PLANTS PROMOTE HEALTH?

Many people failed to realize the importance of plants in our environment: thereby paid nonchalant attitude to the health benefit in plants. Quite unlike what many people may think, having an office well beautified with plants is very beneficial. Plants in office apart from creating a colorful working environment can give a feeling of well-being and create a lively and clean atmosphere. They are useful for a positive mood to keep some diseases at bay and help to overcome stress .Health is Life

Researchers led by Adjunct Professor Margret Burchett at the University of Technology, Sydney, found that indoor potted plants help improve the air quality rooms with little or no airflow  by reducing level of volatile organic compounds (V.O.C’s).

VOCs include compounds such as benzene and hexane, and are known to toxic to humans at high levels. They are present at low level in many indoor environments. Some, like benzene, make their way inside buildings through pollution from traffic outlet. Others are present as a result of their use in paints, carpeting and furniture fabric, especially in new or recently refurbished buildings.

These scientists found that indoor plants reduce VOCs by up to 100% over 24 hours in a closed environment. Health Matters

According to Dr. Stephen Brown of CSIRO “Built Environment, VOCs can contribute to “sick building syndrome”-a phenomenon in which a higher proportion of occupants experience symptoms such as dry eyes, dry noise and throat, headache, lethargy and nausea. Health Is Life

A dry noise or throat does not only negatively affect general well-being but also results in the body having lesser ability to shield itself  against bacterial and viruses.

According to Prof. Burchett, “indoor air is likely to be seven time more polluted than outdoor air because indoor air is stale and it accumulates with or without air conditioning”.

“It was a clear indication that it was the micro organisms exist in a symbolic relationship with the plants   providing the plants with inorganic nutrients from the soil  and in return  receiving other nutrients from the plant via the roots”. Prof. Burchett said.

Having plants in the workplace can reduce stress and increase air quality. Virginia Lahr and her colleagues at The Department of Horticulture and Landscape architecture , Washington State University studied the benefit of adding plants to a windowless workplace, in this instance a college computer laboratory. They reported that “when plant were added to this interior space , the participants were more productive. Immediately after completing the task, participants in the room with plants present reported feeling more attentive than people in the room with no plants”

Helen Russell’s M.Sc dissertation  “The effect of interior planting on stress”  carried out at Surrey  University, UK, also shows evidence of plants helping to reduce stress. In her study, she found that in an office with plants not only were stress levels lower, but people recovered from their stress more quickly than in offices   without plants

Though the effect of plants on stress may be small and not apparent in those situations where the task performed is less complex, or even boring the soothing effects of the plants may be more noticeable and have a greater effect on the people doing the task.

That plants can permanently reduce the number of time one falls ill was substantiated by a study even done in an hospital environment. In one Norwegian hospital, absence due to illness fell from 15 per cent to 5 per cent when plats were introduced into the workplace. This is a 66 per cent reduction

Recent research undertaken by NASA space administration in America yielded some very interesting results and showed that plants do more than just enhance the beauty of your surroundings but do actually clear pollutants out of the air as the add oxygen and humidity to the indoor environment.

In  a test which lasted almost two years and conducted by Dr. B.C. Wolverton at the Stennis Space Centre in Mississippi, it was discovered that common house plant are capable of converting chemical air pollutants into harmless substances. Ivy one of the smallest of house plants does an excellent job of clearing  the air of toxins, especially benzene and TCE

The more carbon dioxide in the air the more tired and restless we become. However, where there are plants, the carbon dioxide can easily be aborted. However, the leaf surface a plant has s, the more effective  it can absorb carbon dioxide. It is not the size of the single leaf ,but the whole leaf surface of the plant that matters.

Dr. Funsho Onofolukan a medical practitioner in Ibadan said there is no doubt plants help to lift the mood of some individuals and help them remain bright  According to him, those that appreciate nature and color do it to lift there mood and looking at it from this positive perceptive, makes it a good habit to cultivate. “It is more of a psychological effect in the sense that when you are in a serene environment, say in a garden, it makes you feel happy “declared Prof. Jonathan Lawoyin, a consultant dental surgeon at the  University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan  Nigeria.

However, he said to people who may be spiritually inclined, plants connote a different thing because to them everything in the physical also has spiritual connotation and effect.

Since plants give out oxygen and utilize carbon dioxide and so in a way make the environment cleaner, Prof. Gbemi Oke, Dean, Faculty of Dentistry, UCH, Ibadan Nigeria assures that living or working in such an environment with plants will have a pacifying and pleasant effect as well as create a tranquillizing atmosphere to relax more.