(NaturalNews) According to the EPA, air pollution indoors is often two to five times worse than it is outside.

In extreme cases, air pollution inside can be a hundred times worse than outside. The reason is partly because numerous chemicals, like cleaning supplies, hair sprays and perfumes, are used inside the home. Another part of the problem is that many items inside our homes and materials used in home construction are notorious for letting off poisonous gasses - for years. Carpets, shower curtains, paints, upholstery, plywood, particle board, cabinets, computers, and synthetic materials all let off poisonous gasses and chemicals. Because most homes are well insulated, it leaves those poisons trapped inside for us to breathe. However, there's a solution and as with most problems, the solution comes from nature - and not from a chemical company. NASA studies show that having ample plants indoors can detoxify up to 85 percent of indoor air pollution. Acting like a filter for the air, some plants mop up formaldehyde. Others remove benzene, carbon monoxide, and trichloroethylene. Unfortunately, all of these chemicals are common in the air of most homes. If you're wondering how the air inside your home became quite so toxic, have a look at some sources of common chemicals. Indoor Air Pollution: Common Culprits Formaldehyde is used in plywood, particle board and glues; it's found in most cabinets, carpets and walls. Formaldehyde is regularly brought into homes in grocery bags; it's even in some tissues and paper towels. Formaldehyde is also released in cigarette smoke and from fuel burning appliances. In the garage and into homes with attached garages, formaldehyde is released from tailpipe emissions. Formaldehyde is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a human carcinogen, meaning that it causes cancer. Benzene is a petrochemical; it's used in detergents, latex paints, oils, foams, dyes and rubber. It's common in building materials, exhaust fumes, and especially in cigarette smoke. Benzene is even found in some pharmaceuticals and it's known to induce leukemia. Trichloroethylene is found in paints, lacquers, carpet shampoos, spot removers and adhesives. It's also used in dry cleaning, although this is becoming less so. Since trichloroethylene has contaminated some of the water supply, it can also enter the air of your home from shower vapors. Trichloroethylene is a central nervous system depressant. Carbon monoxide is found in homes with gas stoves, and it's regularly found in high concentrations with worn or poorly maintained furnaces. Carbon monoxide also enters homes with attached garages from car exhaust. In high levels, carbon monoxide can cause sudden death. Indoor Air Pollution: Plants to Remove It Some of the best plants to remove these dangerous chemicals from the air in your home include: Palms: especially Areca, Bamboo and Dwarf Date Palms Ferns: especially the Boston Fern English Ivy Peace lily Mums and daisies: including Gerbera daisies Spider plants Dracaenas It's also important to open the windows and doors of your home, daily if possible, to allow fresh air to circulate in. As a bonus, having plants inside adds oxygen to the air you're breathing, and having plants inside is even known to decrease the stress levels of the inhabitants.

he air we breathe leaves much to be desired. Coal plants belch harmful CO2, 18-wheelers spew filthy exhaust and cows add methane to the mix. Sometimes just looking out your window at all the pollution may be enough to make you shun the outdoors. But what's inside may be even worse. Indoor air pollution, the degradation of indoor air quality by harmful chemicals and other materials, can be up to 10 times worse than outdoor air pollution [source: Dunn]. This is because contained areas enable potential pollutants to build up more than open spaces do. You can easily visualize this if you think about dumping a gallon of oil into the ocean versus dumping a gallon into your bathtub. The oil in the ocean will dissipate and be diluted within the massive volume of water. That same oil in your bathtub will linger because it has nowhere else to go. The same thing happens with pollutants released into a small enclosed area, like your home or office. You may think indoor air pollution doesn't apply to you. After all, you live nowhere near a highway, farm or industrial plant. You don't smoke and you don't use a wood-burning stove. But indoor air pollution comes from some places you wouldn't normally think of, like your house, the land it's sitting on and everyday items you can purchase at the store. In addition, if you consider that people spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, and around 65 percent inside their homes in particular, you can see why indoor air pollution is an important issue [source: Dunn]. Some of the side effects caused by indoor air pollution are little worse than those of the common cold, but long-term exposure can lead to a coma, lung cancer, and death. Got your attention, yet? Learn more about some of the causes of indoor air pollution next.
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION METERS

Human beings love tests, and to satisfy that craving, indoor air pollution meters on the market claim to measure the levels of pollutants in your home. One of these is TerrEssentials' Home Air Quality Test Kit, which tests for the presence of mold, fungus, bacteria, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. You also can have professionals do the testing for you.

Particulate matter is an airborne mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets. The solid particles come in numerous shapes and sizes and may be composed of different chemical components. Fine particles measure 2.5 microns or less in size (approximately 1/30th the diameter of a human hair) and can penetrate deep into the bodys respiratory system. Coarse particles fall between 2.5 and 10 microns in diameter. These larger particles can also enter the respiratory system and can be produced indoors through activities such as cooking and dusting. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates outdoor levels of fine particle pollution, but does not have a standard for coarse particle pollution. There are no regulations for indoor pollution. For the study, researchers from the Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environmenta joint center of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicinefollowed 150 asthmatic children, ages 2 to 6, for six months. Environmental monitoring equipment was used to measure the air in the childs bedroom for over three three-day intervals. Air measurements were taken at the beginning of the study, after 3 months and again after 6 months. Ninety-one percent of the children who participated in the study were African-American, from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and spent most of their time indoors. We found that substantial increases in asthma symptoms were associated both with higher indoor concentrations of fine particles and with higher indoor concentrations of coarse particles, said Meredith C. McCormack, MD, MHS, lead author of the study and an instructor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. For every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) increase in indoor coarse particle concentration, there was a 6 percent increase in the number of days of cough, wheeze, or chest tightness, after adjusting for a number of factors. For every 10 ug/m3 increase in fine particles measured indoors, there was a 7 percent increase in days of wheezing severe enough to limit speech and after adjusting for various factors, a 4 percent increase in days on which rescue medication was needed. In many cases, the level of indoor fine particle pollution measured was twice as high as the accepted standard for outdoor pollution established by the EPA. Children spend nearly 80 percent of their time indoors, which makes understanding the effects of indoor air very important, said co-author, Gregory B. Diette, MD, an associate professor in the School of Medicine and co-director of the Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment. Improving indoor air quality and lowering indoor particulate matter concentrations may provide additional means of improving asthma health, especially for children living in inner cities, added co-author, Patrick Breysse, PhD, a professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-director of the Center for Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment. The research was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institutes of Health; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; and the Johns Hopkins NIEHS Center for Urban Environmental Health.