Can indoor plants kill?

[Charlie Black]

I have always heard rumors of people who've died because of indoor plants. Sincerely speaking, the reason is very scientific. Plants take oxygen at night night. That means that if you are in a closed room with lots of plants inside then there is high competition for oxygen. What i still wonder is whether it can result to death. I highly doubt.

 

[Trellum]

Well, I'm not sure if this is related, but back when I had a lot plants in my room (and my asthma was really bad) I did have problems at night. Maybe the fact there were so many plants in my room and that my asthma was so bad back then, maybe they were actually stealing the oxygen from me?

 

[claudine]

To be honest, I don't think it's possible. Plants can't kill you unless you eat a poisonous one. I grew up in a house where plants were everywhere, because both my mom and my aunt loved them, and I never had any health problems.

 

[Fishkeeper]

If plants took up so much oxygen that a few houseplants in a room could suffocate someone, we'd all suffocate.

 

[Becky]

Not sure whether to laugh or cry at this!!

Plants do not take in oxygen - quite the opposite! Plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates through a process called photosynthesis.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Only during the daytime. At night, since they are unable to obtain any sunlight, plants use up oxygen. They have to keep functioning at night, after all.
I have heard of very heavily planted aquariums smothering fish. If there's a higher-than-natural concentration of plants and not enough aeration, they can use up enough oxygen to suffocate the fish.

 

[Becky]

Oh yes of course! Silly me, I forgot about that. However, through photosynthesis plants produce far more oxygen than they consume.

 

[Larisa]

Well, I'm not sure if this is related, but back when I had a lot plants in my room (and my asthma was really bad) I did have problems at night. Maybe the fact there were so many plants in my room and that my asthma was so bad back then, maybe they were actually stealing the oxygen from me?

Mould in the soil could be the cause in asthma.
In the daytime house plants, absorbing carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, and in quantities much greater than necessary for the human respiratory dose. At night the plants, on the contrary, consume oxygen, releasing carbon dioxide. But special research has shown how this allocation is insignificant: 600 houseplants overnight emit about the same amount of carbon dioxide, and how much one person at the same time.

 

[Daren]

Triffids can be dangerous

 

[Corzhens]

Our indoor plants are in the living room only and none in the bedroom. But if our bedroom happens to be spacious, I would probably have some plants inside. My sister's bedroom has a sky roof with a rock garden and a small fountain right inside the bedroom. And that oxygen inhaled by plants is a myth because according to our biology class, man inhales oxygen while plants inhale carbon dioxide which is exhaled by man and plants exhale oxygen which is inhaled by man. In other words, man and plants are a good match.

 

[Mockingbird]

Short of some sort of infestation or sensitivity to the plant, fertilizer or a fungus that likes the plant I can not think of to many dangers associated with houseplants. I guess you could get bitten by a spider or something like that. Chances are if a plant started messing with your asthma it was from dust on the plants, or something like pollen or something in the soil, like a fertilizer. It took me years to figure out the pollen from certain plants was the cause of some of my allergies. Sometimes you never even would guess certain plants even had pollen, but many do. Springs bulbs seem to do me in allergy wise, yet I can not resist taking a sniff

 

[aquaticneko]

I don't know if a few places could even consume that much oxygen. That room would have to be completely sealed off from the outside and be a tiny room or be a jungle inside! I just don't think it sounds right. They do consume oxygen at nights but not enough to take all the oxygen in your room away.

 

[headfullofbees]

If plants consumed that much oxygen, they'd be first to suffer.

 

[Pat]

I have plants in my room and I have not seen any problems from having the plants where I sleep.

 

[Dog Rose]

Short of pollen causing an asthma attack or eating something poisonous growing on the plant it seems unlikely. Lilies for example are extremely poisonous to cats, but they're not going to kill a cat through lack of oxygen. Not only is the plant releasing oxygen during the day from photosynthesis, it emits more than it uses overnight.

You're actually in more danger from another person sleeping in the room. The resting oxygen consumption of an average adult male is about 3.5 ml/kg/min, so unless the room is packed with plants, if someone else doesn't use up enough to kill you overnight the plants are unlikely to, simply as a matter of mass.

What might cause a problem is if the CO2 levels get above 4%, at which point you may have trouble with toxicity effects, but again, another person causes a higher rise in the levels than a plant.