Safer air for the kids? Grow more houseplants

If the government can’t protect schools from pollution, we’ll have to do it ourselves – with help from Mother Nature

When was it, maybe two weeks ago? I was just about clinging on to sanity’s rigging amid the daily tempest of trauma that has become my family’s morning routine. My 11-year-old was fuming loudly because I hadn’t bought her any croissants (what have we become?!), the dog was expressing his fear-anxiety about the postman, my husband was losing his shit at the toast he had just burned, my 10-year-old was punting a rugby ball through the kitchen air (the tinny hi-hats of the latest indistinguishable mumble-rap track playing on his portable speakers) and John Humphrys had the hump about something.

On this occasion, it was the air quality in inner-city classrooms, which, to be fair, is a legitimate thing to grump on about, even if it was with that tone of pantomime incredulity he employs. (NB: what follows is a very vague estimation of a memory that is most likely wrong in the first place.) “Surely there’s something we can do to improve the air our children are breathing,” harrumphs Humph. “Plants?” I suggest to the radio. “Well, yes, there are things we can do,” says the air-quality expert. “Plants,” I say again (I’m certain she’s going to say “plants”). “We can fit classrooms with air purifiers that mechanically remove more than 99.97% of air contaminants.” And plants, surely? “Very interesting,” says Humph, content no further investigation is required. And that’s that.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2WcQD5m