The Effect of Indoor Plants on Indoor Air Quality in Child Care Centers

BACKGROUND: In the modern settings, air quality is critical to children’s health. Preschool education has a significant impact on children’s health, which is determined by child care centers' compliance with sanitary and epidemiological regulations and established hygienic standards. According to Russian and international studies, low air quality, poor microclimate, and reduced comfort in indoor environments caused by carbon dioxide have a negative impact on children's functional status. This reduces functional capacity and cognitive performance while also compromising the immune system, which significantly increases the risk of morbidity in children. Notably, there are currently no standards for carbon dioxide (CO2) levels; as a result, it is a risk factor in institutions where children are housed both temporarily and regularly. AIM: To evaluate the use of indoor plants to improve indoor air quality in child care centers. METHODS: Microclimatic indicators and air quality were monitored in two playrooms of the Raduga combined-type kindergarten. A specific type of indoor plants was used; the selected plants were safe and harmless to children, with proven antibacterial, air-sanitizing, and gas-absorbing properties. EClerk-Eco-RHTC devices (Novosibirsk, Russia) were installed in the observation and control groups to continuously measure, monitor, and regulate air parameters essential for human health (temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration), alerting users when any value exceeded preset thresholds. RESULTS: The air quality study in the Raduga kindergarten showed that the recommended indoor plants in rooms where children stay for extended periods provided a significant decrease in carbon dioxide levels in the observation group compared to the control group: by 1.3-fold (Kruskal–Wallis test, p 0.05) and 1.2-fold (Kruskal–Wallis test, p 0.05), respectively, when plants with leaf surface areas of 1.7 m2 and 2.5 m2 were placed in a 48 m2 room. CONCLUSION: The effectiveness of improving air quality in playrooms of child care centers depends on the leaf surface area of the recommended plants and their rational distribution, taking into account the effective radius of impact. Indoor plants with a combination of phytoncidal, gas-absorbing, and transpiring properties improve indoor air quality and reduce CO2 concentrations in child care centers.