Put Plants Around the Place
by Phillip Day

Plants are good for you - official.

· Not for nothing is gardening one of the more popular pastimes. The reason? Relaxation, reflection and worms
· Caring for plants (the caring's the important bit) causes us to project outside ourselves, drags us out of our self-obsessive problems to focus on another carbon-based organic life-form's struggle for survival
· Plants filter pollutants given off by modern, synthetic materials used in homes and offices. Emissions of formaldehyde, benzene, hexane, xylene, toluene and ammonia have all been found to reduce in the presence of healthy greenery, some by up to 100% in 24 hours in a closed environment
· Dr Joseph Mercola reports: 'NASA scientists... found houseplants can actually extract volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from the air. According to one study, one six-inch houseplant per 100 square feet of indoor area acts as a decent filter for the air, and another U.S. government study found that 15 to 18 houseplants in six- to eight-inch containers helps improve the air quality in an 1,800-square-foot house'
· In designing a breathable environment for a NASA lunar habitat, Dr B C Wolverton discovered that toxic chemicals in closed, indoor environments with poor ventilation often triggered 'Sick Building Syndrome', featuring a host of respiratory and allergic reactions. These could often be relieved by purifying the environment with any one of 50 house plants noted for their filtration abilities
· In their book, The Secret Life of Plants, authors Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird go a quantum leap further in reporting the experiments conducted by CIA scientist Cleve Backster into the 'Backster Effect' - how plants respond to human emotions, both positive and negative. Richard Klein, Professor of Botany at Vermont University, remarks: 'Plants and men do interrelate, with plants exhibiting empathetic and spiritual relationships and showing reactions interpreted as demonstrating physical-force connections with men. As my students say, 'Wow!''

Yes, well, put plants around the place.