BLACK N WHITE HOUSE The Scientist Pte Ltd 14 plants that are alternatives to air purifiers by — 28 Jan 2015 16:16 Why shell out thousands of dollars for an expensive air filter when you can use a simple potted plant? In the late 80s, NASA studied houseplants as a way to purify the space station. While they did not manage to build an air purfier from plants, NASA discovered that plants do make a difference in the air quality of a home. In fact, their research suggests homeowners should keep one plant per 100sqf of home or office space. The plants help filter out VOCs, volatile organic compounds, which are chemical compounds in vapour-form that enter the air, contributing to air pollution in and out of the homes. While each plant doesn't filter out ALL the VOCs - it is impossible as there isn't even a full-list of all known VOCs - they do filter some. The more you know...: VOCs include chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene, trichloroethylene, carbon monoxide and xylene.

All these can be found in products such as paints, furniture wax, polishes, even in inks and paint thinners. Don't worry, only small traces of most linger in the air of homes. But just to play it safe, here are 14 of the best plants to use for cleaner air at home: 5)    Golden Pothos a.k.a. Devil’s Ivy 9)    Snake plant a.k.a. Mother-in-Law’s Tongue 14)    Pot Mum also known as Florist’s Chrysanthemum TOPICS: air, air purifier, eco-friendly, green, greenery, health, home, house plants, plantsbuy wii lens cleaning kit online Want more exclusive blog posts like these delivered to your inbox?urban air purifierIf you've been blowing your nose until you resemble Rudolph and your head feels like it is about to explode from your sinus headache, you may be suffering from allergies to the pollutants in your home. drive clean test centres burlington

Someone has probably mentioned that an air purifier will help you feel better. However, what does an air purifier do?One of the most important functions of an air purifier is its ability to remove pollutants such as cigarette smoke, dust, pollen, mold, and pet dander from the air. Another reason people use these machines is to remove odors. There are several types of air purifiers and each works a bit differently. These filters in these purifiers include: the ionizer, the HEPA filter, the combination ionizer/HEPA filter, the activated carbon filter, and the antibacterial filter.The ionizer is one of the most popular air purifiers. Unlike other purifiers, the ionizer does not actually remove pollutants from the house. Instead, this machine makes the pollutants so heavy that they fall from the air and drop to the floor. If you have allergies, you will need to use a vacuum that has a HEPA filter to clean the floors before the room is truly allergen free.If you don't want to pull out your vacuum, you may be thinking that you should simply use a HEPA filter instead of an ionizer.

HEPA filters suck dirty air in, run it through the filter, where most pollutants are trapped, and then blow the clean air back into the room. However, a HEPA filter can't clean the smallest particles from the air and isn't great at removing odors from the room. To get your air really clean, you would need a HEPA filter combined with an ionizer or with an activated carbon filter. The activated carbon filter used to be extremely popular. This filter is great at getting smells out of the air. However, it doesn't do as good a job when it is trying to remove pollen, dust, mold, or pet dander. Now, this filter is usually used along with a HEPA filter instead of being used by itself. Finally, for people concerned with bacteria or germs, an antibacterial filter is an important air purifier. These filters are especially popular in situations such as a home daycare, where people are being exposed to many germs. However, while these filters are very effective at removing germs, they are rarely used on their own.

They work best when they are combined with a HEPA filter.» Soaring pollution pushes up sales of air purifiersShobita DharDeteriorating air quality in India became a talking point during US president Barack Obama’s recent visi... Read MoreDeteriorating air quality in India became a talking point during US president Barack Obama's recent visit to the Capital. The statistics are certainly grim. For example, Bangalore's air on any given day is as toxic as the smoke from six cigarettes a day while inhaling Delhi air is equivalent to puffing 20 in a day, according to a study by the United Nations Environment Program. Little wonder that sales of air purifiers have shot up. An air purifier is a small portable machine that removes bacteria, virus and particulate matter that can be inhaled. For the same amount of power a ceiling fan uses, it strips the air of major pollutants including dust, pollen, mould, dander and tobacco smoke using various filtration techniques. READ ALSO: Delhi's polluted air may force Obama to stay indoors There's no official scientific study to confirm that air purifiers can provide relief from breathing disorders.

But that hasn't affected sales. Shashank Sinha, senior general manager of marketing at Eureka Forbes, says its sales have been growing 60% to 70% year on year over the past two-three years. Whether scientifically proven or not, consumers are looking for clean air options. Jayati Singh business head, air purifiers, at Philips says that enquiries shot up by 20% over the past six months. Philips launched its range, priced between Rs 15,000 and Rs 49,000, last year. "At present 50% of our buyers are expats but Indians too are exploring this technology," says Singh. Delhi and Bangalore dominate the sales of Philips air purifiers. Sharp air purifiers are priced between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. "We sell 1,100 to 1,200 units a month," says Shuvendu Mazumder, national product manager at Sharp. "We are selling the most in Delhi NCR, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Bangalore and Mumbai. Forty per cent of our sales are to individual customers and of them 70% usually have a sick person at home."

These devices also come in a high-end variant. Vijay Kannan, head of Blueair India, a Swedish brand, says that their product costs between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh. Recently, the US embassy in Delhi purchased 1,800 Blueair purifiers for its staff. Now hotels, too, are offering allergy-free rooms that come equipped with heavy duty air filters. The ITC Maurya in Delhi, for instance, introduced 80 'allergy-free' rooms in 2013. READ ALSO: Traffic curbs may clear the air for Obama on R-Day As Mazumder points out, individual sales are mostly driven by an illness in the family. Vikas Singhal, a Delhi-based executive, purchased an air purifier for Rs 30,000 last October for his asthmatic mother and reported relief in her symptoms. For Barun Aggarwal, a director at the Paharpur Business Centre in Delhi, the reason for buying this machine was his five-year-old son's wheezing and congestion. "Now these symptoms are down. My wife who was prone to winter coughs has also not had an attack since we purchased a purifier two years ago," says Aggarwal.

In the early 1990s, most Indians living in urban areas switched from tap water to purified water. And today the water purifier market in India is worth Rs 3,500 crore, according to Technopak Advisors, a market consultancy firm. Could the air purifier become the next RO? It could depend on how effective these gadgets actually prove to be. While some individual user accounts may be positive, Dr Ashish Jain, senior consultant pulmonologist with Max hospitals in Delhi, says he doesn't recommend air purifiers because there's no study yet conclusively establishing a link between air purifiers and improved respiration. However, he adds: "Considering that the outdoor air is highly polluted - and that affects the indoors as well - one can 'assume' that an air purifier could offer a patient with respiratory issues some relief," says Jain. The problem, say technology experts, is that the filters inside an air purifier cannot trap all the allergens that can cause asthma. A more worrying issue, though, is the use of the ionization filtration technique in certain air purifier brands.