Kamal Meattle is an Indian
environmental activist
The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...
and CEO o
Paharpur Business Centre& Software Technology Incubator Park based in
New Delhi
New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Meattle held a talk at
TED 2009 entitled ''How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air''.
Attributions
After becoming allergic to New Delhi's polluted air in 1992, Meattle claimed to have discovered that three common houseplants could help reduce the pollutants in the air. The three plants and their properties are listed below:
Areca palm Areca palm is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
*''Areca'', a genus of palms
*''Dypsis lutescens'', a palm which is a popular houseplant
*''Areca catechu
''Areca catechu'' is a species of palm native to the Philippines culti ...
(''Chrysalidocarpus lutescens'')
*Works well in the day time
*Great for living areas
*One needs about 4 shoulder-high plants/person
*Needs to be put outdoors once every 3–4 months
*The leaves of the plant need to be wiped every day in Delhi and perhaps once a week in a cleaner city
*The soil used should be of
vermi manure or use
hydroponics
Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of #Passive sub-irrigation, hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral Plant nutrition, nutrient Solution (chemi ...
Mother-in-law's tongue (''Sansevieria trifasciata'')
*Converts CO
2 into O
2 at night
*One requires about 6–8 such waist-high plants per person in the bedroom
*Leaves need to be wiped in the same way as the Areca Palm
*The soil used should be of
vermi manure or use
hydroponics
Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of #Passive sub-irrigation, hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral Plant nutrition, nutrient Solution (chemi ...
Money plant Money plant may refer to several species, including:
See also
* Money tree (disambiguation), Money tree
{{Plant common name ...
(''Epipremnum aureum'')
*Excellent for removing
formaldehyde
Formaldehyde ( , ) (systematic name methanal) is an organic compound with the chemical formula and structure , more precisely . The compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde. It is stored as ...
and other
volatile organic compound
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic compounds that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. They are common and exist in a variety of settings and products, not limited to Indoor mold, house mold, Upholstery, upholstered furnitur ...
s
*Best grown using
hydroponics
Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of #Passive sub-irrigation, hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral Plant nutrition, nutrient Solution (chemi ...
Meattle does not provide any numerical data to support his claims, nor is there third-party confirmation of the results, but at least one study calls the hypothesis into question.
See also
*
NASA Clean Air Study
The NASA Clean Air Study was a project led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in association with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) in 1989, to research ways to clean the air in sealed environments su ...
, where all three plants are listed
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meattle, Kamal
Businesspeople from Delhi
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)