
Which houseplants should you buy to purify air? None of them - pseudolus
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/11/houseplants-dont-purify-indoor-air/#close
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maxander
> “I would hate to see say a low-income family who’s concerned about air
> [quality] review their options and say ‘I could either buy a $400 air
> cleaner, or I could go out and buy a $30 plant,’” says Gall. “That plant is
> not going to improve their air quality—full stop. It just won’t.”

The real question is, why does the air cleaner, which is usually just a fan
blowing through an activated charcoal filter, cost $400 in the first place?
There’s a market to disrupt, surely.

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SyneRyder
It doesn't - prices I've seen are more like $200 US for the base level Philips
air purifier in a retail store, and there are brands with even cheaper
offerings. I see one on Amazon for $135 USD.

Of course, that's still not $30, especially when you add in the cost of
replacement filters, but it's much better than the $400 quoted.

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Quequau
OK but since we now have tech like CRISPR why can't we have house plants that
do?

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notjtrig
Because a houseplant is small and indoor air is replaced every 80 mins on
average, they do purify air just not enough to make a difference.

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IXxXI
"How do houseplants clean the air? A 1989 NASA study explains exactly how
plants remove toxins from air by trapping them in their leaves, soil, and
roots, and which houseplants clean air the best.

The study was designed to test air purification systems for the space
station."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPNYdSZRSdg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPNYdSZRSdg)

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notjtrig
The paper hypotheses an indoor living wall with air being circulated though
the plants may be effective at purifying air. I think they could look at an
algae co2 capture system to see if that could reduce VOCs.

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dredmorbius
Though whether or not that introduces more by way of pollens and molds than it
filters out is a fair question.

