You've heard it before. "Get a plant to help improve your indoor air quality!" You've seen it on Instagram, you've heard it from that 1989 NASA study that says that certain plants help remove chemicals from the air. But do plants REALLY "purify" the air?
It's true that there are plants that do help a little bit on terms of removing carbon dioxide in the air. But a lot of the harmful stuff in the air can't be absorbed my plants, like particulate matter...a mix of solid and liquid droplets that come from cooking and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), not to mention nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde, which are all typical indoor air pollutants. In a nutshell, because there is no air moving THROUGH the plants particulate matter can't be captured by plants.
Pretty much everything we do indoors, except just sitting around, produces contaminants in our home which affect our indoor air quality. Your best bet to combat this is to do things like turning on the range hood vent when cooking, cleaning regularly and opening windows to help move the air around. See more ideas to improve your indoor air quality here.