October 9, 2002—Plants at Work, an information campaign created to educate the public about the benefits of interior plants, has pointed to new research that indicates interior plants can decrease office building vulnerability to biological warfare while enhancing worker productivity.
Dr. Bill Wolverton and his aids in the Environmental Research Laboratory at John C. Stennis Space Center have been conducting research on natural air purification processes for nearly 20 years. Wolverton and other NASA scientists, in tandem with Japanese scientists, have discovered that biological plant filtration systems (plants, root microbes and filter media) can actually reduce building vulnerability to biological warfare if harmful agents are released into ventilation ducts in hermetically sealed office buildings.
“Powerful synergistic reactions taking place between plants and their root microbes make these biological systems robust cleaning tools,” says Wolverton.
Additional studies conducted by Dr. Roger Ulrich (Texas A&M University) and Dr. Virginia Lohr (Washington State University) confirm that visual exposure to plant settings has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes while enhancing productivity by 12%.
According to William J. Fisk and Arthur H. Rosenfeld (Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory), U.S. companies could save up to $58 billion per year by eliminating IAQ-related illnesses, and up to $200 billion in employee performance improvements by cleaning up indoor air. Research shows that plant-filled rooms contain 50% to 60% fewer airborne molds and bacteria than rooms without plants.
For more information, contact Plants at Work.
