PARIS: French scientists are studying the effects of various plants on the air people breathe indoors, in work which could point the way to greenery that will have therapeutic as well as decorative functions, members of the two-pronged research effort have said.

The work, by teams at the French national centre for building studies (CSTB) in the western city of Nantes and at a pharmacology faculty in the northern city of Lille, is to look into the way certain plants can absorb the pollutants found in many buildings.

Among the common ailments which may be alleviated, or even prevented, by a judicious choice of indoor greenery, the researchers believe, are headaches, asthma, unnatural fatigue and conjunctivitis.

The teams, who announced their initiative last week, believe that the effects of indoor pollutants — as opposed to the noxious fumes and particles spewed out by vehicles and factories into the outside air — have to date been neglected by scientists.

In addition to tobacco smoke — now theoretically illegal in most indoor work environments in France and a number of other countries — at least 300 volatile substances found inside many buildings are believed to be potential causes of ailments in humans, the researchers say.

This is all the more important in that the average city- dweller in industrialized countries spends some 80 per cent of his or her time indoors.

The French researchers say the departure point of their study is work done in the early 1980’s by William Wolverton, a researcher with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).—AFP