Caroline Blazovsky - America’s Healthy Home Expert

This is episode number 133 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're a DIYer or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're glad that you could be with us while we record this new episode for you.

That's right.

The listener.

The Watcher. Wow.

On the Facebook Lives.

Or on YouTube, it's possible.

It's possible you could be watching on YouTube.

That's right.

We're over there as well on the interwebs. So how you doing, Kev?

Man, I'm doing really well. Today's a special day and not just because it took us 2 and a half hours to get this podcast up and running.

This is a professional podcast, Kevin. It takes a little bit of time to get it up and running, so.

Professional is a word That, anyway, so yeah, today's a special day for me.

Why is today a special day?

Well, today, 14 years ago, I married my wife. Hey, happy anniversary. Yeah, thank you, thank you, yeah. It was really, really kind of an interesting morning because my daughter was having some challenges with life, and it wasn't anything big, in fact it was very minuscule, it was, Eat that. And, um, she was melting down.

Uh-huh.

So I'm in the bathroom getting ready, you know, making myself look like this, which took all of 3.5 seconds. Surprised it took that long. Yeah, exactly. So I'm getting ready, uh, you know, to— for the day, and my wife comes in just fuming. Absolutely fuming. She's mad, she's frustrated. She, like, slams a cabinet door, which, you know my wife, and that's— doesn't sound like her at all, I'm sure. And I just looked at her and I said, aren't you so glad you married me and had kids? It, it made her laugh, which, which was my whole goal, was just to change her moment, you know?

Oh my gosh. Yeah.

So that's how I'm doing.

How are you doing? Doing really good, man. Have you got some stuff prepared for the day? I would imagine. I hope not. We don't want to spoil any surprises.

Well, there are no surprises because we're actually going to do some stuff. My kids are going to their Grandma's on Friday evening, so Saturday is going to kind of be our day. So today's just a normal day. Wednesdays are really, really long for me. I'm not— I'm most of the time I'm out of the house by 8 or, or so, and I typically don't come home until 9 or 9:30 at night on Wednesdays. It's just really, really long days for me. So it's just difficult to do something on Wednesday.

Gotcha. Gotcha. So, okay, well, cool. Well, I hope you have a good one.

Thanks, man.

So despite your best efforts, I know you're gonna do it.

Exactly. It is what it is.

So we have a really, really cool episode for you guys today. We have our friend Caroline Blazowski. Did I get that right, Caroline?

You did.

You did amazing.

I've been practicing all morning from my healthy home. And I've been— I've actually been watching several interviews that you've done and some different products that you're you're talking about. But like, we are just really excited to have you on the show and talk about having a healthy home. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, guys. It's a pleasure to be here.

Yeah. And you're joining us, I think you said either you're out on the outskirts of New York, correct?

Correct.

Yes, we are up in the Northeast in the New York metro area.

Nice. And how are things there right now?

Well, we're experiencing COVID like everybody, but I mean, we were a little more locked down than the traditional, you know, rest of the country. Los Angeles and New York got hit pretty hard, but I think we're surviving. We're coming back. I did fortunately get a break during the pandemic. I've been working. We're launching a new technology to actually eradicate the virus from the air. So it's been a little crazy, but I'm happy to be here with you guys and talk about whatever you need.

Yeah. And then right there off the bat, I mean, that's a, That's a bold claim. I mean, we're trying to eradicate the virus. I mean, and I wanna, I definitely wanna talk about that. So let's circle back around, but I wanna hear a little bit about your background, 'cause as I was going through like some of your educational history and just your background in general, it's very interesting.

Thank you. Well, I'm known as America's Healthy Home Expert. I'm a national expert as well as being a media personality. So we sort of have different branding. We have that aspect, right, as a consultant, and then of course as a media personality. And then we have our company, which is behind me.

Right.

You can see it. My Healthy Home, which we started over 20 years ago. So we've been in business 20 years, which is a pretty long time for any business. So we're proud of that. But yeah, so we do a lot of public education. We do a lot of consulting, testing services to test homes across the country. work internationally, so that's important for people to know. Um, and then, of course, we involve— we are involved in a lot of technology and how that works and how we install that into different applications. So when we find out that somebody's got a problem, whether it's mold, indoor air quality, VOCs, allergens, in this case COVID, we're able to implement in technologies to help with that.

Right. And, and so, and I think I heard this in another interview, you, you have a little bit of a background in, in epidemiology?

Yes. So, I have— I went back to the University of Southern California for an MPH program, which I'm currently still involved and enrolled in. It just became so crazy with COVID I mean, we literally— and like I said, we've launched a new technology to deal with it. So, that kind of became the forefront of our concern. And then, I'll have to go back to school when everything gets a little bit less crazy. But, I have a lot of certifications. I've been educated in the field with sustainable design, with mold remediation, with indoor air quality. So, pretty diverse background, which makes me sort of unique when I'm looking at homes because I kind of have that big overall, you know, building technology education IAQ picture.

Right.

And so, I mean, I guess stepping back a little bit prior to 2020, I mean, you've been in business for 20 years. What were you guys— I mean, I think you mentioned mold as a focus that you guys had. What were you guys trying to focus on prior to COVID? I mean, obviously that's probably going to be one of your main focuses now, but you guys were looking into A lot of different aspects for, for home health, I'd imagine.

Right. So we looked at, a lot of the things that we were involved with was learning how our environments play into our health. So if you know me, I'm very innovative when it comes to understanding there's a big relationship between how we feel and our environments. And unfortunately, healthcare sort of leaves us with a big hole, if you will. We go, we get our scans, we get blood work, we get urine tests, we get all this stuff, and we don't look at the environment at all. So, 20 years ago, I was hired to start looking at these things and going to homes and saying, look, someone's not feeling well, but all their tests are coming back okay. How can we fix it? What's

going on? And so, we started to investigate. I, you know, 20 years ago, I started with mold, and that progressed to mold and mycotoxins. And then, we went to VOCs and chemical compounds, and then we've gone to glyphosate. And, all of these, you know, building our portfolio and getting bigger and bigger and recognizing that our environments so dramatically impact our health. And, you know, if you talk to someone like me, I believe 85% of illness is directly caused by environments. I think a lot of the time we do this to ourselves. So, very interesting. And, you know, obviously, we've been doing that a long time and investigating homes and getting people healthier. But now, because of COVID we just have another elephant in the room, if you will.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and to your point with, you know, that your environment, you know, tends to affect the way in which you feel, the health that you're experiencing. I mean, like, you know, we sort of locked people up in their homes in potentially unhealthy environments, sounds like.

That's right. And it seems— I mean, this is just a look at an opinion, I guess, if you will. But we see a lot more people complaining about health complaints now that they've been locked in. So, you know, it seems our bodies respond better when we sort of are more like nomads, right? We kind of wander from location to location. And don't spend so much time in one environment. And now that we're seeing a lot of people locked down, we see a lot of people complaining about, you know, stuffiness, I feel foggy, and then they're starting to realize they have a mold problem in their basement that they never realized before. They realized they're storing

60 paint cans and they have all these consumable products that are in their garage. And so, we're getting a lot more people complaining about health. So, you know, it's interesting to kind of see we're learning a lot about you know, people and how they operate in their homes from the pandemic, which is kind of interesting too.

Wow. So answer this, like, how much of that is the environment that you bring into your home versus the environment that you actually— that your home is actually placed into? Because I know that it's a, it's a big difference whenever— it's a, it's a bit different whenever you're in different parts of the country. Where I grew up was, was very, very different to a place that had virtually no trees. If there was a tree there, someone planted it, right? Like, Right. Where compared to where we live now, like, um, there's trees everywhere and, and there, there's bodies of water and those sorts of things. So how, how do some of those things play into that environment as well?

And that's really important because we have a lot of climate issues, right? So, and now because of climate change, whether people want to recognize it or not is irrelevant to me. We recognize it in the industry. Um, that climate change is really impacting our building structure. So we had problems that we built buildings in areas where they shouldn't have been built to begin with, right? So you'll put a Yeah. A building on a swamp, or maybe you're building a slab or a split in the Northeast that doesn't work well with condensation. So, we had building problems before. And then, we created these climate issues, which whether it's storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, whichever, that are promoting and producing all kinds of other contaminants. So, your environment as far as your structure around your home and where your

home is placed is important, but then, of course, how it's built is extremely important. And then of course, what type of technology you're using is extremely important. And then of course, how educated you are about what kind of products you bring into the home. So we use a model here. It's, it's a triangle shape. So we look at technology, building and building science, and then of course, education on the top. And when those 3 things come together and we do them properly, we're really successful at creating healthy homes.

Oh, wow.

Without getting too technical.

No, no, no, no, no. That's, that's really good because there's, there's tons of different ways to build homes, right? Um, I mean, I, I've, I've lived in a couple of different pier and beam homes. I currently live in a home that's built on a slab, which I would assume just, you know, based on whether or not your home is built, built up or, you know, built directly on the ground, it could probably make a difference. Also, there's, there's homes that are made out of wood, homes that are made out of metal, um, and, and various other things as well. So, um, so you're, you're telling me that all of those things have a something to do just the way

the house is built as well as the location.

Right. So all of that, you're building science, right? So you're building structure. And, and just to give you an example, right? So we'll talk about, let's just talk about a slab for a minute. You can build a slab, let's say in Arizona where you don't get a lot of change in the ground temperature, right? So you're not gonna get a lot of variance between your airspace. And then of course what the ground temp is, it'll be warm. with warm air. But, what happens in the Northeast when you build with a slab, we see that block or, you know, your slab will become very cold. And so, especially in the spring and the fall, we get this cold slab with a hot air space, hot air temperature meeting all the

time, and we get extensive condensation, water vapor that happens. And so, those types of structures really don't do well. And then, we see a lot of people who develop allergies, have asthma, have health complaints. So where you're building and how you're building really matters. And I think we weren't as conscious about that. I think now we need to be and constantly building for climate. And then now the climate has tricked us, right? It's doing different things.

Mm-hmm.

We're getting so much more rain. We used to get snow, right? Like this season, we actually got a lot of snow in the Northeast, but we went, you know, years and years and years without snow, with a moderate climate, with a lot of rain. And the storms— and you know this depending on where you are in the country— the storms seem to be more intense. The rainfall seems to be more intense. And so if you're not building with overhangs for protection and bigger gutters, you're going to have issues. Lots of things are changing. And I think we have to look at that when we're actually building a home now, take it into consideration.

Oh, yeah. I mean, like, that was— I mean, like, interview we just did a while back when we were talking with David Applebaum. I mean, that's the whole reason he was putting this house up on piers. I mean, big, big, giant concrete piers so that in order to withstand storms and floods. And, and so it's completely changing the way that we build homes.

Yeah. And, and also, like, what, what it's interesting is that because standards are passed down and just because you get a code, we get lots of codes, right? And they say you gotta build for energy efficiency, you have to build for fire. These things don't come without problems. And I think when you're a builder, an indoor air quality professional, architect, whatever industry you are in, in this building profession, you've gotta realize that you're gonna have to be innovative because just 'cause they tell you to build a certain way doesn't mean it's not coming without a consequence. Energy efficiency has created a huge moisture problem. We know that.

Mm-hmm.

And now we've got to dehumidify all new building construction or else, you know, and definitively in places where climate is more of an impact. But, you know, we know even in California, in Southern California, where you have a lot of, you know, more dry air, they were getting all kinds of problems when they went to the asphalt roof versus a wood roof, right? It wasn't allowing it to breathe. They got high temperatures inside the roof that weren't able to cool off. And then they had the air-conditioned space underneath and they condensed like crazy and got mold. So all of this is really important for builders to realize. Just because something's being passed down to you and said, okay, this is code, does not mean

it's gonna come without a problem. And you need to really look at it and say, okay, are we gonna have a moisture issue here? Are we going to have, uh, a ventilation issue? Are we gonna need filtration? What are these technologies? And you need to use them with new building construction for sure.

Oh yeah. And like, it, it, it, I'll, I'll tell you, one of the issues I run into a lot of times with, with clients of mine is I'll hear them say, can you give me a builder that can seal my house up airtight?

It's like the worst.

Right? And like, I think, I think what you're talking about right now is so important for homeowners to understand is like, like, no, your house needs to breathe. And what you're talking about is the very reason you don't— I mean, like, you don't want to do that because it's gonna— like what you're talking about, you're gonna have secondary issues that are gonna affect you. You know, like the, the problem you're trying to solve is worse than what you're trying is going to cause problems.

Right, you might be creating.

Yeah.

Right. And what we try to tell— like, I always tell my client too, I say, look, if I wrapped you up in wood, would you be able to breathe? And they say yes. If I wrapped you up in plastic, would you be able to breathe? And they said no. I said, well, think about your building products like you. They need to have breathability as well.

Yeah.

And that is important. Like, whether you're putting on a roof, you know, you need to allow airspace. You need to make sure you have ventilation, whether it's a ridge vent or you have soffits. You need to keep air flowing throughout the house. You don't want it to be stagnant. And so, now, we've really come to kind of teach clients about pressurization, how houses operate, whether you're changing a positive pressure from a negative pressure. And, I actually get my clients, it's so crazy, but I get them to buy smoker pens. Have you guys ever seen a smoker pen?

I don't even know what that is.

So, it's a little pen and it puts out smoke. And then, what you can do is see which direction the smoke will go, right? So, let's use a bathroom, for example. If you were to shut your bathroom door and you're on the outside, bathroom's on the inside, you put the smoker pen under your door and the air— the smoke should go under the door. You always want your ventilation in your bathroom, right?

Mm-hmm.

To go from positive to negative. You don't— you want the airflow not coming out of the bathroom because you obviously don't want to smell the nast that comes out of your bathroom, but you want to have that airflow going towards the bathroom, not away from it. Um, and that's what your vent fan's supposed to do. So I actually have my clients get them so they can understand how the airflow's operating in their house, which is really important because you don't want to be pulling air from bad locations.

Right.

Um, and even if you put on energy recovery ventilators and HRVs, they— that doesn't necessarily mean that you're not pulling from bad spaces. So just a— it's a tidbit, you know, you get a smoker pen and then you see which way the smoke is going, and that tells you your pressurization, and it tells you where you're getting airflow from. So like, if you don't want to pull from a garage, for example, you change pressurization in the garage so you don't get it coming into the house. It's just kind of a little neat tidbit for people to kind of think about.

Yeah. And real quick, if you could educate us, because I don't, I don't know that everybody knows what an HRV is and what it does.

So we have, we have ways. So think about houses like a teeter-totter, right? So I always explain it like this. If air goes out, air has to come in. You always wanna maintain a balance. And so, when you turn on a bathroom fan or you turn on a kitchen fan or you exhaust air to the outside or you have flues and, you know, different things and chimneys that allow air to seep up or out, that has to have makeup air. So, you have to bring air in.

Okay.

So, as we ventilate, we've gotta use ERVs and HRVs to bring in new air. And, that's how we do it typically because we don't wanna pull from dirty wall cavities. The idea is we don't wanna pull from a basement or maybe a garage where you could pull in volatile organics. So we dictate or we try to control where that air is coming from. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, but we— this is the concept, right?

Right.

So we try to bring that air in. And for people who don't know, the ERVs and HRVs are different ways of bringing in fresh air.

And these are technologies that are probably already within most people's homes. I mean, you think about like an exhaust fan in a bathroom or something like that.

Yeah. I mean, most— I mean, I'd say— I mean, I've looked at 30,000 houses in my career. Most people don't have ERVs or HRVs. They don't. Okay. Newer construction will. It depends on the age of your home, but there are ways to bring in air. And that's what people have to realize, to bring in air. So we kind of can dictate where that's coming from and provide you with a source so the house is not constantly pulling air from bad locations.

So is that automated? Like, so if you were to turn on, let's say your exhaust fan in your bathroom, does it then turn on this other thing to bring in air from another place? Is it, is it automated that way?

Yeah, so a lot of the systems now, um, Brown-Newton is— I happen to be, uh, their healthy home expert and have done pieces for them on healthy homes. And then also, uh, Panasonic. A lot of these companies are making what we call— I call them IoT systems, Internet of Things, where they're connected. You'll see a lot of sensing systems now, right, where you have a sensor, it senses you have humidity in the bathroom, for example, and then the— and the system turns on and automatically pulls your fan and your fan starts going so you don't have to think about it. As we progress, and, you know, we just recently had an indoor air quality global conference, and this is the thing: sensing

systems, sensing for the occupant so they don't have to do it, sensing when you need fresh air, sensing when you have negative pressure or pressure changes, vents open. So there's— it's a lot involved without going too into detail, but we're developing systems all the time that are gonna do this for you so you don't have to do it and think about it or know about it.

It's just really incredible to think about because, like you said, I mean, I mean, most people are probably, if nothing else, just very uneducated about what you're talking about. I mean, this is the first time I'm hearing of a lot of this type of stuff, right?

This is state of the art. I mean, this is where the industry is going. We know that we have these problems. And then obviously trying to do it for people, right, trying to achieve a— so the home, because most homeowners don't know about it. So trying to achieve that space that has Maybe low CO or CO2 that isn't getting out of control. So, when too many people are in the structure and they're breathing out and then you're getting lethargy and all the things, the system will turn on ventilation for you. Or, maybe it's humidity control or maybe it's volatile organic control. So, that's where it's going. They're also going, which is an interesting thing, I've been contacted by some companies out in

Silicon Valley where when you visit a doctor, if you guys are familiar with electronic medical records, right? So, when you go visit a doctor, your whole biology goes into a system, and then it basically tells them, okay, well, they need this test, this blood work, this scan. And so what's happening now is they're going to try to incorporate an indoor air quality evaluation into your electronic medical record. So say you get all these scans and everything says it's okay, it will trigger a consultation with an indoor air quality professional to assess your environment. And I think that's amazingly cool. I really hope that that's something that happens because that will allow this piece of our environment to be incorporated into healthcare and allow people to actually get assessments that they need.

Well, yeah, and it seems like those devices, I mean, should be able to incorporate with smart technology that where, you know, like you can either, you know, walk in with your watch or your phone and your doctor can just, you know, pull the data from that as to like how your home's behaving towards you.

Downside to sensors is they're not where they need to be yet as far as I'm concerned. And there's a lot of other things that we look at as indoor air quality professionals that we just can't get from a sensor. So, I mean, just on a daily basis, I'm looking at mold, I'm looking at mycotoxins, I'm looking at volatile organics, formaldehyde levels, semi-volatiles, glyphosate, which is your herbicides, maybe pesticide exposure. What else? You know, now we're dealing with COVID And so, the problem is a lot of monitors are good at doing one thing but not good at doing everything.

Right.

So, that's where, you know, it's— as we progress, it's going to change and I'm sure we'll get better at it. But, It's indoor air quality is a science for sure. And, it takes a lot of years to perfect it. And, you know, I never thought when I got into it, I started with mold 20 years ago when we didn't even have, you know, we had petri dish testing and very archaic kind of, you know, testing for mold. But, I never thought that it would— this career would just keep going and going and going like it has. It's amazing. And now, with COVID I'm like, oh my God, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You know what I mean?

I would imagine it's put it into hyperdrive as to like developing some of these products and wanting to get them in the hands of as many I haven't had a vacation in a year, guys, because I just work constantly.

There's no time. There's no time. And, I had a lot of experience working with mycotoxin, which was really tiny, less than a micron big particles. And so, why I became in demand was that not very many people in the country had that experience. They didn't understand it. We were dealing with it for years and learning how to get rid of it, monitor it, clean it. And that became important because COVID is a less than a micron big particulate. So it's interesting, you know, it's your experience helps you along the way. And so now we've actually developed technology and are working with a company called IVP, which actually eliminates COVID in one pass, as well as anthrax and some other contaminants. So very interesting.

So what is this? What you said, it's IVP is the company, or is that— that's the product?

That's the technology. It's called Integrated viral protection.

Okay.

And what it is, is that most of the systems out there currently, right, and you may be familiar with UVC technology, ultraviolet light, ionization, you know, general filtration, HEPA, carbon, all the things that we use to try to clean air. What I loved about this company, I followed their technology. They were out of Texas A&M, and they won the Mechanical Engineering Award. And what was so fascinating is they took HEPA filtration, which we're all familiar with, right, high-efficiency particulate air filters, Thick, for people who don't know, thick, you know, 4-inch filters. And, they embedded a metal mesh foam that sort of went weaved within the filter, you know, just giving a basic understanding. And so, what

was great about this is they're able to heat that filter to 400°F roughly or 200°C.

Holy cow.

So, think about a filter, think about a washing machine and a dryer, right? So, when you put your clothes in, They basically go in and they get sterilized at 140 degrees. In that case, that's what we like to see— water temps anything over 140— and it kills bacteria, dust mites, proteins, mold, whichever. This is what this does for the air. So basically, you pull the air into the unit, it heats it to extremely high temperature, it fries, you know, particulate matter, COVID, anthrax in a single pass. So you don't have a virus anymore to completely eliminate, so it doesn't It's not allowed to go through the HEPA. It can't— like, HEPA filtration is— COVID's much smaller than HEPA, so it'll only capture some of it, but this allows it to kill all of it.

It goes through the filter, eliminates it, and then no more. It's gone. And we did it, and this was actually tested in a national lab, which is Galveston National Laboratory in Texas, which is one of the best medical laboratories in the country.

That's right.

And they did it with active virus.

Sorry. Love for Texas.

Yeah, there we go. Texas pump.

Yep.

Fist bump. But they did this. They actually tested real virus. And that's important because a lot of the things that are out there, they'll tell you they tested it on a virus-like synthetic substance, that it was tested under a hood. This was in real-time application. They did it at hospitals and they did it at the laboratory. So it showed me the data. I wanted to see data that this actually was effective before I ever got behind something like this. And, um, it was. And so they did the due diligence. It's FDA approved to eliminate COVID, and it was done under CDC, um, laboratory testing and guidelines. So interesting. It's fascinating.

No, it really— I mean, like, it's really— I want— and I, I want, I want people to pay attention to what you're saying because, you know, when back in 2020 when a lot of this stuff, uh, started happening, um, you know, people were contacting us to do disinfecting. for people's homes. And you were seeing products out on the market that said— it had really janky wording on it, is the best way I could put it, where it's like, this product kills SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. And it's like, that's really disingenuous as to what this thing actually does. I mean, you're saying like it kills the virus that causes the virus that we're actually really afraid of.

Right. And there was a lot of that. And listen, I I— we had to jump in, right? There were people that said, listen, we have to try to do something. We've got to do something. We didn't know a lot about the virus. We still don't know a lot about the virus.

Right.

So, you know, I actually applaud people who tried to. The problem became that a lot of these businesses and a lot of companies invested in these technologies, which now we know are not going to be effective. Right. And moving forward, we know that this is not going to be the only pandemic we face. And as you know, with a background in epidemiology, I'm pretty confident that we are going to have another significant flu outbreak. I think we're going to have some other type of virus outbreak based on overpopulation and the fact that we live in very close proximity to all kinds of animals. So—

Mm-hmm.

I believe the technology that we implement has to be something that's truly gonna work in the future so we don't end up here again. You know, we've got the technology in place to make it better. So, um, this is, you know, what people are— technology. This has just come out within the last month. I mean, this is something that We have just— we were the first distributor in the Northeast to even have this product. So, and to work with a company to start distributing it to hospitals and to, you know, doctors' offices and to restaurants and hotels. And now, you know, we're looking— our first big account with assisted living is happening. So, we've got major

buildings within New York and New Jersey. So, it's fascinating. You know, this is really state-of-the-art stuff. It's hard to imagine because people who know HEPA filtration, it's a really good technology. HEPA by itself is a good technology. We just needed to enhance it. We needed to get smaller particles with it. And then, we also needed to actually eliminate and kill things so they don't end up in the filter. So, very cool. I'm so excited to be talking about it. And, maybe I'm a little tech geek, but I think this stuff's really cool and how we can use it to help people.

No, I mean, it's, it's a super, super cool idea and thought process because, and, and I guess one of the things that you're talking about expanding it to a lot of the commercial area, it seems like it would be a whole lot easier to implement in a home, much smaller space, a much, uh, space that's surrounded by less legal things as well, trying to figure some of those things out. But, but I mean, I mean, is one of the things that, that we did in a space that I'm in, uh, pretty often where I work, is we change the filters out and it does a better job of, of catching and killing, uh, different, different, uh, things that come through the air, right? And so that to

me makes a whole lot of sense. And it's one of the things to me, because I think the average homeowner here is, you know, probably listening to this going, well, man, that sounds fantastic, but the cost that it's going to take to redo some of my house to implement some of this technology might be prohibitive at the moment. But if we're just talking about a filter to begin with, at least there's maybe there's something that we could do that, that changes some of the air quality without making, you know, huge drastic changes to our home.

Well, the interesting thing is that this type of technology, okay, so you can get mobile units which look like air purifiers, or we have giant ones that were at the Super Bowl this year and also hotels. Uh, the Intercontinental Hotel in Houston has it. Some of the Hilton hotels have it. We're working with a whole chain of other hotels, 140 hotels internationally and nationally that will have it. And they're big. They're like these big cylinders that go up that do 50,000 square feet.

Oh my gosh.

So you have, you have mobile units that can be placed, smaller ones that do 1,800 square feet. There's a travel unit which is, which is amazing to me. It does 350 square feet. You could use it in a room for kids, which I think is amazing. You can use it in, you know, car sales. When people are driving around a car, they can have it with them, so they sanitize the car instead of using all these disinfectants, which we know have high volatile organics, are carcinogenic in some cases. So, these are little units that are portable, and they're like $900. I mean, they're not, you know, they're not that expensive. But then, what they did with this technology, which really

is helping us to help with places like assisted livings and hospitals is we can retrofit the technology, meaning it can come in a filter that has a plug that goes— will replace your regular filter. So we'll no longer have a 1-inch standard allergen filter or what I call the blue basketball filter that anything can go through. Every unit, and the goal behind the company and the technology is that we will have every unit within the United States will now have a filter that has this technology in it. You won't have to worry about, you know, disease states. This will be automatically installed. Um, and so they're, they're working on getting it smaller, making it more affordable. But right now, I mean, you're looking at a filter is like $2,500 and it doesn't have to be changed for 3 to

5 years, which is amazing because of the heat. It basically burns up everything in the filter. So you don't have to have a filter change. So $2,500 buys you 3 to 5 years.

Wow. That's actually not terrible.

Bad.

I mean, and so the, the, What you're talking about is the one that heats it up to— to 400 degrees.

Right. So the HEPA— heated HEPA filtration, which is the technology—

Right.

Will— can be utilized as a mobile unit so you can use it as like an air purifier. They have— we have those, you know, concepts, right? We have those purifiers which people can get right now. You can put one in your house. I have an 1,800-square-foot R1 which just goes into my house and I turn it on whenever I need it or if people come over or, you know, comes back from a place where you might have been contaminated, you just throw it on and it purifies the air. But we also have retrofits, which means it can go right in the HVAC system. So you just get a filter that is retrofitted in.

So if I— I mean, and just, just for people's own education, what, what situations should I be concerned about where I might want to take that mobile unit with me?

Um, you know, I think like for dorms, like kids, it's so fantastic, right? Okay, it does about 350 square feet. You throw it in the dorm with the kids, they have it in their room. So, a smaller location, if you stay at a hotel, like a lot of our hotels are interested in using it and actually having people, like, so they have an upcharge, right? So, if they want to carry this around with them at the hotel or put one in their room, they can do that. And, you know, they like rent it, right? So, they kind of like rent it or lease it while they're at the hotel. You can take it with you on a plane.

It's battery-packed, so it's really cool. My dad was like the first one. He's like, I want that. He said, get it for me.

Yeah.

So, we did. And, he travels a lot, right? He goes— they're They're older, they're 75. So they just got the vaccine. But they want to be able to travel and feel that they're safe. So it's, you know, for $900, and it's $990. To me, it's completely worth it.

Yeah. So, so you're talking about some of these portable units, which is fantastic. How long? So, so let's say you're in a hotel room that's 350 square feet. How long does it take to, to cycle through to the point where it's cleansed, so to speak, that area of some of the problems that you might experience? Is it something you need to put in your room, take off, you know, go somewhere else, go outside for a while or something? How long does that take?

That's a great— yeah, that's a great question. So the smaller ones, I would, I would say it's about an hour because it, you know, it's just a tinier unit. The larger ones do— there's, you know, ASHRAE standards, 2 air exchanges. We do 10. So it's— you'll do 10 air exchanges an hour. which is pretty significant, and it pulls it right through. That takes about 15 minutes to clear a space. So once these start running and you put them on, it's very quick. The littler one just takes longer because it's smaller, right? It's not as powerful as the R1 or our V1, but they're able to clean the air very quickly within one pass and you're getting about 10 air exchanges.

Oh, wow. Yeah, so that's pretty helpful to know. Now, so how long do those last? I mean, is it something that you can change out a filter or they're, you know, they use up their life expectancy and they're kind of done, what, what is the, what is the process?

Right, so on the mobile units, you will have to change the filter. With a continuous run, you'll get 2 years out of it with a, you know, and most people don't, right? You run it when you have an issue. But for, so it'll be a 2-year run with a continuous and a 3 to 5 year change when you have, you know, you're not using it all the time.

Okay.

And what's great is, I mean, there's no air purifiers at all. I mean, most of them, you've got to change them out every 6 months to a year anyway.

Yeah.

So, this is much more manageable because what happens a lot with clients is that they put a purifier in, and I've seen this over the years, and we'll do a mold remediation job and the client will complain. They'll say, oh, I still don't feel good. I think there's something else here. And, we'll go back in and we'll test the air and I'm like, well, no, that's gone. You don't have toxic mold. You don't have any mold. And then, all of a sudden, I'll look over and I'll see the purifier sitting there. And, I'm like, was this purifier here before we did the remediation? And, they say, yes.

Mm-hmm.

So we take it out and the client gets better. So what these filters do is they store all these things. Like, think about it like a big vacuum and it's storing cat protein, dog protein, you know, dust mites, pro— dust mite protein, maybe cockroach protein, maybe, you know, volatile organics get stuck in there, maybe mold, mycotoxins, and it just carries it like a big bag and it's still in your environment. It's not a hermetically sealed system. So if you're sensitive to a cat allergen and it's in there, it's in there. So what I like about the HEPA option is that it gets so hot that it just burns it up, right? So you're not going to have this byproduct

in there. And that's why the filter can last so long because of the fact that it's not holding on to things, it's actually incinerating them.

Wow. No, that's, that's huge. So, um, so you mentioned the really, really, really big ones, right, for commercial, and then the new one smaller. Yeah. So some smaller units. Uh, I've got a unit in my house that's a— it's a dehumidifier. We live in a very high humidity area. So just to kind of pull the humidity down in my house. But it's, it's large enough to service my house. My house is about 2,400 square feet. So is there, is it, is there a portable unit like that? Or is it better to go in and retrofit your HVAC system if you were going to do this in just your, your regular home?

I mean, I kind of like the, the mobile units. That's why I chose to put an R-1 in And I'm sure when we redo our HVAC, we'll probably put one in, in the, as a retrofit. But you have to remember, if you're not using your HVAC a lot of the time, you have to look at how consistently you're using it because you want this unit to be working. So if your HVAC's off and maybe you've got more days of the year where you don't need air conditioning or heat, it's not going to work well for you. You're better off going with a mobile unit. If you're in a climate or in a condition where you're

constantly running heat or air conditioning, then it would behoove you to do a retrofit because it's less expensive. So, um, it, it really just depends on your climate and, you know, how— do you open your windows a lot? Do you have ventilation? Are you closed up? Are you in the Northeast? That's all stuff to take into consideration because the unit can only work when it's pushing air through. It means your CFM, you know, your furnace has to be on or your air conditioning has to be on to be— for the filter to be utilized. So where, you know, if you have a portable unit, you can just turn it on when you need it.

No, that makes a lot of sense. Uh, where we live in Houston, our air conditioner's always on.

Yup.

I mean, we don't live in a favorable climate. I mean, it's rarely 65 to 70 degrees here in Houston.

Well, and IBP is out of Houston, you guys. So that's— I mean, you'll see it a lot more because that's your mother— it's made in Houston. So it's at the Intercontinental Hotel right by MD Anderson. It's in bars and restaurants in Houston. So Texas has been really a proponent of this technology because the owner and the creator of it, Manzoor Harani, is a native to Houston. So nice. He's a, you know, so he's a, he's a Houstonian.

Yeah, that's right.

Well, you know, I—

it's a good thing since we've unleashed everybody now. That's true. Yeah.

As of today, there are no mask mandates any longer here in, here in Texas. So that filter has gone.

How do you guys feel about— I mean, how do you feel about that? Would you still wear a mask? regardless? Would you— are you— do you feel comfortable going out without one? What's your personal preference?

For me, so I mean, like, with, with my business, we've had our employees, anytime they engage with a customer, they need to, they need to have a mask on. My personal comfort level, I mean, like, we go places, we go to parks and we go places all the time. We don't, we don't wear masks. But like, when we're around other people, if, you know, if they're concerned or if we think that they might be a high risk person, then we'll mask up. Like if we go to church, and then we also wanna respect people's businesses because they have the option to say, we require a mask for you to enter this place. And if that's the case, I don't care. I'll put a mask on.

I think that's smart. Yeah, I think this is a very controversial topic and I'm fine being controversial in many ways.

Me too.

I think one of the things that a lot of Texans feel, you know, it's a— Texas has a long time been, you know, farming and different types of industry that a lot of people, there's a lot of physical labor involved and those sorts of things for years and years and years. And so for a long time, I think Texans have not really wanted other people to tell them what to do. And so—

Right.

There's a lot of people where we live who just really feel very strongly that it's like, look, We're— it's not that we don't want to wear a mask. I mean, we, we're fine wearing a mask whenever it makes sense and wherever, you know, it's, it's the, the healthiest thing to do, the smartest thing to do. We just don't feel like government should be telling us what we can do and what we can't do as far as wearing— what we can wear and what we can't wear. So it's, it's more of a— Many people around here have, have much more of a thought process of the government shouldn't be the one who dictates whether or not we should do that. We should have our own responsibility, our own moral code, so to speak,

that tells us whether or not we should do something or not do something.

Yeah.

And I think, I, you know, I think, and so I come from a New York, New Jersey background, right? So they're pretty tough up here too, right? Nobody wants to be told what to do.

Nobody does up there.

Yeah.

Come talk to a New Jersey person if you think you can tell anybody what to do. But I mean, I, I think the thing is too, I mean, this is just my opinion. We've looked so to Big Pharma and pharma for our answers, and I can't understand when you have an airborne transmitted disease like this how we cannot focus on indoor air quality and solutions. And that's why it blows my mind, because if you read articles, and, you know, I've been in this from the beginning of the pandemic, we rarely hear about people talking about solutions for indoor air quality.

Right.

It's been a lot of the independent companies like myself and other companies that created the technologies like IBP, and there's other companies out there, that have really pushed to say, hey, like, okay, we need to change the way we live. We need to change the way that we operate. China, which is kind of interesting, when I was at the indoor air quality conference, the global conference, there was a gentleman there who has a business in China talking about what we were talking about, IoT, right, the sensing systems. And China has implemented a lot of these systems because of their pollution factors. Like, we never really had to in the United States because our pollution really isn't as bad as China's. So They were much ahead of

technology in diagnosing problems. When you have sensors that alert you to particulate levels, that can tell you easily, like, if you could potentially have a pandemic. So I think they had the technologies in place to be less affected. And also that region of the country, things come out. I mean, look, they've had SARS, they've had MERS. They, you know, this is the first one that really got loose and affected people in such a dramatic way. And we just didn't have the technologies in place. and the, and the knowledge to be able to implement something for indoor air quality because we just never really worried about it here as far as our air quality is pretty decent.

Yeah, you know, I think you bring up a really, really good point. I don't want to skip over it. And that is that we should be focusing on the indoor quality because, um, you know, for example, and I think this is another thing that a lot of Texans feel, um, that I speak to at least is like, look, you're— when you make the choice to walk into a restaurant and then remove your mask once you sit down, you're, you're taking that risk to begin with. Like, you're, you're putting yourself in a position where you say, look, I'm at risk. I just am, because that's the— I'm choosing to make that choice. And so if that restaurant had some sort of air quality control, the risk factor goes way

down, whether or not you have a mask on or don't have a mask on.

Right.

And so, you know, I think that it mitigates a problem that a mask couldn't even mitigate. I mean, because it's—

that's right.

It's working constantly, right? So finding a way to fix the problem rather than— see where I'm going here— mask the problem is going to really change whether or not we're safe in an environment, whatever environment that is that we choose to be in.

No, 100%. And I think, like, I saw people do really crazy things during the pandemic, right? So they would walk up— I saw— I was watching funerals that they had online, for example, and someone would walk up to the altar to speak, they take their mask down, they'd be speaking into the air, and we know this virus hangs. Now, this is interesting. If the humidity level is high, above 55%, we know the virus can stay 23 times longer in the air. So we know there's ways to directly impact how this virus lasts. But if you're speaking at a podium, and then all of a sudden you put your mask back up, you walk away, and that person walks right into the airspace with their mask on, even though you're

6 feet apart, takes down their mask and starts talking, You're breathing in the same air.

Right, right.

So if that's in the air, like, it made no sense to me. So I'm like, okay, I'm like, so we have to, just like you said, we've got to fix the indoor air quality issue and how this operates. And we knew from the beginning of the pandemic, they did a study in Wuhan. And so they had everybody masked up, they had social distancing happening in a restaurant, and somebody was sitting next to a return and they coughed. And guess what happened? The entire building got infected because the return pulled that air up through the system. through the HVAC and deposited it out throughout the whole building, and everybody got COVID. So—

It's a very efficient distribution system.

That's right. So we knew this happened way at the beginning, and I, I just— it, it blows my mind that people really aren't looking at those solutions. You know, if it were me, I think I would pull— you know, if I was in government in a perfect form, I'd take a lot of experts from different areas, whether you had an architect, an engineer, an indoor air quality professional, Big Pharma, medical device, medical professional, doctor, physician, surgeon, and put us all in a think tank and say, all right, you guys can't come out until you figure out what's going on. But you need all these disciplines. You need everybody to kind of come up with a

solution. I just think relying on Big Pharma or medical to me is not the answer. So that's just personal.

How dare you recommend a reasonable solution?

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, but— Here's part of the issue though. I think a lot of people just don't know this technology exists. A lot of people just are unaware that there are ways to keep your home safe. And we, just a few episodes ago, I think it was 4 or 5 episodes ago now, we did an interview with some people from a company, a local-based company called Living Safe at Home. And their whole deal is removing all of the bacteria and the things that are causing the virus to grow, right? Or whatever it is. I mean, not just COVID, any problem in your home, it basically removes the food that that thing grows on. And so it can't exist anymore if there's nowhere for it to grow. I think a

lot of people don't even know that's available. So, you know, making these things more aware to the public is a huge, is a huge way that I think we can educate people and go, look, there's a better way. There's a better way to get rid of some things. And it may— yes, vaccines are great. Yes, masks are great. But, but if we can clear the air, which is the problem for this specific virus, if we can clear the air, make it healthy again, then we're instantly going to have a better quality of life. It's just the way life— this is the way it goes, right?

Right. And why not try, right? I mean, give it a shot. And now this HEPA filtration, the heated HEPA, is new technology. I mean, this is something that was, you know, proposed and came and pushed through for COVID. So we have to, you know, allow— look, I'm an entrepreneur and I'm the first to say I don't think there's enough out there for us to promote people and to get people to be able to produce these kind of products, and especially women. I mean, when I got into this business and I look at other women, you know, it's National Women's Day was the other day, right? Yesterday. And so you think that there's a lot of women

entrepreneurs, and when you really get out there, you realize, wow, there's really not a lot of us. And so really creating an environment— I mean, I believe entrepreneurs are our future, right? I believe that they're going to be our problem solvers. And they're going to be the ones that actually implement things. So whether that's a podcast, right, you guys creating a podcast, or it's us creating a product, or it's somebody else creating, you know, a big pharma creating a medical device, I mean, we need to thrive these environments and let— get people really thinking and put them in environments where they can thrive and achieve great things.

So— So what has to happen at this point? I mean, for something like this to catch on to the point where it is just everybody is buying one and everybody is putting them in their homes? Like, what, what has to happen? Is it just education? Because I think we can be educated a lot of things if we can't get our hands on one, right? So there's, there's have to be manufacturers that get on board. There's got to be investors that get on board.

Right.

I would assume there's just a whole huge amount of things that have to happen in sequence in order for something like this to be widely available to everybody.

Mm-hmm. And that's what— and that's what we're working on right now. And so, you know, obviously we partnered with IBP to bring the distributed— distributorship piece and the marketing piece. Um, and because of my platform as a healthy home expert, that fit really well, right? So I've reached a lot of people in a broad space. I'm able to reach a lot of people that are indoor air quality professionals. Um, and that's how it starts, you know, and you, and you just— and they're doing the manufacturing and figuring out where we can make these products and And they're the manufacturing specialists and creative behind it. And, you know, Monzer coming up with the idea and being so just an

amazing individual that he could put this together. So, you know, it all funnels together. And, I mean, look, there's a lot of other technologies out there too. We have needlepoint bipolar ionization. We have UVC technology. A lot of these also work against COVID. I don't think they work as well. And then, you've got to always worry about a byproduct, right? So, we used UVC technology for years and years and years since 2005. Uh, to eradicate mold and, and other things as well. And we know that when COVID passes over the UV light, it definitely can and be eliminated. But the thing is, you know, you've got to make sure that when it goes over that, you've

got it— the UV light's positioned right, that you've got a long enough high-intensity bulb, that you've got long enough time exposure. So what happens is a lot of people put these systems in and they just don't put them in right, and so then they don't work well.

Mm-hmm.

So, and I see that with UV all the time with, you know, commercial applications. They put a little bulb in and they shine it back right on your coil and they say, okay, well, your HVAC's not gonna get mold, but that's not how it works. So, you need to really have these things sized appropriately and they work. I mean, we use them all the time in hospitals and buildings and homes. And I mean, I use UV all the time, but, um, it's gotta be done right. It's the same with dehumidification. And you know that cuz you were talking about having a whole house dehumidifier or a crawl space dehumidifier. We use a lot of Santa

Fe Ultra Air products. I love their products. I mean, I can't talk enough about them. So, you know, we use a lot of dehumidification solutions to help get rid of different things. And so, with COVID dehumidification is really extremely important. The virus won't hang as long in the air, so maintaining that 30% to 55% relative humidity in a house is key. You'll get less bugs, right? That's about source removal, not allowing the bugs to grow, not allowing the mold to grow, not allowing the dust mites to proliferate. Once you get over that 55% relative humidity, these start— things start to take hold and they can, they can survive. So we wanna cut their sources off, like you said, and, and

deal with them.

Yeah. Well, so what, what are some other things? I mean, like, you know, because, you know, the price tag on this thing, you know, it's, it's not necessarily accessible to everybody, but like, what are, what are some other things that homeowners can be doing in order to, you know, encourage a healthier interior home health?

Yeah. So that's a really good question. So a lot of things we recommend are, okay, so controlling the humidity, right? Anybody can do that. You can go pick up a hygrometer. that tells you temperature and your relative humidity. Put one on each level of the home and then look at that and constantly monitor it. If you're consistently running over 55%, you need a dehumidifier. That's the first thing. So, control humidity. Second thing is utilize UVC technologies. I really like a company called PhoneSoap. We have no affiliation with them. I just like their product. It sanitizes your phone. So, you put your phone in, it has the right timing of UV light, right intensity, and basically takes

99.99% of all the virus and bacteria off your phone.

Oh, wow.

And, and we found, you know, I started implementing these before COVID I gave them as Christmas presents, which was so weird, and nobody got colds. And I'm like, there's got to be something to this. So, because, you know, you touch your phone, you touch something else, and you easily pick up stuff. So make sure your phones, because we use them so much, they're such a part of our whole makeup now, make sure sanitizing your phone, make sure you're not wearing shoes, you know, have inside shoes and outside shoes. Make sure you're washing all your bedding and your stuff at 140-degree temps or higher.

Mm-hmm.

So, all of that is really valuable stuff that you can be doing in a home to improve hygiene. And, if you are going to use disinfection products, use things like hydrogen peroxide, which don't have volatile organics that really are so severe. Use that on non-porous surfaces, surfaces that aren't going to get bleached out from the product. So, use Hydrogen peroxide, use a mild soap and detergent. A lot of these things work really fantastic.

So hydrogen peroxide, mild soaps instead of—

Strong disinfectants, like, you know, very powerful disinfectants that have a lot of alcohol base because you get, you know, and plus fragrance because you get VOCs. Like when I test homes and I test air samples, we can tell when people are storing, like they'll go to Costco or wherever and they'll buy those big containers of the Right. Or they start wiping their house down crazy. And all of a sudden, I get these levels back of like 1,500 nanograms a liter of volatile organics. And I'm like, what are you doing? And they're like, we're disinfecting our house. I'm like, yeah, but you're killing your indoor air quality and you're killing what's going into your lungs. You're killing your lungs. So, things

have a byproduct. And unless you're going out somewhere where you have to really disinfect like that, soap and water works fantastic. We know that. If you mix a little soap and water with hydrogen peroxide, you can break up the— COVID has a lipid, a fat on the exterior of the shell of the particulate.

Mm-hmm.

So, you want to break up that lipid. And so, that's why you use soap and water on your hands because it helps to penetrate into that structure. So, if you use soap and water and then you use something like a hydrogen peroxide after, it works great. You don't have to go crazy with all the disinfection because you can really make yourself sick.

Yeah, sure. So does the soap essentially like suffocate that lipid to dissolve it?

It dissolves though. It's like it allows it— it allows the whatever surfactant— the surfactant allows you to get to the interior of the particulate to destroy it because it's a fat, right? So it goes— there's a word for it and I can't think of it off the top of my head, but it like kind of not neutralizes it but allows it to penetrate in and then you want to use something to destroy it.

Got it.

So if you read about it on the internet, read about surfactants and how they work. It's a whole process. I knew about it in the beginning of COVID because we had to know about it. Now my brain is like, doesn't need to know that anymore. It's like done.

Right.

But, you know, trying to really— general hygiene is always, you know, really important. And I think we forgot about that for a long time. I think no matter where you live, we kind of got lax about, you know, our food quality. And you see people handling food and money at the same time. I mean, how many times did I see that even before COVID right? People would not be sanitary. And you need to Cleanliness is next to godliness in my opinion. So you need to really be— start, you know, just basic general hygiene is really important.

Yeah, absolutely. No, it's— I mean, I fuss at people about this all the time. It's like, just wash your hands.

Yeah, you need— you know, but we don't, you know, unfortunately. How many times have I gone into like a sub shop or something, right? And I see the guy touch the money and he's actually making a sub and, you know, that kind of stuff. And then you've got all these people in building structures, you don't have proper air quality. You've got— you're not changing filters. I mean, if I walked— I mean, I— listen, I've seen 30,000 houses in my career. Most of these houses you don't want to live in. And when I see how people live, it really concerns me. That's my job, right? I'm passionate about creating better spaces. But it starts with us. We have to make our spaces better, not store all the chemicals, make sure you're not storing gas in the house and 60 paint

cans and that you're actually cleaning. And, you know, I have a rule of thumb. You guys have to vacuum as many times of people that you have in your house per week. So if you have 2 adults, and 2 kids and a dog, that's 5. Technically, you should be vacuuming with a HEPA vac 5 times a week. Now, people aren't gonna do it, but that's my— that's just giving you an idea of how often you need to be cleaning so you can work up to that or get in that— get in that mode of thinking, I really can't skip vacuuming. It's important.

Hmm. Well, and so you're obviously on— on top of this— this sphere, and so is there— is there anything coming down— down the pipeline that you're just really excited about that's maybe some technology that— that hasn't quite hit the public, something that's in development that— that's really gonna be a game changer for, you know—

I mean, IBP is the, the newest one, right? I mean, that's, that's within the last month that we've launched IBP. Um, and I think, you know, that's just, that's gonna be a huge game changer for us. But just in general, I, you know, I really like dehumidification. I think controlling relative humidity is very key. Um, you know, making sure your house stays between 30 and 55%. Obviously a lot of the ventilation solutions, I really like, uh, the bathroom fan. Um, Broan-Newton has a bathroom fan out that has a bacterial light attached to it. So basically you could put it in the bathroom and it'll light the bathroom up and deter mold growth and bacterial growth. Um, I like that. Um,

there's— I mean, there's a lot really going on in the space. You know, we see, you know, toilets that do all kinds of things with you from TOTO. We see a lot of the, the touchless faucets. Um, we're seeing obviously the IVP, the energy recovery ventilators. We're seeing a lot with ventilation fans. So, uh, it's an exciting time.

Yes.

And I definitely need— we need technology. Like I said, you go back to that trifecta. You've got to educate so people People don't bring paint cans into the house and make themselves sick with water damage and things like that. So, you need the education piece. You need to build better so we're not putting attached garages on our structures. Like, in Canada, they've changed that, or we're ventilating an attached garage because of benzene exposure, which is increasing leukemia. So, we have to build better. And then, we need to utilize technology in places where we cannot solve a problem without it. So, that's humidity control, ventilation. In this case, COVID, etc. So you need that model to work well.

Well, since it keeps coming up, I mean, that the humidity control— is there an accessible humidity control device that homeowners can look into? Or do you have a couple of recommendations for what people could look into as far as devices to help control that in their home?

I mean, I think the first thing is just get yourself a good, like, Accurite system. I actually, you know, what we have, I like the temperature tells you temp outside and temp inside, right? So it's a weather station. Um, and then you can kinda use the device around, but especially if you have a basement and a crawl space, really try to put something down in there to monitor spaces where you don't go into them frequently and you really don't know what's happening. Um, make sure your basements and crawl spaces all have dehumidification test, you know, a device to tell you what's going on in there so you can deal with it if it's above 55% for sure.

Yeah.

And I've got a— going back to that dehumidifier that I've got in my house, one of the things that's nice about it, it's got a digital readout on it and it tells you the temperature in the room and also tells you the humidity. that it is, that it is working at. And you set it, you can set it to a certain humidity level. And once it gets above that level, it just comes on and it goes off whenever it, whenever it reaches that humidity level that you've, that you've set for it. So those types of things I think are really helpful because again, it puts you in a place where you don't have to go plug it in or you don't have to go turn it on or everything. You have to, you don't have to do all the monitoring.

Right.

The biggest challenge is like whenever we're gone, For the weekend or for a week or something like that, because most of them have a water tank, right? Or will they— they've all got a water tank of some sort. And once it fills up, it shuts off. It won't, it won't keep working unless you have a drain. And then you've got to have it in a place where it can actually drain. Well, for mine, it weighs about 20 pounds, maybe 30. And so, you know, I would have to pick it up and put it in a location where it could be higher than the drain itself. And That, that becomes a little bit problematic. But I'm, I'm typically

kind of of the, the opinion like, look, I'm not here for that week. I'm not here for that amount of time. It's not hurting me too much. The house is gonna be fine for a week if it gets a little bit humid in here. Um, and then whenever I get back, it, you know, it comes back on. So I think there's ways to automate that.

Yeah. So I mean, most people, when we do our systems right, they— we hook them up with a condensate pump. Um, so you'll have a condensate pump that constantly drains for you, and then the unit can continuously run. You don't, you don't have to empty the The reservoir, which is you know definitely better. So we always do a condensate pump. Make sure that you you know draining. Make sure you're monitoring it. There was something else we were talking about, and and make sure when you're choosing a dehumidifier, make sure that you're choosing one that is a commercial grade. Okay, that's my first always recommendation: that it does have filtration above a MERV thirteen or at least a MERV thirteen rating,

and that it's designed for optimal performance in your home. So make sure that you are searching for dehumidifiers that have those credentials for sure.

So one— sorry, Greg.

I was just gonna say do your homework. I mean, like, you know, do your research and get the best that you can.

I mean, yeah, definitely. Would you recommend— we've got one that is large enough for our whole home. We're on one story, but we do have— we've got an interesting home. I mean, it's got different, you know, lots of different hallways and things like that. Would it be smarter for anyone to have multiple dehumidifiers if you don't have one built into your HVAC system rather than to have one that just kind of works on the whole home?

I mean, usually what I try to do is it depends if you have a basement or crawl space or what your application is, but I always work with dehumidification from the bottom down. So I always put the lowest level, I use the most optimal and strongest dehumidifier I can because I can influence what's happening on the top levels. So always start with the bottom first, dehumidify that level, whichever that is, your basement, crawl space, slab, whichever, and then monitor what's going on up Upstairs because typically because houses are built under negative pressure and stack effect, they'll pull up and out so that you'll equalize your humidity upstairs. And the hotter the temperature, the lower the relative humidity.

That's just so basements and crawl spaces are typically your cooler zones. So they're gonna have more relative humidity than upstairs. So if you deal with the bottom first, usually that will eradicate the problem upstairs.

Hmm. Okay. Makes sense.

Okay. Well, is, is there anything we haven't, we haven't covered with you yet? That you wanna make sure that we talk about today?

No.

I mean, I think, um, the other thing we can just talk about a little bit is like what— how people can get an assessment of their home and do it really easily.

Yes. Let's do that.

So I have an ExaminAir here. So this is our product line. This is the ExaminAir, and I'm always liking to talk about our products. So thank you. Um, but this, you can go to examinair.com. Um, and this gives you a great assessment. It's our allergen and mold test kit. This does all your molds, it does dust mites, it does particulate. We do a deep dive. You have an option with this kit to do a deep dive on particulates. You can look at soot, you can look at, do you have building materials, do you have cellulose, fiberglass, all that kind of stuff. So, if people need their ducts cleaned, this gives us a good assessment. It's $400. You can pick it up. It does 3 samples inside the home,

1 sample outside. You can order additional samples if you need to. But this gives you a really good overview. And so, we utilize this all the time with our clients, right? So, when I wanna say, hey, I wanna know what's going on. You don't need me yet.

Mm-hmm.

Do the test, and then we'll see what's happening. So it's a great test. We designed it. This is our second generation. So, you know, we just advance it as we go, but easy to use. And, you know, our clients use it all the time, especially with COVID You can test your house yourself. You don't have to have us come in and go traipsing through.

So is— is that something— is that something we can order from your website, or where— where can— where can people get that?

Yeah, they can.

I mean, they can obviously call My Healthy Home. Which is behind me, um, but they go to examinair.com. You can order it there and you can look at all the information about it. So we have a separate website for it, but it is our product.

Okay, and so it's not— it— and it's not just a one-use product. You're saying you can actually get additional pieces for it if you need to go and use it again, right?

Yeah, you can do that. Yes, you can do that. But the way it comes is that you'll take 3 samples inside the home, 1 sample outside the home. So it also gives us an interesting environmental look at what's going on outside. Like, do you have high pollen levels? Do you have high dander count? Um, mold counts. So we can look at a lot of different things and really get a good environmental assessment, you know, for relatively cheap. I mean, $400 gives you a lot. I mean, you get a lot of information, especially if you're having headaches, fibromyalgia, allergies, lethargy, you don't know what's wrong. You really need to do an assessment on your house. I mean, there's no question.

Yeah, and so when people use that, do they then gather the data and send it to you guys, or is it something that they can sort of distill themselves?

There's 2 options. So they can do a consultation with us if they want to, to go over it and come up with solutions, or they can, you know, just disseminate the information and use it as they see fit themselves. So that's an option built into it as well.

Awesome.

Or they can, you know, wing it and do their own thing.

Yeah, you know, we mentioned the Living Safe at Home people. I can see this working really, really well in conjunction with that. It's not a replacement.

Right.

It's not something that, you know, that would be, oh, do this instead of— like, this gives you an info— you know, the information you need to tell you, yeah, look, there, there's these issues. And, you know, it's, it's kind of one of those deals like, how, how clean do you want your house to be? And how safe do you want your house to be? Um, you know, this is a place that you sleep, you eat, you, you know, go to the bathroom, you live, you mean all these sorts of things. And, um, at the end of the day, it's a place that you spend a lot of time. And so making sure that it's safe is really,

really important. So I'm really, really excited about this, this product. It's a pretty cool, pretty cool deal for sure.

What I like too is that what it tells me, and you guys can appreciate this being builders, right? And construction stuff, they— it tells me when people's bathrooms are due for a remodel because people think they just do a bathroom or kitchen and that's it, right? Oh, It's— we can get 50 years out of it, and it's not true. I've got a 20-year threshold. If your bathroom or kitchen is over 20 years old with water sources and everything else, you need to remodel.

Oh, wow.

You cannot just expect to have a kitchen and it stays forever. So what this does is it gives me an indication, and I say to them, look, you've got a mold problem happening here. Maybe it's not something you have to address right now, but I'm telling you, you need a new kitchen or a new bathroom. And that's where it's extremely helpful, so people can put that on their pipeline and say, Hey, you know, we did this test. And— and I recommend people test for mold every 3 years 'cause that gives you a baseline and then you start testing to make sure— 'cause behind the walls, I mean, you know, condensation, toilets, showers, all that stuff.

Yup.

When you bring water sources in, you're getting mold. I mean, every house has mold. So it's the amount of it that starts to become problematic and the kind. So you need to stay on top of these water sources. You cannot just let them go infinitely and say, oh, uh, my bathroom's 50 years old. I don't need to redo it. Forget it. You have to. You have to do it.

Yeah. And I think, I think there's contractors everywhere that just stood up and clapped for you. I mean, like, look, if it's, if it's 20 years old, it just needs to go. You know, you got, you got to, you got to remodel this thing.

Especially now, especially now, the products that we're using, we're using a lot more synthetic product that does not hold up to moisture. Like, you know, when you did an old mold mud shower back in the day, and you really used your, you know, your metal mesh, and then you went over it with concrete, the durability was a lot was a lot better, you know, unfortunately. But a lot of these products, especially if you're using drywall— I mean, people say, oh well, I used Greenboard, it's not gonna get moldy. That's not true. All Greenboard does is draw out the chance, right? Draw out the time period that something will get moldy. It doesn't deter mold at all. So you have to really stay on top of these

products. They just don't hold up as well as they used to. So you need to make sure you're redoing bathrooms. I mean, you got to. You have to. Bathrooms in particular, like you cannot get away without it. So every 15 years, just be prepared. You've got to do a bathroom.

Yeah, which, which may be doable. I just, I just had a news flash come across the screen. The Congress passed another relief bill. So you got, you got some money coming your way.

Yeah, if you're watching live, you just heard it live here, folks.

Money, money, money.

That's right. Yeah, well, and, and I, I'm with you 100%. 100%. Like, I think that people just are unaware of what they're unaware of. And that's one of the reasons we're doing what we're doing is just helping educate people, help giving people some more information about things that they are unaware of. So, man, this is— this has been really, really good. Is there anything else that you want to mention before we get to the final thing that we do?

No, I mean, I just think, guys, if you're going to be a homeowner, please, you've got to do your due diligence. Like, you don't have to be a homeowner. It's fine to rent. I tell people that all the time. But when you are a homeowner, there are things that must be done or you will be unhealthy. So, you need to stay on top of those and really be vigilant about hire— getting a good contractor, making sure you like your contractor, you can talk to your contractor, you guys can have good conversation, and that they respect your opinion too. I really— homeowners know a lot more than people give them credit for, and they know a lot about products. So, it's really important for us as building professionals to listen to them too. So, it has to be a, you know,

a mutually exclusive conversation. So make sure you guys talk to each other and make sure you're confident, but do the work. Like, don't blow it off and say, hey, I'm taking a vacation and I'm not going to do my kitchen or bathroom. It really can turn into a serious health issue. I deal with it all the time. And this is no joke. You need to keep on top of this stuff if you're going to be a homeowner.

Right, right, right.

Well, that's really, really good advice. So, well, thank you very, very much. It's been, man, very informative and really helpful, insightful. And you've given us a lot of information for us to think about. But I know that a lot of the listeners are sitting here probably minds blown, just like ours are a little bit here.

I don't care what they think. I learned a lot.

Yeah, exactly.

Thank you guys for— thank you guys for doing shows like this, because if it weren't for you, you know, we wouldn't be able to get the word out.

So we—

this is important. And I think, you know, people feel a lot more comfortable sometimes. You know, the news is just a snippet of what we need. So sometimes more in-depth podcasts like this are so helpful.

Yeah, oh, absolutely.

Yeah, no, 100%. Well, listen, we have one more thing that we want to do before, before we take off. This is something we do with every one of our guests, and we didn't prep you for this, so this is gonna be—

Which means it's gonna be more fun.

That's right. But it's something we do each and every new guest we have, and it is what we call the Final Four.

Final Four.

That's right. So these are the final 4 questions we ask each and every one of our guests. And so they're pretty simple. Hopefully they won't trip you up too much. But, but here they are. We're going to start off with, with the very first one. What is the must-have tool you won't leave your house without?

That's interesting. You're gonna think it's funny, but I have a carbon monoxide detector. Oh, I always have that. It's in my purse. And I take it everywhere we go because you never know when someone has a a leak of any sort, whether it's an HVAC or other issues, and carbon monoxide leaks are very common at a very low level, and your detector will not go off until it is extremely urgent, but you can get very sick from a low carbon monoxide. So it is in my purse. So I'm a tech geek.

And so yours— yours is pretty sensitive then, I'd imagine?

Yeah. So it goes, you know, it's basically— I wish I had it to show you, but yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's a professional-grade detector. But I tell a lot of people to get them because you never know, you know, you'll have a small leak and they can make you really sick just as— as— as much as a big leak. It just takes a longer duration of time. So, always check your carbon monoxide. Don't just trust that you have a carbon monoxide detector and you're protected. We— I just had a client the other day. They had a cracked heat exchanger, um, and we never suspected it because the HVAC company had been out multiple times to look

at it and they just did a poor job and she was getting really sick and sure enough, it was a— you know, that's what she had, but her detectors weren't going off.

Wow.

So, must-have 2, carbon monoxide detector.

Do you know the, uh, the model or if that's available like on Amazon or something like that?

Yeah, I don't— I can't remember off the top of my head what it is.

That's right.

It's like the— it's the orange one and it's like tall and skinny and you can get it at Home Depot. Just pick one up.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cool.

Awesome. All right.

Second question here. What's a job you walked away from? And so in the notes here, you see a project you walked away from. We kind of wrote this badly whenever we first wrote the question. Because we want to know, like, is there something that you had that you were working on at your house, maybe something broke or, you know, whatever, and you just were like, nope, I'm done, I gotta go and find a contractor to take care of this for me? That's kind of the way we intended the question, but we wrote the question, what's a job you walked away from? A lot of people take that to be a career, so maybe you had a career you walked away from, I don't know. But there's the question, what's a job you walked away from?

Well, I'm gonna change it. So I'm gonna tell you what's a job I wanted to walk away from and my client wouldn't let me.

Oh no. Oh, I love it.

I had a client who had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and they thought that they had been exposed to Roundup. If you guys are familiar with glyphosate, and there's a lot of information out there, which is an herbicide, right? And I had tested the water and that was the only ability we had to test test for glyphosate at the time. And, they pushed me and they said, listen, we really think we are exposed. And, I'm like, look, there's nothing I can do. I don't have any technology. And, they said, please, please, please. So, I had to go to a lab in California and we developed a test, an FDA-approved lab to actually test for glyphosate and we found it in the filters in their home.

Wow.

And, it came from their neighbor who was spraying incessantly outside. We think it was a transmission that occurred from the neighbor overutilizing So, um—

Did they have like a well or something like that?

No, no. It came in through the air. It came right in and— Oh my gosh! Got trapped in the filter. So when we pulled the HVAC filter, it was in— they had glyphosate and AMPA, which is the metabolite as glyphosate breaks down. So—

Oh.

And my client hadn't used it in 2 and a half years. So we— we deducted that it did come in from the neighbor spraying. So we're a community, guys, and like anything you do—

Affects—

You are not—

Yeah.

Not affecting somebody else. You have to realize that. We— we all have to work together in all of these things.

Yeah, people don't realize how big issues like drift and—

Yes.

Because when you're spraying things like that, there's additives that you can put to make sure that it doesn't do that. And that sounds like massive overspraying to be able to get in the air like that. That's crazy.

You know, my opinion on that is that, you know, these herbicides, we need them in agriculture for lots of reasons, but they're not something that a residential customer should ever have their hands on for many reasons.

You and I haven't agreed more about anything so much. today as that.

Yeah.

Good Lord.

So I tried to walk away and they wouldn't, and thank God. And then I ended up presenting it at the Indoor Air Quality Conference. So see, your clients know more than you. They can push you and sometimes you need to listen to them.

There you go. Very, very cool. Awesome, man. What a great story. Yeah. Cool. All right. Uh, 3rd question. How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Oh God. I wish I had a better technique.

If it works, it works.

I mean, it's so hard because like especially like we just shot a commercial for one of our dehumidifier clients and like after being up for— we were up, we did a shoot that was like 14 hours long and then they didn't leave till 11 o'clock at night and you just, you're so wired from the lights and you try to sleep and you can't. But I mean, I'm really— I just get in the bed and I have one of those big weighted blankets. Do you guys know those?

Oh yeah, yeah.

The weights. And so I just wrap myself up like a woobie. And I just like, I like, I'm weird. I like to put it over my head and I go like into like a cocoon. I don't know, call it like going back to like being in the womb. I don't know what it is, but I do that. And then I get under there and just kind of try to relax. And I do, I'm a music buff. So anyone who knows me, if you know Eric G, we're big music, music people. So any kind of music is good.

Well, so we'll do this real quick because he actually sent us a question for you. Um, and his question was, what is her favorite rock band?

Oh God, I can't.

I like—

I mean, I am such a music buff. I mean, I like everybody. I mean, if I had to pick, I mean, Van Halen was always one of my favorites. You know, they're way up there.

But which version of Van Halen though?

I'm a— I like them both. I'm a Roth and a Hagar. But I mean, Eddie Van Halen was my icon. He was my crush from childhood. So, you know, I was totally devastated when he passed.

Gone too soon.

But, uh, It's, uh, yeah, that's a hard one for me because I— Eric knows I love music of all genres.

Yeah, yeah, he's just picking on you now, isn't he?

Yeah, that's what it is.

All right, last question. What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever received?

That's really good. Um, you know, I, I just think that when life— and it's so cliché and I hate to say it— but when life gives you a lemon there's a lemonade in it. I think that you can constantly, no matter what bad scenario is presented, there's always something good. Like always. Like no matter what you look at, like if you look at the trees, right? The trees are beautiful, need their leaves, but they have pollen, right? So there's always a negative and positive to everything. And if I think you focus more on the positive and what you can learn from it, and sometimes you fail. I mean, I've failed a million times, right? And then you just get up, you dust yourself

off and you keep going and you look for the positive in it and there's always something there.

So.

So, you know, don't get so down. It's all how you look at stuff. There's always a positive and negative in there somewhere.

Awesome. Very, very cool. Well, thank you. That's a— that's, that's really good wisdom as well. We, we would agree with you on that for sure. Well, Craig always comes up with one last question. It's probably the hardest one of the day. You ready for this? Yeah, it's the—

it's a secret question of the Final Four, which is the Final Five, which is not— it doesn't have the same ring to it. If people want to get a hold of you, how do they find you?

That's it, healthyhomeexpert.com. Just type in Healthy Home Expert, My Healthy Home, Caroline Blazowski, any of the above things, Healthy Home, you'll find us. So we're based in New Jersey. We're a national company, so we service clients and homes all over the country as well as internationally. We just did a wonderful home in Australia. So, um, yeah, it's really exciting times. Look, if you don't feel well, if you have symptoms that are just not being recognized at a physician's office and you're not getting better, please, please, please look into your environments. Just do a little bit of testing. It's not that expensive. And try to figure out, you know, if something in your environment's making you sick because it probably is.

And they can find you Facebook, Instagram, all those places as well?

Yep. Healthy Home Expert on Facebook, Instagram. LinkedIn.

What else?

Twitter, wherever they want to go. Healthy Home Expert or My Healthy Home.

We'll link all that up in the show notes for you. Thank you so much for jumping on the show.

You guys are so sweet. You're sweet to have me and I appreciate being here and I hope some of your audience really benefits.

I know they will.

Yeah, most definitely. Well, cool. Well, thank you again. Thank you for being here. Thank you all of you who are listening, whether it's live or on audio or video through YouTube, thank you so much. We would really, really appreciate it if you'd take a moment, go over to iTunes and leave us a rating and review. That would be fantastic. Subscribe wherever you listen and give us a like on Facebook. That would be awesome as well. We are just doing everything we can to provide you with this great content that we're doing. And man, Caroline, you've been really, really helpful, and so I know people are gonna be benefiting from this from years to years, years and years to come. So

yeah, we're doing everything we can to put out an episode each and every Tuesday. So thank you for being with us, but until then, we'll see you next time.

See ya.

Bye, guys.