by Lorelei Cohen

Created on: June 01, 2009

Having houseplants placed strategically throughout your home is much more than just a decorative option, these attractive living house guests actually help to filter, and remove numerous toxins from the air within your home. Having houseplants in your home can greatly improve the indoor air quality of your home. Just place a few plants in each room of your house, and the air that you and your family breathe on a daily basis can be much cleaner, and this courtesy of these plants ability to remove pollutants from the air around them.

Many individuals are completely unaware that the very air that they and their families are breathing may be extremely contaminated by numerous household toxins. Formaldehyde, Carbon Monoxide, Radon gas, lead dust, asbestos fibers, Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Monoxide, pollen, dust mites, mildew, mold, bacteria, pet dander are just a few of the pollutants that may be poisoning the air within your home. Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that air levels within enclosed buildings may be up to two to five times more polluted than that of outdoor air levels. These studies also found that the air within some enclosed areas was actually up to one hundred times more polluted than outdoor air pollution levels.

Why? Well, many of these indoor pollutants are actually produced within your home. Cigarette smoking, radon gas leakage, mildew and mold are obvious contributors to indoor toxins within the home, while chemical leakage is another more serious contributor that most people are not aware of. Chemicals leach from common household items such as rugs, paint, pressed wood products, household cleaners, pesticides, photo copiers, and plastics. Cleaners and air fresheners designed to mask those annoying odors within your home may actually add additional pollutants to the air that you and your family are breathing. To add even more toxins to your indoor air may be the fact that outdoor air pollutants are entering your home through an improper ventilation system. Inadequate or faulty ventilation systems allow for the entry of harmful outdoor gases into otherwise air secure buildings.

So how do you reduce these indoor pollutants? In the summer months you could simply open a window and let the less polluted outdoor air into your home. However, this would not be much of an option for the winter months, cooler temperatures and an open window could have your heating bills sending you out to hunt for a second job.

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