soil that feeds a plant also sends out its own potentially
dangerous microbes and waste products, noted Jeffrey Siegel,
an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University
of Texas at Austin.
Siegel, who specializes in indoor air quality, recommends
that residents combat indoor pollution by getting rid
of sources within the home. This includes making people
smoke outside and providing exhaust hoods to get rid of
cooking-related pollutants.
If that doesn't work, he said, air purifiers with HEPA
filters are a good approach. He doesn't recommend the
use of ionizing air purifiers, which some researchers
suspect actually boost levels of the pollutant ozone.
Which air purifier is best? In another study released
at the allergy conference, researchers at West Coast Clinical
Trials found that the Honeywell HEPA purifier did the
best job out of three purifiers tested. Tested in two
mold-infested houses, it cleared 72 percent of mold particles
in one house in one hour and 84 percent of mold particles
in the second house in one hour. The Living Air purifier
only cleared 43 percent and 50 percent in one hour, respectively,
while Sharper Image's Ionic Breeze purifier only managed
to clear 28 percent and 16 percent in three hours, the
researchers said.
More information
Learn more about the controversy over air purifiers from
Consumer
Reports.
Reference
Source 101
November
11, 2005
