Originally published November 27 2005
California study claims English ivy could help reduce indoor mold contaminants
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Hilary Spyers-Duran, a nurse practitioner and investigator at West Coast Clinical Trials in California, co-authored an allergy study that found English ivy effectively removed mold particles from indoor atmospheres.
Want a great, green way to clean the air in your house?
A new study by a California teenager suggests that a not-so-usual suspect -- the English ivy plant -- might be just the ticket.
Ryan Kim, the son of an allergy researcher, found that an English ivy plant does a significant job of cleansing the air of mold particles and other nasty particulates, including canine fecal matter.
"This may be a better alternative, and more cost-effective" than an electronic air purifier, said study co-author Hilary Spyers-Duran, a nurse practitioner and investigator at West Coast Clinical Trials in Long Beach, Calif.
But an indoor-pollution specialist is skeptical of the plant-as-air-cleaner approach.
He suggested that concerned residents try an old-fashioned method: ridding the house beforehand of contaminants that make the air dirty.
Some house plants, including English ivy, have been touted for their air-cleaning properties.
The younger Kim put moldy bread and dog feces in individual containers and measured how many particles spread into the air.
The study findings were released this week at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Anaheim, Calif.
The soil that feeds a plant also sends out its own potentially dangerous microbes and waste products, noted Jeffrey Siegel, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Siegel, who specializes in indoor air quality, recommends that residents combat indoor pollution by getting rid of sources within the home.
He doesn't recommend the use of ionizing air purifiers, which some researchers suspect actually boost levels of the pollutant ozone.
In another study released at the allergy conference, researchers at West Coast Clinical Trials found that the Honeywell HEPA purifier did the best job out of three purifiers tested.
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