Plantaform's Smart Indoor Fogponics Garden System Is Innovative, But Is It Safe?

WIRED

5 hours ago

It was about a week into my journey as a hydroponic lettuce farmer when I noticed my Mila air purifier, set to auto mode, was running at full blast. Its internal air quality sensor told me the air was dirty. Not sure if the sensor was overly sensitive, I swapped it out for the more powerful and far quieter IQ Air Atem X (9/10 WIRED Recommends) and set it on auto mode. Next time I went into my son's room, the Atem was running at its highest speed. I checked the room's IQAir Visual Pro Indoor Air Quality Monitor and noticed it was reading a higher-than-usual PM 2.5. For context, my sons' room's AQI (Air Quality Index) is usually in the teens or below, and that's with my air purifiers running at their lowest, almost inaudible, setting.
It was at this point that I moved several other air quality monitors into my sons' room. I noticed that there was a smaller uptick in PM 2.5 in other areas of my apartment as well. I took screenshots of my air monitor's dashboard graphs and noticed that when the Plantaform's grow lights were turned off from 10 pm to 8 am, the air quality improved. This happened every night, and I could see it on the various graphs from my consumer air quality monitors. I don't pretend to be Berkeley Lab, but I've been covering air quality long enough to watch for patterns. I knew that Plantaform was using its fogponics system.
I had seen Plantaform's co-founder and CEO, Alberto Aguilar, claiming, 'NASA tech is going to revolutionize your kitchens … using NASA's fogponic technology… ' on Canada's equivalent of Shark Tank , known as Dragons' Den . I was naive and hadn't considered how a hydroponics system could impact my indoor air. I began to wonder if the monitors were picking up increased moisture. I've tested humidifiers in the past that impacted indoor air quality—maybe it was moisture.
I reached out to Plantaform to ask how their system impacts indoor air quality. They emailed back to say it might be because my air quality monitor was too close to the Plantaform, or the fogponics was impacting the humidity. Most of my indoor air quality monitors also measure humidity, and they were showing fairly constant levels of humidity. It did not mirror what was happening with the PM 2.5. The company also confirmed that the foggers continue to run at a reduced level during the night cycle.
Courtesy of Lisa Wood Shapiro Courtesy of Lisa Wood Shapiro Courtesy of Lisa Wood Shapiro
I still couldn't control my indoor air quality. And if I unplugged my IQAir Atem air purifier, the indoor air quality shot up above 150. For context, the NCAA will consider rescheduling events if the air quality index rises above 200. It was around this time that I remembered the included powder plant nutrients I scooped into the water. Plantaform's own container lists it as fertilizer in the fine print. Their own warning label says, 'If inhaled, move person to fresh air. If inhalation occurs or persists, get medical attention.' I looked up each ingredient. Soluble potash, boron, and fer are a few that can lead to health issues when inhaled.
I began to look at my growing lettuce with worry. I opened the window in the bedroom and was glad my boys were off at college. During the past two weeks of growing, I had developed my annual chest cold and asthma, though the hypochondriac in me worried that my giant egg growing lettuce might not be helping. I'm sure I sounded crazy when I mentioned the hydroponic lettuce egg to my primary care provider, who assured me that it seemed like my usual upper respiratory infection. Health Concerns
I shut the boys' bedroom door and found myself looking into some of the health risks of those exposed to indoor hydroponic growing systems, like childhood hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) or extrinsic allergic alveolitis—"farmer's lung," or 'pigeon breeder's lung.' In reading the above linked study about a 14-year-old girl who developed HP due to an indoor hydroponic system, it was noted that they tested a water sample from the hydroponic system and found that Aureobasidium pullulans was the dominant fungal microorganism.
When I emailed Plantaform and asked if there was a water filter in the tank, they wrote back, 'Plantaform does not include a built-in water filter, so the device uses the exact water you pour in to generate the fog that nourishes your plants.'