Caroline Blazovsky, America's Healthy Home Expert, is back in the mix with Eric G and John Dudley, and boy, do we have a lot to unpack! We dive into the wild world of healthy homes and the absolute madness that surrounds what we thought was “safe” a decade ago. Turns out, our understanding has evolved faster than my last attempt at DIY, and we’re here to set the record straight on the absurdities of building materials and home health. From discussing the sneaky dangers lurking in your cabinets to the questionable “green” products that might be more toxic than a bad sitcom, we’re all about getting real with what’s going on in our living spaces. So grab your ear buds and prepare to be both educated and entertained—because no one wants to live in a house that’s secretly a health hazard, right? Reuniting the dynamic trio, Eric G, John Dudley, and Caroline Blazovsky dive into the nitty-gritty of home health and the absurdities that come with it. It’s not just about sprucing up your living space; it’s about making your home a healthy haven. The conversation kicks off with a nostalgic nod to the days when Caroline was co-hosting, bringing back memories of their wild discussions during the pandemic. This episode is all about the evolution of what 'healthy' means in the home context, especially as science reveals the dirt we didn't know we were living in. From particle board cabinets that crumble like stale bread to the dubious claims of 'green' products that could be secretly poisoning us, Caroline and the guys tackle everything with a mix of sarcasm and insight. They explore how building materials can be more harmful than helpful and how we must scrutinize what we let into our homes. They even have a laugh about the ridiculous claims some companies make about their eco-friendly products. It's a reminder that just because something is marketed as healthy doesn’t mean it won’t turn your home into a toxic dump. Get ready to rethink your home improvement projects!

Takeaways:

1. Caroline Blazovsky highlights the evolving understanding of what constitutes a healthy home, emphasizing how outdated ideas can lead to poor choices in home improvement.
2. The discussion dives deep into the absurdity of greenwashing in the home construction industry, where products labeled as eco-friendly often contain harmful chemicals.
3. Eric and John humorously debate the practicality of modern building materials, revealing that some sustainable options are as sturdy as a wet paper towel.
4. The trio discusses the surprising impact of indoor air quality on health, showcasing how common household items can be surprisingly toxic without us even knowing it.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Mattress Warehouse USA
2. Essentia
3. Naturepedic
4. Serta

Links referenced in this episode:

1. aroundthehouseonline.com
2. healthyhomeexpert.com
3. myhealthyhome.com

Mentioned in this episode:

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Exciting collaboration alert! This playlist documents our joint project renovating Cam Anderson's new farm property on Blacktail Ranch—the home base for his adventures beyond the workshop. Cam (the woodworking wizard behind Blacktail Studio, with millions of fans loving his epoxy tables, live-edge builds, and creative furniture tutorials) is stepping into brand-new territory: his first-ever full home renovation and remodel. From the charming (but dated) farmhouse with its "lead paint chic" vibes to tackling structural updates, layout changes, and modern upgrades, we're transforming this 17-acre property into a functional, beautiful living space. I'm Eric G from Around the House, bringing my remodeling, construction, and design expertise to guide the process—planning layouts, solving real-world renovation challenges, handling the practical home improvement side, and making sure the build is smart, efficient, and homeowner-friendly. Expect step-by-step progress, honest discussions on budgets/timelines/hiccups, tool tips, design decisions, and the fun dynamic of blending Cam's woodworking flair with pro remodeling know-how. Whether you're a Blacktail Studio fan curious about Cam's new chapter, a DIYer tackling your own home reno, or just love watching big transformations, this series is for you! https://www.youtube.com/@aroundthehouseEricG/playlists

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Exciting collaboration alert! This playlist documents our joint project renovating Cam Anderson's new farm property on Blacktail Ranch—the home base for his adventures beyond the workshop. Cam (the woodworking wizard behind Blacktail Studio, with millions of fans loving his epoxy tables, live-edge builds, and creative furniture tutorials) is stepping into brand-new territory: his first-ever full home renovation and remodel. From the charming (but dated) farmhouse with its "lead paint chic" vibes to tackling structural updates, layout changes, and modern upgrades, we're transforming this 17-acre property into a functional, beautiful living space. I'm Eric G from Around the House, bringing my remodeling, construction, and design expertise to guide the process—planning layouts, solving real-world renovation challenges, handling the practical home improvement side, and making sure the build is smart, efficient, and homeowner-friendly. Expect step-by-step progress, honest discussions on budgets/timelines/hiccups, tool tips, design decisions, and the fun dynamic of blending Cam's woodworking flair with pro remodeling know-how. Whether you're a Blacktail Studio fan curious about Cam's new chapter, a DIYer tackling your own home reno, or just love watching big transformations, this series is for you! https://www.youtube.com/@aroundthehouseEricG/playlists

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Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see every part of the project for Blacktail Ranch

Exciting collaboration alert! This playlist documents our joint project renovating Cam Anderson's new farm property on Blacktail Ranch—the home base for his adventures beyond the workshop. Cam (the woodworking wizard behind Blacktail Studio, with millions of fans loving his epoxy tables, live-edge builds, and creative furniture tutorials) is stepping into brand-new territory: his first-ever full home renovation and remodel. From the charming (but dated) farmhouse with its "lead paint chic" vibes to tackling structural updates, layout changes, and modern upgrades, we're transforming this 17-acre property into a functional, beautiful living space. I'm Eric G from Around the House, bringing my remodeling, construction, and design expertise to guide the process—planning layouts, solving real-world renovation challenges, handling the practical home improvement side, and making sure the build is smart, efficient, and homeowner-friendly. Expect step-by-step progress, honest discussions on budgets/timelines/hiccups, tool tips, design decisions, and the fun dynamic of blending Cam's woodworking flair with pro remodeling know-how. Whether you're a Blacktail Studio fan curious about Cam's new chapter, a DIYer tackling your own home reno, or just love watching big transformations, this series is for you! https://www.youtube.com/@aroundthehouseEricG/playlists

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Coast to coast, it's the nation's number one home improvement radio show and podcast with certified kitchen designer Eric G. And co host John Dudley, a former contractor and online technology expert.

Delivering real fixes, smart tech and trusted advice.

Remodels, repairs, energy savings, smart homes, diy.

We've got your answers.

It's around the house.

Dive in and get inspired.

Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us today.

I'm Eric G. And man, we have a full house here.

Of course, we got John Dudley sitting in here as normal.

Hey, John, good to see you, brother.

Brother, good to see you, man.

And now we're going back to one of my best friends here who used to be, especially during COVID when we had nothing else better to do, was the former co host here, my friend, America's healthy home expert.

Trademark.

Trademark.

Caroline.

Good to see you, my friend.

What is up, bro?

It's my brother from another.

Yeah, I had to put trademark because that's a whole other.

If you're using it, you're breaking the law.

As you this priest would say, too.

Bad we can't put some priest in here like old time.

Very cool, Very cool.

I thought we'd have a great discussion today about healthy things around your home.

And there are so many different things and you know what was considered healthy a decade ago.

We have so much more science and stuff that's showing what we're making mistakes from building construction to the stuff we do around the house.

And I can't wait to see John Dudley's eyes open up on this one because he's going to go, what are you two talking about?

But Caroline, I go old school on this stuff.

Like I know it.

If you don't eat dirt, you're going to get sick.

Come on, Caroline, for the people that are new out there, let's talk a little bit about you real quick.

You're known as America's healthy home expert.

When I got stuff that I have to lean on, you're the first person I call and go, this really the best plan or what can we do?

And we debate it, right?

Because we think houses are not.

There's never going to be the right answer.

I think it's always going to be a combination of health versus practicality, sustainability, energy efficiency.

It's something that's always open to discussion.

And that's why I like talking to you because we're going to, we're going to basically hammer out all the details and figure out some alternative that probably falls in the middle somewhere.

Yeah.

Homes.

We know there are a plethora of problems, and we're here to sort it out for you.

One of the ones that always drove me nuts in the sustainability thing, and this really brought me back to when I was working with Johnny.

Remember working at old time woodwork.

We were working there, and we were up against some cabinet competitors that were selling stuff out of Portland down here that was using particle board, but it was made out of straw.

The problem is this stuff.

If you put a drawer glide onto the side of this for a cabinet, and you put stuff in the drawer glide, it probably blew out where the screws went into it.

This was like trying to build stuff out of rice cakes that you would get at the grocery store, and it just didn't held up.

I actually did two big kitchens up in a place called Suncadia, which is a big resort.

They tried to do this whole green thing, and they got the cabinets installed, but they couldn't even put the countertops on it without it breaking and breaking down.

So it just wasn't strong enough.

So literally, they went in right into the landfill.

And I put new cabinets in there before the homeowners had even moved in.

And I'm like, how sustainable it is if you can't even make it through construction so bad.

Yeah.

Let alone if you own a horse.

Starving horses, guinea pigs.

It blows my mind how stuff like that even makes it the market.

Like how.

Yeah, I think that brings up a good point, Eric.

Like, when we talk about green washing.

So you have to be careful.

Like, even if somebody says something's green or it's healthy, you really need to look like.

We were talking about rice hull.

Do you remember we were talking about rice whole wood in concept.

You hear it, you go, oh, that sounds great.

And your builder will say to you, look, it's stronger than wood.

You don't have to worry about it deteriorating.

It's made from rice hull.

And you go, like, what could be in rice oil?

And then when you start to really analyze it out, it's made with pvc, which is leaving chloride, which is, to me, a carcinogenic material.

So you've got to constantly be on the ball looking at.

Okay, just because something sounds green doesn't necessarily mean it is.

Yeah, we just talked about that the other day, Right.

Yeah.

I have a buddy that's got one of those building these tiny homes with coconut husk siding and corn scraps and.

Yeah.

Anyway, all that kind of stuff.

Some of the things they're Putting it together with are, like you say, Carolyn, pretty toxic to be able to make it strong and keep it holding together.

You're like, that's not very green if you're.

It's throwing all over it.

Yeah.

And then also we have to worry about fires.

And 100 million people were affected by fires in the, over the last few years.

That's a lot of people.

And so what are we building with and what happens if we have a fire or flood?

And there was a study, and I just talked about this on a new.

We just did a, a conference that was all about healthy life, healthy living, healthy homes.

And I brought up that the science is now showing us that, you know, a couple weeks, months later, after you've had a flood or you've had some type of climate change event, these lungs are impacted, our health spans are impacted.

Like, we, you knew it, right?

When there's a, when there's a major disaster in our minds, like, from a logical standpoint, we're like, okay, we know it's going to affect our health, but now the science shows us that it definitively affects our health.

Right.

So what we build with and how those homes are going to withstand when we have fire and water damage is going to become, I think, going to be the bigger issue.

Like, we always talk about energy efficiency and healthy homes.

I think coming forward, it's going to be about how the home acts with climate change.

Wouldn't you say, Eric?

You wouldn't be surprised to see that at, like, the home building shows, like, coming in the next, I'd say, five years, we're going to see, like, stuff.

So I think no, climate change is always one of those.

That kind of drives me nuts sometimes, too, because our climate has been changing the entire time that humans have been on this planet.

You look back and they go, oh, look at these ruins in Rome.

And they're out 30ft into the ocean.

Yeah.

Because that's where the waterline was 3,000 years ago.

And so this isn't something new.

And I'm not some climate change denier, but at the same point, if you look at what, you know, let's say a house is going to last 100 years.

And there's a lot of arguments that say today's houses won't, but let's say that is it going to be 3 degrees or 4 degrees?

What's the difference?

And so I really don't think of climate change so much as is going to change it from that aspect, because I think, yeah, I mean, will it be Warmer in certain spots?

Absolutely.

Could it be colder in certain spots?

Absolutely.

And that's why they, I think, drop the global warming thing, because climate's changing wherever.

And the other thing I look at is if it was going to be that crazy, you wouldn't see all these climate change activists right now buying beachfront property.

I'm going to, I'm going to argue that.

Here we go, here we go.

Fall in the middle with.

I get your point there because I'm on the same page with you.

But at the same time, I will say we are seeing increasingly more disaster, like crazy stuff happening.

So maybe it's more than just rising tides and, and temperature going up, but we're seeing some really erratic weather patterns that are, things are a little wacky and a little wild right now, for sure.

What does that mean?

I have no idea.

I'm not a scientist.

Absolutely.

So we're all in agreement, right?

I think that's the thing.

What is causing this severe weather and why is it impacting us so severely and our building structure?

So then it comes down to, as home professionals, home improvement experts, what do we do about it?

Because you can't.

And the other question, and I'll throw this out there too, which is something I've been thinking about, is we've got these, the government trying to say, hey, we're going to go to 50 year mortgages, we're going to go to a longer mortgage.

And we have these houses that after 10 to 15 years, somebody comes in, a new home buyer buys a brand new house.

After that time period, the house is pretty much, let's say, a nice word for a dog.

Do you remodel?

Right.

It needs remodeling.

It's trash.

And the homeowners barely can afford to pay their bill, barely can afford to pay their mortgage, and yet they've got a house that they thought they would get 30, 40 years out of is just not happening.

Roofs, siding, exterior windows, building envelope, whatever we're talking about.

So these are two issues, right?

We've got severe weather, let's not say what it is.

We just know it's coming.

And then on top of it, we've got building construction that's shoddy.

So what do we do?

Yeah, and it's interesting.

And building code, I think the first thing we have to do is we got to get building code up to speed in the United States.

And so it's somewhat.

And, and of course, how we build homes in Florida is way different than how we build them in New Jersey, New York Slash Portland, Oregon or anywhere else in the US Right now, because you know everybody.

I get regionally why we have to do that, because the climate is completely different and Palm beach than it is in Boston or Southern California.

So you have to take those into account.

But we need to be able to have building code that makes sense.

I can drive around here.

I've sent Caroline, I don't know, over the last seven or eight years, I don't know how many pictures I've sent you look at this.

And it was just absolutely horrible.

And doesn't matter if it was in California or Oregon or anywhere else.

And anywhere in my travels that you see badly stapled up Tyvek around a building that is supposed to be a vapor barri, that clearly isn't going to be a vapor barrier.

It's not going to hold up.

And last.

And then on the other end, I go around and see homes that they're actually putting a complete rubber membrane around the outside that's a roll on thick.

Looks like about like 10 coats of paint.

Now that's awesome for keeping the water out, but what's your breathability on that?

Now that we have the old band back together, around the House show will be right back with a lot more from Caroline Blazofsky, America's healthy home expert, after these important messages.

And yeah, that's trademarked.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

To find out more about us, head to aroundthehouse online.com now let's get back to the show with Caroline Blazovski, America's healthy home expert.

One new rule changes all the other things in the building.

And you got to account for that.

And we're not.

Yeah, and we're not accounting for the budget.

I think too of the homeowner they're expecting every time you turn around.

So if you're tightening your building envelope, whatever you're doing a zip system, then they're saying, okay, you need mechanical ventilation.

All of this cost falls on to the homeowner.

And my question becomes, if the homeowner can barely pay their mortgage, how are they expected to make these changes and implement them?

And I think that's one thing the building industry isn't taking into account.

They're saying, okay, if you're going to build energy efficiency, then you've got to put this state of the art ventilation system and how do the people afford it?

And then if you don't do it, then you're living in a building envelope that's making you sick.

So then we get back to the whole point of now the occupants unhealthy.

Now we're running up medical bills.

Now we're running up the cost of health insurance in this country.

So I've always thought for a long time that if you were actually making smart choices with your house somehow that should be allocated or basically allowing you to have some sort of break in your own health insurance.

So if you're making these changes to have a better environment, why wouldn't your health insurance or the cost of it be reduced?

And those two things like home improvement and health care, there's this disconnect and it really should be more of a synergy.

And that's why I do what I do to try to get people to understand that it's a collaborative effort.

Right back in the day that was the first generation.

And the formaldehyde level that was in, that's what the beginning of OSB and MDF and they didn't know it was just the cheapest chipboard you could imagine.

Sprayed probably with God knows how much formaldehyde and resin.

But it saves on your.

When you go to the morgue at the end of life, you're already pre installed formaldehyde.

So you're like halfway there.

It's like being pre wired for a house charge for car charger, you're halfway there.

But no, seriously though, I mean it's and it's and there's a lot of things that we can do just simply around our inside of our house.

Great example.

I was just talking to Johnny about sitting there going mattress shopping and going okay, what's in this mattress?

I want to pay attention because you can go to Amazon and buy a 300 mattress, God only knows what's in it.

And then you can turn around and go spend $10,000 on a mattress and have a little better idea.

And then you can get into the custom super healthy ones which are more than my first four cars I bought Caroline.

And that's just one piece within your home.

What he actually said was I want to be careful because if I'm not, Caroline is going to yell at me for what I true.

Unfortunately with mattresses you're kind of jam because I've done a lot of research on them.

And you're.

You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't.

So if you got.

Let's just say some Eric bought a mattress.

Tell them what you want to tell them what brand you bought.

Just so you.

Yeah, I actually went to a local store here in Portland, which is Mattress Warehouse usa.

Not a brand at all in that that they physically buy all the parts and they build their own mattresses there, which is cool because I can walk back and see exactly what's going in these things.

There's no secrets.

You could literally walk back and say, hey, can I watch you make my mattress?

And you can sit there and watch them make it, which is cool.

And that's good to know too, because you know where they're manufacturing a lot of these manufacturers for mattresses.

You couldn't even walk in the joint.

Like, you walk in and you'd be like, you need to have serious like a P100 respirator and be prepared.

So toxic.

And then you can walk into other ones, like companies like Essentia that are making these newer mattresses where it's much lower volt organic.

However, when you're looking at mattresses.

So Eric picked.

You went with a foam.

Right.

Tell them what was.

Yeah, it's kind of a.

It's a.

It's a kind of pocketed coil with three layers of foam over the top, which cool.

And it has the certa pure foam, which is the better.

What we call the better foam.

Yeah.

And that's a traditional mattress.

Right.

That's what's going on.

The problem with.

When you go with.

Even with the Serta foams, even though they have a reduction in VOCs and reduction in chemicals, there's still a petroleum based polyurethane foam, which is okay if you.

Do you want to be laying on polyurethane and petroleum all day long and putting your head down in there?

For me, I wouldn't.

But then again, like, you have to consider price point.

But there are like Naturepedic makes a mattress which is pretty comparable.

What'd you pay for yours, Eric?

Like about a thousand bucks.

I got a.

Paid under 800 bucks for mine.

That was for a queen.

That was a.

That's very there.

It was a $2,500 mattress, basically.

Yeah.

So you're looking.

That's standard.

If you're getting a beauty rest, assert a seal.

Seal.

Those are all the standard you can get into.

Like the purples like purple mattresses are.

They run like 4 or 5,000.

And I don't know that they're from a.

From an orthopedic standpoint, I think that they can do a lot of benefit.

They actually designed the purple.

The great.

Which sits on top of it.

I don't know if anybody knows about it.

It's actually made out of mineral oil, which I don.

All that great.

The it's made.

They basically say, oh, it's a safer material.

But it was made for burn victims, which is cool.

So that when a burn victim would lay on that type of infrastructure, you wouldn't.

You could toss and turn and move, and it wouldn't open your wound and do all these things.

So then they started using it, and I guess the.

It used to be intelled, I think, and then it became purple.

So you have things like that.

But then, of course, you've got synthetics.

And the biggest thing that I found interesting is a lot of beds use fiberglass.

Did you know that, Eric?

Like, it's in the mattress.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

That's pretty crazy to me.

I don't need that.

You know what I mean?

I just look at that and go, yeah, no, not good.

Not good.

This one here is all the foams are certa pure US certified, which is cool.

So that way it's.

And they don't have any fiberglass or off gassing chemical stuff in there too, which is cool.

And the very top is a woven thick cotton, natural cotton top on top of it.

That also keeps you away from those foams and stuff.

Stuff, which I thought was cool.

You have to really do your research on these mattresses.

And there's stuff hidden like the fiberglass that you wouldn't know.

And the other thing is too, when you start to have a mattress that's Your kids are jumping on it, it's broken, it's got some kind of rip in it, a tear.

It's time for it to go.

Especially if it's an older mattress, because the older ones, there weren't as many guidelines as there are now.

So people who hang on mattresses for 20 years and they've got their kids jumping on top of it.

It's.

You could have fiberglass, you could have silica.

There's a lot of crazy things in there that could be coming out.

But, yeah, there's definitely research.

Yeah.

What do you think about all these fire retardants that they force them to put on these beds?

Because I see recalls all the time that, oh, this bed mattress didn't Meet the fire prevention standards, and they get recalled.

And I go, okay, you're putting a chemical on the bed.

That can't be great.

Yeah, now they're trying to.

A lot of the mattress companies are changing to go into the wool rayon.

Like, they call it a proprietary fire fireproof because you still are required to have fireproofing on a mattress.

And that's because some idiot somewhere decide to smoke their cigarette in bed, catch the mattress fire on fire.

And now we're forced to have chemicals sprayed on our mattress because, like, a small percentage of someone decided to burn up in their home on a mattress they could use.

Asbestos, by the way.

I think I'm gonna live forever.

Oh, my God.

I think I'm gonna live forever because I spent probably 85% of my life sleeping on futons.

So I'm good.

You're good.

See, except for your back.

Like, what is it for your back?

Yeah, a bunch of feathers.

I don't know.

It depends.

There's all kinds of different ones, but, yeah, very basic.

Hippie.

Yeah, there you go.

I don't know stuff.

But it ain't chemicals.

It's one of John's good friends.

I can say that dude has an ability to sleep anywhere.

I was gonna say I'm pretty okay with the tile floor and my leather coat behind my head.

Don't think that hasn't happened a few times in the last couple of years, even.

Yeah, I'm not witnessed that over a dozen.

I am no mattress pro.

I'm like, yeah, that feels good.

Okay.

I used to be like that.

I'm like, jealous because I.

Don't you remember when you're young, Eric, I could sleep anywhere.

It didn't matter.

Just give me a blanket and like a Dorito sleeping bag.

And I was like, I'm out.

I'm done.

Now it's like I can't fall asleep to save my life on toss and turn.

And so.

Yeah.

Well, something Caroline, that you got me on early on with us working together was you asked me what was in my garage that was attached.

And the absolute stuff that you have in a workshop is not house friendly.

From the mek to the brake cleaner to the lacquer thinner to the stains to whatever else to the roundup that's sitting out there.

All the different stuff that you have sitting around.

Not really great to have inside the building enclosure.

Nope, I'm not going to live forever because I did spend a number of years spreading millions of square feet of polyurethane coatings and bathing in toluene and mek to get the stuff off me.

After every day of work, there's that.

It balances out.

I think I'll hit 85 and be okay.

Now that we have the old band back together, around the house show will be right back with a lot more from Caroline Blazovsky, America's healthy home expert, after these important messages.

Welcome back to the around the house show.

To find out more about us, head to aroundthe house online.com now let's get back to the show with Caroline Blazovsky, America's healthy home expert.

I think I'll hit 85 and be okay.

I know, Johnny, you trained well.

It's like training for a marathon.

Your liver was like liver.

Your liver is like marathon runner.

Seriously, dude, Add to that all the other derelictions of my life and my blood test results, just like a year and a half ago, two years ago, the guy said, oh, your liver's great.

I'm like, that's impossible, dude.

You don't understand.

You don't understand.

He's like the liver of a seven year old.

It is beautiful.

Regenerate.

So funny.

But Caroline, you really.

Let's hit on that because I think that's an important one of some things that people can do around their house because people are going, ah, man, I can't afford to go spend three grand on a new mattress today.

But what can I do around the house to get things dialed in a little bit better?

And maybe it's using your vent fans and cleaning out the garage a little bit and putting in the shed.

Oh, yeah.

And I was going to say before John was saying what he was saying, I have a had a client and this is called what we're doing now.

So there's different laboratories.

Like there's a laboratory called Vibrant Labs and you can go get your lab done.

And we do what's called a tox burden panel on you.

And so we look at real time, right?

You get your blood work done.

We can see exactly what chemicals are building up in your body.

And this is everything from like your pesticides to automotive.

If you're looking at roundup pesticides, we look at everything, tungsten, heavy metals, and we can actually see where your body isn't doing so well at detoxing because everybody's got different types of, everybody's got different types of abilities to methylate different things.

So we're doing that now, which I like because what did he say?

I have the constitution of a stone somehow.

I would love to see it.

No, seriously, I would love to see it.

Absolutely.

Just to go, there's no, it's off.

That's wrong.

Do it again.

But you're probably one of the people that, like, there are certain ways to methylate things out of the body, and some people just don't have that DNA to do it right.

So you always see, like, you say, oh, this guy lived to 110.

He smoked, he drank, ate chocolate all day and had terrible diet and smoked cigarettes and had martinis, and he lived forever.

And that's because certain people just have the ability to do it and to have that gene and they can methylate.

So a lot of the clients I see don't have that ability, so they end up really sick.

And this woman was really interesting.

She came to us.

She ended up getting her toxicology panel done.

And we saw all of these automotive stuff in her blood, Eric.

Like, crazy levels of, like, stuff that you would only see on somebody who worked in, like, an auto if they were doing automotive stuff for a living, doing.

And I said, this is really weird.

Like, this is just associated with, like, car maintenance.

What are you doing?

And she goes, my husband's a mechanic.

And I said, where is he working on everything?

She goes in the garage, but not attached.

It was out.

He had his own separate garage, but he had been an auto mechanic his whole life.

And guess what was happening?

He would come in, work on the cars, come and sit in the kitchen, have lunch, bring all these chemicals on his body that he was like, you, like, just.

He could do it, right?

It just didn't bother him.

Maybe he had a tolerance.

Maybe it was just he methylated.

And she was getting sicker and sicker.

And when we looked at her blood work, which was so cool, we could see all these chemicals.

And then they brought me in to say, where are these chemicals coming from and how are they relating to her?

Where?

And like, how are they getting into her home?

And it was her husband.

So it's pretty wild time for a new guy.

That's wild.

Yeah.

No, and I see so many people on social media and stuff, and I feel bad because they've built a wood shop in their basement.

Maybe they're in a more metropolitan area.

They've got a city house, no garage on the back or anything like that, because it's just an alley back there.

And they're like row houses, and they've got their wood shop in the basement.

And I'm like, man, if you think about how toxic wood, like walnut, black walnut is, or any of the other Ones.

And then you throw in all the finished chemicals and everything else.

Not a good place to be.

Talk about that a little bit like, about the woods.

Because I get into that when I'm dealing with some clients.

But some of these woods can be highly toxic to you.

Some of them are in their woods, you see all the time.

Like black walnut.

I have to be care.

I've done enough black walnut projects that I have become sensitized to it.

So if I'm out there sanding, you will see red face and around the mask where the mask was from, just the skin contact from the black walnut.

So how about cedar?

We've got pine, right?

Are there.

I know there's less aromatic woods, obviously, like redwood, the oaks, maple.

Those are better, I would think.

But I guess if you're allergic to maple, you know you're allergic to.

It doesn't matter.

Some of the ones that are pretty crazy, like you people build furniture or something out of it.

Super poisonous.

It's like the wood, the bark, the needles, something.

People go, I'm gonna make it out of that.

No, Black locust, Same kind of thing.

The bark can cause nausea.

Wood dust will get you, but even the locust causes dermatitis.

Dust irritation is really crazy to work with.

And then you get into some of these other woods, like the rosewoods or the bubingas, satinwoods.

That kind of stuff really can get you there.

And so you got to be really careful.

Just the dust, even some cherry, like.

Like American cherry can do that.

And so you gotta be really careful.

Like, you shouldn't go out and take your rhododendron and azalea bushes and burn them because that puts off toxic smoke.

So you gotta be really careful with what you're doing with woods and stuff, because some of that stuff isn't awesome.

Now they're doing all these exotic woods.

Like, Eric and I were talking, so we're on the.

I'm on the east coast, and you cannot get cedar.

You cannot get redwood here anymore.

Just I guess it's too expensive to bring it in from the west coast or wherever they're importing it from.

So now we're seeing all these strange woods that people are not used to, like, dealing with or even know, like, what the impact is, because we just haven't worked with it.

Like, we have the red Grandis.

I told you that's like a new thing.

I'd never worked with that.

Yeah.

And I mean, there's.

And there's even, like, sources of mahogany, but it's not called Mahogany.

You can look it up, Eric, because there's, there's all these different types of exotic woods and like, we just don't know about them and we don't know what it means if you cut them in the house.

And then of course, like I was telling you about the rice hull, you need to know what's in rice hole.

What am I cutting in my home?

It's not good to be cutting PVC like.

And you may just think it's rice hall and not even know.

So it's getting a little crazy.

But you can't get a lot of the traditional stuff here anymore.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So you start looking at these probably 15 years ago, maybe 20 years ago, you started seeing companies come up with different hybrids because they were trying to come up with a sustainable way to farm, get quick growth, but get a hardwood.

So they would take eucalyptus and mix it with something else to get a wood.

There was a popular one.

One of the first ones that came out was done by, I think it was done by Georgia Pacific and it was called Liptus.

It was eucalyptus hybrid.

So they could farm it, cut it off at the ground, it would grow back up very quickly and it was a great wood.

It's not probably that much different than the red Grandis because that is a eucalyptus hybrid.

So it's probably something very similar in that comes into it.

And it's pretty non toxic when it comes to dust, which is pretty good too.

But when you get into these woods that are the hybrids, they also can do funky things like the eucalyptus.

I was, I think, John, you remember this when I was working on that big Lincoln Square project and it was the cabinets up there, we put that in there.

And the problem with it is nobody realized it until you started putting a whole kitchen together.

Is that the wood?

Because of the silica that's in the wood refracted light.

So when you held a cabinet door up, the rails, which were the top and bottom pieces of the square frame of a recessed cabinet door were way darker.

And so if you put.

It was like a, it was like a pen and teller trick.

Someone put blue tape on the dark spots.

And then you take the door and put it on its side and it's dark again.

And they look like you're David Copperfield doing magic tricks.

But when you have a building full of glass walls, that makes a difference.

And so there's a lot of these little things you got to pay attention to because it always looked like the top and bottoms were darker than the Sides.

And there was nothing you could do with it because that's the wood.

Interesting.

The red granda.

So it's supposed to be completely durable.

The thing I don't like about it is I think it smells like a banana.

And you know me, I don't like smells.

So Eric knows I'm like, anti SM smell.

Yep.

I used it on a project and I was like, what?

It keeps smelling like banana.

So I'm like, I like it to go away.

I don't want to keep smelling banana in my house.

But it's what you can get.

Rum's not bad though.

Banana.

Rum.

Johnny's shaking his head at me.

That's.

I was thinking banana's not that bad of a smell compared to like oak.

I can't stand the smell of oak.

See, everybody's got a different preference.

I think the worst wood smell.

And this is a project that I messed up when I was working.

It wasn't my fault.

It was just.

I didn't realize that this was even a case.

Not I was working on a project.

When Johnny and I were working on old time woodworking together, lady went out and bought a bunch of reclaimed redwood.

It was gorgeous.

It was this almost really dark gray.

I didn't realize it came out of Nally Valley.

Johnny.

And it was the pickle vats down there.

That's that pickle story.

He told me that story about the pickles.

So they were the side staves for the pickle vats down in Nally Valley.

And I hate pickles.

Not many.

I hate vinegar.

Anything that smells like vinegar.

Ugh.

Not my thing.

People go like, you're ruin it for me.

Not my deal.

But I was like you.

There was nothing you could put on top of that was going to keep a hundred years of vinegar from coming out of that.

I'm sure nothing was growing in it because it was probably with the vinegar.

It was probably the PH was probably off the charts.

But still you got to be careful.

Like with reclaimed woods.

Where did it come from?

Was that a wood floor out of a chemical storage facility that had Agent Orange in it for 30 years or what was it?

Seriously?

Perhaps the site was.

Or they sprayed it for termites.

Think about that.

Like you're picking up stuff that's got like.

Now that we have the old band back together, around the House show will be right back with a lot more from Caroline Blazofsky, America's healthy home expert, after these important messages.

And yeah, that's trademarked.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

To find out more about us, head to Aroundthe House online dot com.

If you are listening on the podcast, make sure and hit that subscribe button.

Now, let's get back to the show with Caroline Blazowski, America's healthy home expert.

Yeah, they've gotten away with just.

It's so much marketing, it's crazy.

And then it's a lot of chemicals.

Right?

You're adding all that stuff in.

What are you seeing, Caroline, with those, like the.

I'll call them the wet wipes that we see out there that kind of want to throw the brand out there.

But it's the tube of wet wipes that you get for cleaning and been sanitizing around the house.

Especially during COVID we used them anywhere.

So we saw that Eric and I talked about during COVID when I was testing air samples.

We kept seeing this D come up, like, really high levels of delimonene.

And so this is why you talk about something being green or healthy.

Delimonene is citrus.

So anytime you crack an orange or you use something that's got that lemon, that nice lemon smell to it, that's all delimonene chemical.

And it can be natural.

It doesn't mean that it's not necessarily synthetic.

But when people were using all the.

The wipes and they were disinfecting everything with the disinfection wipes and buying boatloads of them at Costco or BJ's or whatever you have.

Yeah, we ran into all these people having poor indoor air quality because we were picking up the chemicals from those wipes inside of the homes.

And it just escalated.

And people were storing them in like vats, and they're never hermetically sealed.

So even though you think like you, they're in the package still and it's not affecting you, they actually are leaking out all the time.

And that's a natural thing.

It's not like your body doesn't know the difference between a PA can or gasoline or benzene and then a natural scent like citrus.

It just knows it's got to get rid of it.

Going back to John's liver would be able to get rid of a lot of citrus.

I don't know how.

I really don't know how.

That and the metabolism of a squirrel.

I somehow survive.

John, Eric and I can study him.

We'll use him as a.

As a. I'd be a good test case for sure.

We'll put John in and see what happens.

We'll start you as our new FDA or epa.

Of homes.

As far as citrus goes, I was always a big pledge fan and I can't imagine that stuff was good for you, but I should about it.

So what you're saying, Caroline, I gotta be careful because I've got.

I gotta get to juicing here.

But I've got literally have two 5 gallon buckets of fresh lemons I brought back from Southern California.

I probably should be careful with those and get those things wrapped up.

That versus leaving them in the house.

Somehow I think that's okay.

It's not good.

I think you're all at once and this inhaling lemon all day long.

Juice them all at once.

But yeah, I was gonna.

I was gonna put my foot down right there.

It'll be a little bit more.

Yeah, but it's just.

It's what it is.

Outlawing lemons.

I got an issue like.

Okay, wait a minute.

We're getting carried away.

It's to remember that natural things like eucalyptus is natural.

Puts off a.

We're talking about the smell of banana.

Goes right on, right, right on, right on.

Natural it is.

It is natural.

I just.

Natural it is.

Silica is natural.

And silica does all kinds of stuff to you.

Yeah, we find that, believe it or not, one of the biggest things we find in homes is high levels of silica dust.

That's.

People come to me and they're like, oh, I have a mold problem.

I'm sick.

I can't breath my home.

And then we test their duct work and it's silica that's the problem.

And they never cleaned up after a demo project or a modeling project, a build project.

And they have serious amounts of silica dust in their home.

Like, I'm talking like those millions of.

Square feet of polyurethane coatings that I did.

We threw millions of pounds of silica sand on them to.

They're like for parking decks and things like that at Microsoft.

And me at 20 years old, I'm like, I don't know.

Respirator is hot out here.

Probably not good.

Good.

Just throwing handfuls of silica sand out of wheelbarrows all over this polyurethane field of toluene vapor.

See, we need John's lungs, too.

We need his liver and his lungs.

And then throw two packs of cigarettes on top of that, two packs of.

Marlboro Lights on the.

On this for 40 years.

You got it?

Wait, but I'm going to tell you something, John.

This is why you're healthy.

Okay?

So they did this study.

This is interesting about carbon monoxide and everybody knows what carbon monoxide is, right?

It's a colorless, odorless gas.

That's that we don't want to be around because it could potentially kill us in high levels.

So when Covid was around and all these people were ending up in the icu, they went into the ICU and they expected to find, like, people who smoked a lot and were really drank a lot and were toxic.

And that's why Covid was affecting these people.

But when they went into icu, they found people like me who were, like, not doing any of these things and were, like, totally pristine, not smoking, not vaping, and we were really sick.

So they started looking at carbon monoxide, and we were looking at it wrong.

Like, back when.

Before we had any knowledge when Covid was happening.

But carbon monoxide.

So smokers, when you smoke, believe it or not, you get high levels of carbon monoxide that go into your body from the cigarette, anything, if you smoke anything.

And the Indians used to do this, right, when they would smoke their.

What.

But they.

Paoli.

And they.

Yeah, whatever it was.

Yeah, yeah, they smoked a bunch of stuff, but they.

There was reason behind what they did, and they did this because they were smart, and they somehow knew that carbon monoxide, that cigarette, prevented viruses and prevented the body from being able to, like, the virus to adhere year.

So all these people who had Covid that were smokers, did you have Covid?

I did, yeah.

Twice.

And did you have it severely?

Not at all.

Are you a smoker?

Two packs a day for 40 years.

40 plus.

Yeah.

To speak to your point, like, I'd watch these UFC fighters get laid up in the hospital for 90 days, six months, like, healthiest dudes in the world.

And I'm chain smoking with COVID and I'm fine.

I'm like, I was tired for a couple of days.

See?

And again.

And it's funny you say that, because I always swore by that model in my younger years of dereliction.

It was like, nothing.

Nothing can live in me.

That's why I never get sick.

Because people, like, all you do is drink and smoke and other things all day, every day, like a derelict.

You never get sick.

Totally.

They used to call me the weed because I couldn't be killed.

Dude, you're just like, a weed.

Like, you won't, like, I'm telling you, if you just pollute and abuse your body sufficiently well, it won't allow any of that.

Now, we jump the shark here, but.

Won'T allow the other nonsense, like viruses in there.

No, but the point is that.

And there's like, kids don't pick up vape and start vaping because they'll give you every other reason why you shouldn't be vaping for other things.

I would not do that, surprisingly.

But the carbon monoxide is a legit thing.

And so when you smoke that carbon monoxide, which is interesting on the inset of a virus, prevents the virus from replicating, prevents it from going into your tissues because your body actually produces.

Like when you get sick, it starts to produce CO to get rid of the virus naturally.

But if you're already smoking, that virus has a hard time replicating, like in your case.

Case.

However, the downside to all this about carbon monoxide is that when you're trying to get better from COVID So say you get Covid and you're not a smoker and you're exposed to carbon monoxide in your house.

Say you have a slight leak, right?

Your gas, you don't know it, and you've got like a 2ppm where your detector's not going off, but you constantly have a gas leak, which happens all the time.

And we could talk about that, Eric, about detectors, how, like, how poor they are.

But detectors are set to go off at 70 ppm.

When your carbon monoxide has been running excessively for four to eight hours.

And then the detector goes off.

That's really bad.

That's all the other levels leading up to it are just.

You're taking a nap.

Yeah, you're done, like, essentially.

And all you're sick all the way through, and you're just like, I don't know why I'm sick.

I don't.

And then all of a sudden the detector goes off and you're dead.

So that's why this whole system is best messed up.

But if you're trying to recover from a virus or Covid and you're exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide, then you won't get better.

It's the opposite.

So our body has this really weird relationship to carbon monoxide.

You need it.

It's actually something that we're studying it more and more and the privilege of studying with this really cool toxicologist who taught me about carbon monoxide and like, like the interesting play it has in our body and that we actually do need it and that it functions.

Every disease, like, every disease known to man that you can get will raise your carbon monoxide in your body naturally.

So, like, they can tell.

And it's got like 280 biomarkers.

So if you're exposed to carbon monoxide, your molecular structure, your biomarkers in your body will change just because of carbon monoxide.

So it's a really interesting gas, but in your case, John, it kept you probably alive and.

And less sick than someone like me who didn't smoke.

Yeah, I thought for sure I would just get crushed if I got.

I mean, I. Yeah.

And oddly enough, every time I do start to get sick, or actually get sick, which is super rare, I smoke more.

I don't know if that's just because I can't taste them as much or if it's like.

Or if it's like some subconscious fighting against it.

I don't know.

But I always smoke more when I.

Or your body knows.

Your body might like.

It's so trained.

That's what I'm saying.

Maybe it's high level carbon monoxide is actually helping you.

It.

It's a proven thing.

It's not like hokum.

So I always thought I was just being silly, like trying to thumb my nose at it, but you just made sense out of it.

Thank you, science.

There we go.

Caroline, we're running out of time, as always, because we could do this like a Joe Rogan thing for four hours and then be going into the night and go where the time go, because that's how this rolls.

And you and I have done this a million times, and that's exactly how it goes.

But there are so many people out there that are like, I think my house is making me sick and I think I've got a mold problem or I've got something going on.

On.

How do people track you down?

Because I tell you what, you're the one I lean on when, okay, I know somebody that's not feeling well, and I think it's their house.

What's the best for them to find you?

HealthyHome.

Expert.com if you type in.

My Healthy Home is the name of our company.

But anything like Healthy Home Expert.com.

my Healthy Home.

Even if you just Healthy Home, who's the best in the country?

We come up hashtag trademark trademark Come find us.

We can test your house for everything.

We can test your water, we can test your air, we can test your building.

We are like, you can do it all here.

So just hook us up with you nationally and we will.

We'll get you better and we'll figure out what's going on.

Caroline, this went.

This took five minutes, it seems like.

And we got this far.

It's like, how did we just get this far?

And it was a full show.

So thanks for coming on today, my friend.

It is so good to do this.

It's been way too long and we got to do this.

Maybe we should do this every month or two and dive into the subject because it's something we just haven't covered enough of since you haven't been on the show.

We talk.

So for those who don't know, but Eric and I are very best, best friends and we talk all the time and I lean on E whenever I have a question or I see something because I know he's got the answer.

So if you're tuning into this podcast, he's the right guy to go to because he's my right hand for everything that's happening.

It's how it goes.

And John, great job today keeping keeping us apart here and adding your.

Your crazy science in this too.

Cause I like it.

It's the best I got.

And actually you two were much more civil than I expected.

Not that I expected uncivil.

But yeah, there was not a ton of bad answer.

I think cuz we skirted the climate thing maybe, I don't know in the.

Middle of the road.

But keep smoking and staying healthy.

It's all good.

There we go.

On that crazy note, I'm Eric G. And for John Dudley and of course Caroline Blowi.

You've been listening to the House.