Recent study found that potted plants can improve the health of office workers. Plants clear out the stress, thus reducing the number of sick days that the workers take. The study was performed by the researchers from the Agricultural University of Norway. Its result serves as evidence that plants in the working place are good for the office environment, benefiting the health of workers.

Tina Bringslimark, expert in environmental psychology, analyzed 305 office workers activating in 3 offices. Each office had a differing amount of greenery.

"We investigated the amount of self-reported sick leave there was and compared it with the amount of plants they could see from their desk. The more plants they could see, then the less self-reported sick leave there was," said Mrs. Bringslimark. Performing the study at the Norwegian institution, she was able to discover that plants were able to lower fatigue, prevent dry throats, headaches, coughs and dry skin of office workers.

Professor Grete Patil, working at the Agricultural University of Norway, outlined that there might be several explanations to the benefiting effect of the greenery.

"Possibly the most straightforward is that plants and the microbes in the soil are good at removing volatile, organic compounds that can affect health. There could also be a psychological explanation in that people believe plants are healthier and are likely to evaluate their own health more optimistically," he comments.

The American researchers performed a similar study at Washington State University. They discovered that plants were able to reduce stress and improve office worker's reaction times by 12%. People working in an environment enriched with plants showed better results than those working in a plant-free environment. Such results were registered after scientists performed a so-called "boring computer" test, which required attention for 20 to 30 minutes. The workers from a greener office had a lower blood pressure and registered a lower mental fatigue.