Phytoremediation of particulate matter from indoor air by Chlorophytum comosum L. plants.

H Gawrońska,B Bakera

doi:10.1007/s11869-014-0285-4

H Gawrońska, B Bakera

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-014-0285-4

Copy DOI

Abstract

Higher plants, including spider plants, are able to take up and degrade/detoxify various pollutants in the air. Although nearly 120 plant species have been tested for indoor air phytoremediation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, data on particulate matter (PM) phytoremediation from indoor air are not yet available in literature. This work determined the ability of spider plants to take up PM, one of the most harmful pollutants to man, in the indoor air of five rooms housing different activities (a dental clinic, a perfume-bottling room, a suburban house, an apartment and an office). It was found that spider plants accumulate PM of both categories (water washable and trapped in waxes) and in all three size fractions determined and that the amount differed depending on the type of activity taking place in the particular rooms ranging from 13.62 to 19.79 μg/cm2. The amount of wax deposited on the leaves of plants grown in these rooms also differed (34.46–72.97 μg/cm2). The results of this study also demonstrated that the amount of PM accumulated on aluminium plates was always significantly lower than that accumulated on the plants’ leaves, showing that more than simply gravity forces are involved in PM accumulation on leaf blades.

Highlights

People living in urban areas spend up to 85–90 % of their time indoors (Soreanu et al 2013), often unaware that they might be continually exposed to air pollution
Amount of particulate matter (PM) and waxes accumulated on the leaf blades of the spider plant The total amount of PM accumulated on the leaves of the spider plant differed between the rooms examined and ranged from 13.62 to 19.79 μg/cm2, with the largest and smallest amounts recorded for the office and the suburban house, respectively (Fig. 1)
The results from this study clearly showed that spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum L.), well known for absorbing and detoxifying or degrading many harmful compounds such as NOx, CO, formaldehyde, benzene and others (Wolverton and Wolverton 1993; Giese et al 1994; Costa et al 1995; Cornejo et al 1999; Wolverton 2008), are able to accumulate PM

Summary

Introduction

People living in urban areas spend up to 85–90 % of their time indoors (Soreanu et al 2013), often unaware that they might be continually exposed to air pollution. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), indoor air pollution has been ranked among the top five risks to public health (Kobayashi et al 2007; Wolverton 2008; Soreanu et al 2013) as it has a negative impact on people’s health and property in urban areas all over the world (Kleeberger 2003). The level of air pollution indoors can be more than ten times higher than the outdoors, and in the case of some harmful substances, their concentrations can even exceed permissible norms by up to 100 times (Wolverton 2008).

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion