Health-Related Benefits of Different Indoor Plant Species in a School Setting

Abstract

Humans spend more than 80% of their lives indoors resulting in an increased demand for high indoor air quality (IAQ). At the same time, indoor air tends to be at least twice as polluted as outdoor air, and health threats caused by long-term exposure to indoor air pollution are rising. Few experiments under real-life conditions have demonstrated positive effects of indoor plants on parameters related to IAQ, resulting in improved humidity and temperature, reduced particulate matter concentration and CO2 levels. Indoor living walls allow the presence of many plants—without taking up valuable floor area. This article presents the results of conducted measurements on four do-it-yourself green walls planted with different plant species that are typically used for vertical indoor greenery (golden pothos, Boston fern, spider plant and a combination of plants) in a school setting. Besides the parameters of air humidity and temperature, CO2, mold spore and particulate matter levels, influences on room acoustics were investigated. Based on a custom-developed evaluation matrix, the plants were compared with each other and a reference without plants. The results show that no species led to deterioration of IAQ. Golden pothos had the most substantial effect and delivered improvements in all examined parameters.

Effects of Green Plants on the Indoor Environment and Wellbeing in Classrooms—A Case Study in a Swedish School

“…In addition, they also state that if the carbon dioxide content of a room during normal use regularly exceeds 1000 parts per million (ppm), this should be seen as an indication that the ventilation is not satisfactory [3]. CO 2 levels in the classrooms with the green plants were found to be 10% lower in comparison to the Control classroom, which supports the findings from related studies [19,31]. Classrooms have relatively high ventilation airflows due to the high density of pupils and teachers during education times.…”

“…According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) [30], PM 10 levels in northern Europe countries are low and not exceeding 20-30 µg/m 3 even in urban areas, but it would still be interesting to perform a similar study in schools located in urban centre areas. A study that was done in a school in Taborstrasse, Vienna [19], with much higher particulate concentrations indoors had varying results depending on the indoor plants that were used. A combination of plants, as in this report, resulted in lower particulate matter and lower CO 2 levels.…”

“…Several experimental studies also showed that contact with nature can promote human well-being, both in the form of restorative effects, as well as the promotion of cognitive functions, productivity, mental mood and the reduction of stress and anger [12,13]. Indoor plants have been shown to improve performance in an office environment [14,15], both the well-being and performance of people in school environments as well as quicker recovery in hospitals [16][17][18][19]. A follow up by Han and Ruan [9] of Bringslimark, Hartig and Patil [16], with the inclusion of Chinese studies, showed that the most important effects of indoor plants on participants were increasing positive emotions and reducing negative feelings, followed by reducing physical discomfort.…”

Small-scale botanical in enhancing indoor air quality: A bibliometric analysis (2011-2020) and short review

“…Australian researchers had conducted a field study under fifty-five realistic office conditions within two buildings in Sydney's TS = (("indoor plants*" OR "indoor plant*" OR "indoor botanical*" OR "indoor botanical plant*" OR "indoor botanical plants*" OR "biofiltration*" OR "phytoremediation*" OR "botany*" OR "biotechnology*") AND ("air quality*" OR "indoor air*" OR "airflow*" OR "indoor air quality*" OR "indoor airflow*"OR"indoor environment*"OR"sickbuildingsyndrome*")) [15]. In recent years, Australian researchers experimented on four green walls planted with different plant species commonly used for vertical indoor greening in a school environment [16].…”

“…Fig 16. Digital image of Parlor Palm (Retrieved from Jansen, Zuidema, van Ast, Bongers, Malosetti, Martínez-Ramos, Núñez-Farfán and Anten[63]).…”