How to grow fresh air?

Prepared by: Abdoreza Bagheri

Air pollution has become an inseparable part of modern human beings' lives, especially those residing in big cities and metropolitans. It is needless to talk about detrimental impacts of breathing contaminated air since many scholars have discussed comprehensively about the issue and all of you dear audiences have heard or read about it or even experienced such effects closely by yourselves. Although scholars have scrutinized the problem, they have suggested a handful of solutions to purify polluted air most of which are expensive and practically complicated, except the one will be explained in this article.

The story began in Delhi, India. Living in Delhi, Kamal Meattle became allergic to Delhi's air. His doctors told him that his lung capacity had reduced to approximately 70 percent. Instead of getting disappointed and giving up, Meattle took the challenge as an invitation to find a simple-to-implement and cheap method to grow fresh air.

At the first step he shaped an investigation team. With the help of IIT[1], TERI[2] and learnings from NASA, he and his teammates discovered that there are three basic common green plants with which we can supply all the fresh air we need indoors to keep us healthy. The three plants are Areca Palm, Mother-in-Law's Tongue and Money plant. But how these weirdly named plants can help us?

Areca palm is a plant which removes Carbon Dioxide from the air and converts it into Oxygen. You need four shoulder-high Areca palms per person in your house. In terms of plant care, you must wipe their leaves every day in highly polluted cities and once a week in cities where the air is cleaner. In addition, you have to take them outdoors every three to four months.

The jaw dropping fact about the second plant, Mother-in-Law's Tongue, is that it converts Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen at night. In other words its photosynthesis is completely opposite of ordinary plants. For that reason Meattle calls it the bedroom plant. You need six to eight waist-high plants of this kind per person in your house. They are better to be placed in your bedrooms, but it is not mandatory. Wiping the leaves is extremely important for these plants as well; however Meattle has not mentioned it directly.

The third magic plant is Money Plant. As same as the previous ones, Money Plant is a very common one. This particular plant removes volatile chemicals from our breathing air. Meattle and his colleagues did not mention the exact size and number of this plant, but it seems you need at least three waist-height Money Plants per person in your accommodation. You also should wipe your Money Plants' leaves regularly.

Meattle believes that with these three plants, you can grow all the fresh air you need. "You could be in a bottle with a cap on top, and you would not die at all, and you would not need any fresh air", Meattle said in his speech in a TED conference.

So do not hesitate and hurry up! Keeping these plants in your house, not only can you supply all the fresh air you need, but also you will enjoy the beauty of nature in your accommodation, needless to leave it.