by Justin Faerman: It’s tempting to think that the air inside your house or office is fresh and clean…

after all, it probably doesn’t have any noticeable odor, and if you’re reading this magazine you probably have the windows open every chance you get (weather permitting). But the truth is that indoor air quality can be, well, deceiving. Unless all your furniture, paint, carpeting and flooring are organic, eco-friendly and pure, chances are there is some moderate to substantial off-gassing going on (off-gassing is when synthetic materials or chemicals naturally degrade, releasing harmful particles into the air).

“The air inside the average home is up to five times more polluted than the air outside”

In fact, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the air inside the average home is up to five times more polluted than the air outside. While moderately alarming on a certain level, it’s really more of a catalyst for making positive changes in one’s life that not only freshen up the air, but also allow us to more intimately connect with nature—not merely when we’re outside, but in the comfort of our own living and working spaces. The remedy? Air purifying plants, of course.

The Power of Air Purifying Plants

I remember one night many years ago I came home late from a gathering with some close friends, and being that it was well past midnight, I decided to sneak into bed without turning the lights on. I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep with unusually vivid dreams. I awoke in the middle of the night—my body gently nudging me awake with a primal urge to use the bathroom. When I opened my eyes and took a deep breath I felt so invigorated and rejuvenated that it was absolutely remarkable, especially after only having slept for a few hours. I felt like I could have started my day filled with energy, right then and there, many hours ahead of my normal rising time. But that elation quickly turned to panic as I began to notice a large, black mass just a few feet from my face as my eyes became more sensitive to the darkness filling the room.

I gathered my courage and peered in closer to discover what was next to my bed—to my surprise, a towering bouquet of freshly cut flowers. Relieved, I took a deep breath to relax and noticed how fresh, clean and pure the air around the flowers was. It was literally oozing with oxygen and a light, fragrant scent that I had been unconsciously breathing in that night, which was nourishing every cell of my body as I slept (interesting side note: I later learned that the body’s oxygen demands go up while sleeping).

We had visitors from out of town staying with us who departed before I returned that night, and one of them had left the flowers in their wake. Basking in their afterglow for just a few hours had noticeably improved my health and wellbeing. It was a poignant reminder of the power of plants to not just purify the air, but imbue it with life. I vowed never to be far from plants ever again.

From Toxic to Botanic

But besides providing some profoundly refreshing sleep, can air purifying plants really clean truly toxic air? Can they compete with the brute force of human industry that has caused more environmental destruction than any other force on the planet? In fact, yes. Very much so.

Enter Kamal Meattle, the tenacious, successful CEO of a large Indian software company. Kamal found his health rapidly deteriorating due to the foul air quality in the crowded capital city of New Delhi, India. Not one to sit idly by as his lung capacity precariously dwindled at around 30% of its normal capacity, Meattle began working with the Indian Institute of Technology and The Energy and Resources Institute to expand on NASA air quality research in the hopes he might find a solution to his dilemma.

You see, NASA had a small problem on their hands when it came to long-period manned space missions. They needed an efficient, lasting source of clean air to keep astronauts alive and thriving during extended interstellar travel. What they discovered is that a few common houseplants, and one in particular—Mother-in-Law’s Tongue (botanical name: Sansevieria trifasciata)—did the job wonderfully and were also powerful air purifiers to boot.

Meattle and his team used NASA’s findings to branch out and discover two more air purifying plants that formed a ‘holy trinity’ of clean air. In addition to Sansevieria trifasciata, they discovered that the Areca palm and the superstitiously named money plant, a long wandering vine, also produced copious amounts of clean air while simultaneously removing toxins.

After substantially improving his own health with the combo, in true CEO fashion, Meattle decided to scale up the project and attempt to purify a 20-year-old, 50,000-square-feet building that housed his nearly 300 employees. After some testing and tweaking they discovered that approximately six air purifying plants are required per person to meet their daily needs for fresh, clean, highly oxygenated air.

“Our experience points to an amazing increase in human productivity by over 20% by using these plants. And also a reduction in energy requirements in buildings by an outstanding 15%, because you need less fresh air. We are now replicating this in a 1.75-million-square-feet building, which will have 60,000 indoor air purifying plants,” stated Meattle in a recent TED Talk about his work. Meattle also mentions that these studies “have found that there is a 42% probability of one’s blood oxygen going up by one percent if one stays indoors in this building for 10 hours. The government of India has discovered or published a study to show that this is the healthiest building in New Delhi.”