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  Re: [Aroid-l] Plants deplete oxygen?!?!
From: "Elizabeth Campbell" <desinadora at mail2designer.com> on 2010.02.17 at 14:30:07(20619)
I'm one of those Amazon Jungle people - but I actually feel better after
a night out in the jungle than I do after one spent in the house in
town. It's a good 10 degrees cooler under the canopy, and the air is
much fresher and less still.

I did the calculations on the whole respiration vs photosyntheis thing
back in my University days, and while plants do use up oxygen while
they're respiring, for the overwhelming majority of them (aroids
included) it's at a rate of one molecule of O2 for every five produced
by photosynthesis, so they're actually adding to the net oxygen in any
given environment. The claim that in a sealed or even stuffy room,
plants will suffocate you in your sleep, is not only spurious, it's
pseudoscience at its very best. I have a far greater chance of
suffocating because my cat is sleeping on my chest.

Beth, from the jungles of Puyo, Ecuador.

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