Iran Occupational Health

Background and aims: In this study the effectivness application of conventional apartment ornomental flowers to survay removal capability of five kind of pollutant: aromatic hydrocarbons (Benzene and Toluene), aliphatic hydrocarbons (Octane), halogenated hydrocarbons (Trichloroethylene (TCE)) and tropens (Alpha-Pinene) in indoor ambients was studied.

Methods: At the first, 10 species of ornomental flower were cultured seperatly in pots and then were placed in 10L gas-tight glass jars and exposed to different concentrations of benzene, TCE, toluene, octane, and α-pinene, respectively. Air samples within the glass containers were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy and detector tubes 3 and 6 h after exposure to the test pollutants to determine removal efficiency. The removal efficiency, expressed as µg/m3-m2-h basis for each volatile organic compound (VOC), varied with plant species.

Results: Results show that of the 10 ornomental flower tested, Alternaria, Hedera helix , Tradescantia and Hoya carnosa had the highest removal efficiencies for total VOCs. Alternaria displayed superior removal efficiency for four of the five VOCs (i.e., benzene, TCE, toluene and octane). The average removal of five pollutants with ornomental flower tested were 8-44 µg/m3-m2-h of the total VOCs. Hedra helix efficiently removed Alpha-Pinene. All of the flower tested caused removal of VOCs from indoor ambients.

Conclusion: Different in efficacy of removal with different species ornomental flowers show that, for improvement efficiency of application ornomental flowers for removal of VOCs from indoor ambients, is needed that different species of flowers be planted. This study showed that the use of indoor ornamental flowers is suitable solution for reducing volatile organic contaminants from the indoor ambients.