Indoor Air Quality
While much attention is lavished on air quality issues, the majority of our concern relates to pollutants found outdoors, such as exhaust from cars and industrial emissions. Indoor air quality is also important, especially given the amount of time that one spends indoors. Chemicals that cause allergies, asthma and headaches (among other symptoms) such as formaldehyde, benzene and acetone are often outgassed by common household products. One solution to this problem could be to go to Sharper Image and pick up an air purifier. These purifiers likely do a reasonable job of filtering the air, but they are fairly expensive and require a steady supply of electricity to function.
A little while ago, I visited a friend’s house and was immediately struck by the awesomely sweet smelling air that greeted me upon arrival. It turns out that his roommate is a landscape architect, and had filled the house chock full of plants, which were the source of the fresh air. When I moved down to San Diego, my mom bought me a great book called How to Grow Fresh Air by Dr. B.C. Wolverton. Dr. Wolverton covers 50 different houseplants and rates them all based on their efficacy in filtering chemicals such as those mentioned above. I bought five different plans that were recommended as easy to maintain, and so far none of them have died on me.
My favorite plant by far is the Dieffenbachia (or Dumb Cane, see below); it has grown rapidly, and has big broad appealing leaves. The only gotcha is that it is poisonous, so don’t let your kids or small house pets around it. I’m hoping to buy more plants over the coming months (I might even construct a plant tower using wire shelving), and maybe one day my house will smell as good as my friend’s.
