David Pogue's TED2009 roundup

New York Times columnist David Pogue has a nice roundup of some of the talks from TED2009, which was held in Long Beach, Calif. last week.

Kamal Meattle reported the results of his efforts to fill an office building with plants, in an effort to reduce headache, asthma, and other productivity-sapping aliments in thickly polluted India. After researching NASA documents, he concluded that a set of three particular common, waist-high houseplants—areca palm, Mother-in-Law’s Tongue, and Money Plant—could be combined to scrub the air of carbon dioxide, formaldehyde and other pollutants.

At about four plants per occupant (1200 plants in all), the building’s air freshened considerably, and the health and productivity results were staggering. Eye irritation dropped by 52 percent, lower respiratory symptoms by 34 percent, headaches by 24 percent and asthma by 9 percent. There were fewer sick days, employee productivity increased, and energy costs dropped by 15 percent.

Next stop: a larger-scale experiment in a 1.75-million-square-foot office tower, featuring over 60,000 plants.

TED’s Greatest Hits

• [Robbo]

  We always had spider plants hanging all through our puppet shop to help soak up the glue fumes. It wasn’t perfect but it did help. We also made sure we had specially ventilated rooms and masks to work with – but the plants made the whole thing liveable.

• [frankieboy]

  I bet just about anyone would look groovy and knowledgeable with that radiating design on their picture! Black turtleneck, casual yet thoughtful and frank gaze at the viewer. A deep low buzzing sound would totally complete the effect. Massive brainpower illustrated!

• [codekitchen]

  I have a cat and a dog, and seeing how many of these plants appear to be toxic to both, I’m wondering if there are alternatives with most or all of the benefit but without the animal toxicity.

• [Anonymous]

  Air is the most important element of human environment. Man can’t live a single moments without air. But we don’t think that it is we who pollute this most vital element. Clean air is essential for life. Air is polluted in many ways. Smoke pollutes air. Man makes fires to cook his food.To make bricks burns refuse, melts pitch for road construction and burns wood. All these things produce heavy smoke and this smoke pollutes air. Railway engies, power houses, mills and factories use coal and oil. buses, tucks and cars use petrol and diesel oil. Again all these things create smoke and cause air pollution. The most serious air pollution occurs in big industrial areas where there are many mills and factories. serious air pollution also occurs in big cities where there are many buses, trucks and cars plying the street everyday. Sometimes men in big industrial area become so sick by inhaling polluted air that they cannot be cued. So proper measures and steps should be taken to prevent air pollution.

• [Avi Solomon]

  The original NASA report is here:

  Wolverton, B. C., A. Johnson and K. Bounds, “Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement,” NASA/ALCA Final Report, Plants for Clean Air Council, Davidsonville, Maryland, 1989

  http://www.scribd.com/doc/1837156/NASA-Indoor-Plants

  The Rubber plant is also a good low-maintenance choice for better indoor air quality.

• [Takuan]

  interesting. Do the toxins concentrate in the pot’s soil?

• [teletypeturtle]

  Followup to Avi:

  Dr. Wolverton also published more than one consumer book on this research. This one @ Amazon contains not just three, but information on 50 houseplants that can improve your indoor air.

  http://www.amazon.com/How-Grow-Fresh-Air-Plants/dp/0140262431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234413026&sr=1-1

• [teletypeturtle]

  Followup to Avi:

  Dr. Wolverton also published more than one consumer book on this research. This one @ Amazon contains not just three, but information on 50 houseplants that can improve your indoor air.

  http://www.amazon.com/How-Grow-Fresh-Air-Plants/dp/0140262431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234413026&sr=1-1

• [ornith]

  Hmm, I think I should look into whether those plants are cat-safe; if they are, I’m putting some in my new apartment.

• [ornith]

  And the answer is areca palm is safe for pets but the other two are dangerous. (Also, what he’s calling money plant isn’t the one with the white translucent disc leaves many people know by that name.) Four waist high plants is an awful lot to have in a studio apartment, though – seems like what you gain in air quality you lose in space. Unless he’s talking about a much bigger room – I wish there were a plants/area calculation in this someplace.

• [skatanic]

  I really wish i could have watched Jennifer Mather’s talk but i can’t seem to find it on TED’s site.

• [Aloisius]

  I’m sorry, but that office plant experiment seems completely useless.

  There was no control and only one building tested!

  It could have been the age of the building, the ventilation system, the lifestyles of the people working in the building, the location of the building, the type of perfume people who work there wear, the type of foods they eat or the frequency people dust or a million other things.