Simple Solution to Indoor Air Pollution–
Scientific Method
Observe our environment. Wherever you go, whenever you breathe, even at your home, office or school you have no escape with pollution-one of the effect of continuous climate changed. As our world modernized our environment condition even became worse. Imagine the world before modern technology was discovered. Pollution is perhaps most harmful at an often unrecognized site–inside the homes and buildings where we spend most of our time. Indoor pollutants include tobacco smoke; radon, an invisible radioactive gas that enters homes from the ground in some regions; and chemicals released from synthetic carpets and furniture, pesticides, and household cleaners. When disturbed, asbestos, a nonflammable material once commonly used in insulation, sheds airborne fibers that can produce a lung disease called asbestosis.
Pollutants may accumulate to reach much higher levels than they do outside, where natural air currents disperse them. Indoor air levels of many pollutants may be 2 to 5 times, and occasionally more than 100 times, higher than outdoor levels. These levels of indoor air pollutants are especially harmful because people spend as much as 90 percent of their time living, working, and playing indoors. Inefficient or improperly vented heaters are particularly dangerous.
Asbestos (Greek a-,“not”; sbestos, “extinguishable”), the fibrous form of several minerals and hydrous silicates of magnesium. The name may also be applied to the fibrous forms of calcium and iron. Asbestos fibers can be molded or woven into various fabrics. Because it is nonflammable and a poor heat conductor, asbestos has been widely used to make fireproof products such as safety clothing for fire fighters and insulation products such as hot-water piping. The first recorded use of the word asbestos is by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century ad, although the substance itself was known as early as the 2nd century bc. The Romans made cremation cloths and wicks from it, and centuries later Marco Polo noted its usefulness as cloth.
Asbestos is of two principal classes, the amphiboles and the serpentines, the former of relatively minor importance. Chrysotile, in the serpentine class, constitutes about 95 percent of the world supply of asbestos, of which three-fourths is mined in Québec. Other large deposits exist in South Africa. In the United States, California, Vermont, and Arizona are the leading asbestos-producing states; however, the majority of United States deposits are of no commercial value.
Asbestos is obtainable by various underground mining methods, but the most common method is open-pit mining. Only about 6 percent of the mined ore contains usable fibers.
The fibers are separated from the ore by crushing, air suction, and vibrating screens, and in the process are sorted into different lengths, or grades. The most widely used method of grading, the Québec Standard Test Method, divides the fibers into seven groups, the longest in group one and the shortest, called milled asbestos, in group seven. The length of the fibers, as well as the chemical composition of the ore, determines the kind of product that can be made from the asbestos. The longer fibers have been used in fabrics, commonly with cotton or rayon, and the shorter ones for molded goods, such as pipes and gaskets.
Asbestos has been used in building-construction materials, textiles, missile and jet parts, asphalt and caulking compounds and paints, and in friction products such as brake linings. Exposure to asbestos fibers and dust, however, can cause asbestosis, a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of asbestos particles, and, after a latent period of up to 30 years and more, various cancers, especially lung cancer and mesothelioma, which is an inoperable cancer of the chest and abdominal lining (see Occupational and Environmental Diseases). At present no wholly satisfactory substitutes are available for asbestos in many of its applications; because of health risks posed by asbestos use, however, research into replacements has been accelerated. In 1986 the Environmental Protection Agency proposed an immediate ban on the major uses of asbestos and a complete ban on all asbestos products within the next decade. This proposal was partially overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which limited the ban to asbestos flooring and new products using asbestos.
Problem: Indoor Air Pollution
How can we solve the threatening effect of one of the biggest problem of the whole world-air pollution? We maybe thinking of modern machinery but chances are we are not thinking for the most accurate solution-our nature.
Data: Bill Wolverton, author of HOW TO GROW FRESH AIR, worked for almost 20 years for NASA, and through his pioneering research he discovered that houseplants are the quickest and most effective filters of common dangerous air pollutants.
Major Air Pollutants
Sources of major air pollutants include individual actions, such as driving a car, and industrial activities, such as manufacturing products or generating electricity. Note: 1 cubic meter (1m3) is equal to 35.3 cu ft; 1 milligram (1 mg) is equal to 0.00004 oz; 1 microgram (1µg) is equal to 0.00000004 oz.
| Pollutant | Major Sources | Notes |
| Carbon monoxide (CO) | Motor-vehicle exhaust; some industrial processes | Health standard: 10 mg/m3 (9 ppm) over 8 hr; 40 mg/m3 over 1 hr (35 ppm) |
| Sulfur dioxide (SO2) | Heat and power generation facilities that use oil or coal containing sulfur; sulfuric acid plants | Health standard: 80 µg/m3 (0.03 ppm) over a year; 365 µg/m3 over 24 hr (0.14 ppm) |
| Particulate matter | Motor-vehicle exhaust; industrial processes; refuse incineration; heat and power generation; reaction of pollution gases in the atmosphere | Health standard: 50 µg/m3 over a year; 150 µg/m3 over 24 hr; composed of carbon, nitrates, sulfates, and many metals including lead, copper, iron, and zinc |
| Lead (Pb) | Motor-vehicle exhaust; lead smelters; battery plants | Health standard: 1.5 µg/m3 over 3 months |
| Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) | Motor-vehicle exhaust; heat and power generation; nitric acid; explosives; fertilizer plants | Health standard: 100 µg/m3 (0.05 ppm) over a year; reacts with hydrocarbons and sunlight to form photochemical oxidants |
| Ozone (O3) | Formed in the atmosphere by reaction of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and sunlight | Health standard: 235 µg/m3 (0.12 ppm) over 1 hr |
Based on Wolverton’s experiment which is placing houseplants in sealed chambers and exposing them to hundreds of chemicals have result to the discovery that plants suck chemicals out of the air. They have also revealed the mystery of how plants can act as lungs and kidneys of buildings. There are two ways to indoor air; 1. They (plants) absorb pollutants into their leaves and transmit the toxins to their roots, where these are transformed into sources of foods for plants. 2. They emit water vapors that create a pumping action to pull dirty air down around the roots, where it is converted into food for plant.
According to Bob Phalen, director of the Air pollution Health Effects Laboratory at the University of California, “plants decrease gaseous air pollutants into air, such as ammonia.” Research also shows that plant-filled rooms contain 50%-60% fewer airborne molds and bacteria than rooms without plants.
Mold (fungi), fuzzy, cobweblike growth produced on organic matter by several types of fungi. Mold and mildew are commonly used interchangeably, although mold is often applied to black, blue, green, and red fungal growths, and mildew to whitish growths.
Black bread mold, Aspergillus niger, one of the most familiar molds, begins as a microscopic, airborne spore that germinates on contact with the moist surface of nonliving organic matter. It spreads rapidly, forming the mycelium (fungal body), which is made up of a fine network of filaments (hyphae). The mycelium produces other clusters of rootlike hyphae, called rhizoids, which penetrate the organic material, secreting enzymes and absorbing water and the digested sugars and starches. Other clusters of hyphae called sporangiophores then reach upward, forming sporangia (knoblike spore cases), which bear the particular color of the mold species. Upon ripening, the sporangia break open and the windborne spores land elsewhere to reproduce asexually.
Some molds also reproduce sexually through conjugation of gamete cells by the joining of two specialized hyphae. The resulting zygote matures into a zygospore that germinates after a dormant period.
Molds thrive on a great many organic substances and, provided with sufficient moisture, they rapidly disintegrate wood, paper, and leather. In fruit the enzymes penetrate well behind the area of the visible growths to damage the fruit. Besides being destructive, however, molds also have many industrial uses, such as in the fermentation of organic acids and cheeses. Camembert and Roquefort cheeses, for example, gain their particular flavors from the enzymes of Penicillium camemberti and P. roqueforti, respectively. Penicillin, a product of the green mold P. notatum, revolutionized antibiotic drugs after its discovery in 1929, and the red bread mold Neurospora is an important tool in genetic experiments.
Bacteria are one-celled organisms visible only through a microscope. Bacteria live all around us and within us. The air is filled with bacteria, and they have even entered outer space in spacecraft. Bacteria live in the deepest parts of the ocean and deep within Earth. They are in the soil, in our food, and on plants and animals. Even our bodies are home to many different kinds of bacteria. Our lives are closely intertwined with theirs, and the health of our planet depends very much on their activities.
Bacterial cells are so small that scientists measure them in units called micrometers (µm). One micrometer equals a millionth of a meter (0.0000001 m or about 0.000039 in), and an average bacterium is about one micrometer long. Hundreds of thousands of bacteria would fit on a rounded dot made by a pencil.
Bacteria lack a true nucleus, a feature that distinguishes them from plant and animal cells. In plants and animals the saclike nucleus carries genetic material in the form of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Bacteria also have DNA but it floats within the cell, usually in a loop or coil. A tough but resilient protective shell surrounds the bacterial cell.
Biologists classify all life forms as either prokaryotes or eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are simple, single-celled organisms like bacteria. They lack a defined nucleus of the sort found in plant and animal cells. More complex organisms, including all plants and animals, whose cells have a nucleus, belong to the group called eukaryotes. The word prokaryote comes from Greek words meaning “before nucleus”; eukaryote comes from Greek words for “true nucleus.”
Bacteria inhabited Earth long before human beings or other living things appeared. The earliest bacteria that scientists have discovered, in fossil remains in rocks, probably lived about 3.5 billion years ago. These early bacteria inhabited a harsh world: It was extremely hot, with high levels of ultraviolet radiation from the sun and with no oxygen to breathe.
Descendents of the bacteria that inhabited a primitive Earth are still with us today. Most have changed and would no longer be able to survive the harshness of Earth’s early environment. Yet others have not changed so much. Some bacteria today are able to grow at temperatures higher than the boiling point of water, 100oC (212oF). These bacteria live deep in the ocean or within Earth. Other bacteria cannot stand contact with oxygen gas and can live only in oxygen-free environments—in our intestines, for example, or in the ooze at the bottom of swamps, bogs, or other wetlands. Still others are resistant to radiation. Bacteria are truly remarkable in terms of their adaptations to extreme environments and their abilities to survive and thrive in parts of Earth that are inhospitable to other forms of life. Anywhere there is life, it includes bacterial life.
Anatomy of a Simple Bacterium
Bacteria cells typically are surrounded by a rigid, protective cell wall. The cell membrane, also called the plasma membrane, regulates passage of materials into and out of the cytoplasm, the semi-fluid that fills the cell. The DNA, located in the nucleoid region, contains the genetic information for the cell. Ribosomes carry out protein synthesis. Many baceteria contain a pilus (plural pili), a structure that extends out of the cell to transfer DNA to another bacterium. The flagellum, found in numerous species, is used for locomotion. Some bacteria contain a plasmid, a small chromososme with extra genes. Others have a capsule, a sticky substance external to the cell wall that protects bacteria from attack by white blood cells. Mesosomes were formerly thought to be structures with unknown functions, but now are know to be artifacts created when cells are prepared for viewing with electron microscopes.
Bacteria That Cause Human Disease
Only a small fraction of the thousands of species of bacteria on the earth cause disease in humans. Bacterial infection can be prevented by killing bacteria with heat, as in sterilization and pasteurization. If a bacterial infection does occur, doctors may treat it with antibiotics. However, overuse of antibiotics in recent years has enabled the development of strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis.
| Bacterium | Disease |
| Bacillus | |
| Bacillus anthracis | Anthrax |
| Bacillus cereus | B. cereus food poisoning |
| Clostridium botulinum | Botulism |
| Clostridium perfringens | Clostridial myonecrosis (gas gangrene) |
| Clostridium tetani | Tetanus (lockjaw) |
| Corynebacterium diphtheriae | Diphtheria |
| Escherichia coli | Diarrhea |
| Klebsiella pneumoniae | Bronchopneumonia |
| Legionella pneumophila | Legionnaire’s disease |
| Mycobacterium leprae | Leprosy |
| Mycobacterium tuberculosis | Tuberculosis |
| Salmonella species | Salmonella |
| Salmonella typhi | Typhoid fever |
| Salmonella typhimurium | Salmonella gastroenteritis |
| Shigella dysenteriae | Bacillary dysentery |
| Shigella species | Shigellosis |
| Yersinia enterocolitica | Yersiniosis, gastroenteritis |
| Yersinia pestis | Plague |
| Yersinia pseudotuberculosis | Mesenteric lymphadenitis |
| Chlamydia | |
| Chlamydia trachomatis | Trachoma, urethritis, cervicitis, conjunctivitis |
| Coccobacillus | |
| Bordetella pertussis | Pertussis (whooping cough) |
| Brucella species | Undulant fever |
| Hemophilus influenzae | Meningitis, bacterial pneumonia |
| Hemophilus pertussis | Pertussis (whooping cough) |
| Coccus | |
| Neisseria gonorrhoeae | Gonorrhea, pelvic inflammatory disease |
| Neisseria meningitidis | Meningitis |
| Staphylococcus aureus | Pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome, skin infections, meningitis |
| Streptococcus pneumoniae | Pneumonia, ear infections, meningitis |
| Streptococcus pyogenes | Strep throat, rheumatic fever |
| Streptococcus species | Scarlet fever, puerperal fever |
| Listeria | |
| Listeria monocytogenes | Listeriosis, perinatal septicemia, meningitis, encephalitis, intrauterine infections |
| Mycoplasma | |
| Mycoplasma pneumoniae | Pneumonia |
| Rickettsia | |
| Rickettsia prowazekii | Epidemic typhus, Brill-Zinsser disease (spread by lice) |
| Rickettsia rickettsii | Rocky Mountain spotted fever (spread by ticks) |
| Rickettsia typhi | Endemic typhus (murine typhus, spread by rat fleas) |
| Spirillus | |
| Campylobacter fetus jejuni | Campylobacteriosis (bacterial diarrheal illness) |
| Spirillum minor | Rat-bite fever |
| Spirochete | |
| Treponema pallidum | Syphilis |
| Vibrio | |
| Aeromonas hydrophila | Gastroenteritis, septicemia, cellulitis, wound infections, urinary tract infections |
| Plesiomonas shigelloides | Gastroenteritis, diarrhea |
| Vibrio cholerae 01 | Epidemic cholera |
| Vibrio cholerae non-01 | Gastroenteritis |
| Vibrio parahemolyticus | V. parahemolyticus-associated gastroenteritis |
| Vibrio vulnificus | Wound infections, gastroenteritis, primary septicemia |
Hypothesis: “Plants can act as the lungs and kidney of a building.” Plants purify the air resulting to a fresher air to breathe.
Experiment: Plants are placed into different areas inside the house and even at the front of my auntie’s store. There are plants placed inside my room near the bed (the closer the plant is to you the better). There are also plants placed in the living room and in the terrace of the house.
After some time, I have observed the difference even my mother and brother do noticed the changed in the air we breathe. We can feel the fresh air. My cousin who has asthma also notices that our house is a good placed to stay in for it has fresher air than their house. Costumers of my auntie also remarks on how fresh the air whenever they walk in or whenever they stay there.
Conclusion: I therefore conclude that plants are great solution to indoor air pollution. Plants take all the dirty toxins and carbon dioxide out of the air we breathe, thus producing a purified, fresh and safe air to breathe. Thus since it reduces molds and bacteria into the air it is also applicable for people who are sensitive to dust and mold covers.
Sources:
- Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
- Health & Home ( Face of Freshness)
