Trailblazing the Healthy Home with Caroline Blazovsky

Episode 75 • 1st March 2023 • Construction Disruption • Isaiah Industries

Caroline Blazovsky:

I think it's important to stay true to what your vision is, because it's, you know, you're going to hear along the way. No, you can't do that. I think when you're on to something that's innovative, you're always going to hear no, because people don't like change. It's just the nature of the beast. Stick to it. If you really believe in it, educate yourself, get all the education you can and and prove your point and just keep moving forward.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:00:33

Welcome to the Construction Disruption podcast, where we uncover the future of building and remodeling. I'm Seth Heckaman of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty metal, roofing and other building materials. Today, my co-host is Ryan Bell. Ryan, how are you doing today?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:00:49

Hey, Seth. I'm doing great. How are you?

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:00:51

Doing well. it's been a little while since we've gotten to do one of these together.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:00:55

It has. It has. I have a joke to share.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:00:58

Oh, here we go.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:00

And this is from my daughter, my seven year old. She heard it at school, and it's an amazing dad joke. I'm not really sure she got it, but all her friends were laughing about it, so she thought it was hilarious. What do you call a cow with no legs?

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:01:17

I'm not coming up with anything.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:19

Ground beef.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:01:24

Oh, no.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:01:25

That is a good one.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:27

Yeah.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:01:28

We will add...

Ryan Bell:

: 00:01:29

From a seven year old.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:01:30

Seven year old coming up with the best dad jokes. There we go. Running list of Construction Disruption dad jokes, so. I think Ethan records all these ones that we say each week and we'll review them at some point. But that was a good one. So before we get rolling with this episode's guest, do want to let listeners know that we are doing challenge words like normal so you can go ahead and be listening for odd, unique words that may seem interestingly placed in conversation to see if you can pick up on them. And we'll recap at the end. But look forward to this conversation in time with today's guest, America's Healthy Home Expert Caroline Blazovsky, the CEO and founder of My Healthy Home. Caroline has over 20 years of experience in the area of home health and wellness practices. Her specialty is creating healthy homes and healthy practices and she has over 30,000 home investigations under her belt and is a well-known speaker and media expert, having been featured by AARP, Martha Stewart, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, Forbes, and many others. She's also been recognized as a top entrepreneur by the state of New Jersey. Caroline, thank you so much for joining us today on Construction Disruption. Really looking forward to learning how designers, developers, builders can put their customers on the path to having homes that are healthy and designed for the future.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:02:55

Hey, guys, how are you? Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to implant my word secretly.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:03:02

There we go. Looking forward to it. So, Caroline, to begin, researching a little bit ahead of time of our conversation, your educational background covers a wide range of areas from philosophy and political science to sustainable architecture, design and public health, which all seems like the perfect pedigree and background leading to where you are today. Tell us a bit, though, about the path that led you here and what drew you to building a career around healthy homes and healthy living?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:03:32

Yeah, it's kind of strange how our background sort of, you do all these kind of odd things along the way. You know, we all have this weird path and it is kind of strange how it sort of incorporates itself into our careers. And I'm sure you guys all have the same story. But I actually started in media, which I loved. I loved radio and when I was in high school we had a high school radio station. I don't know if you guys had media background too, but started real young. And so I started there and then I ended up in New York. I worked, I was an intern for the Howard Stern Show. So then while I was in New York, I developed weird allergies and I started getting these strange allergies that I just couldn't understand. And I had never had allergies. So that started me on this path of kind of looking into environments and what was going on. And this is going back, you know, 23 years ago. So there wasn't this residential understanding of our home environments and indoor air quality and environmental aspects regarding residential homes. Nobody even thought about it. So I started on that path and gathered all the information and education I could learn from every indoor air quality class I could take or every certification of public health. And then I went back to the Keck School of Medicine to study public health there, and I went and studied architecture at the Boston Architectural College. So I started just kind of gathering all this information, and it was sort of like Pandora's Box. Once you opened a question in one area, you had to kind of research other areas and get more education and in different areas to answer those questions, right? Because a house has so many different components to it. So that's a little bit about how I started and how I got into it. But now I'm knee-deep and many years, many years in.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:05:11

Yeah, absolutely, super interesting. How do you make that leap from having those allergies and the symptoms to knowing it was indoor air quality related? Did you, were you just going down the list of environmental allergies or food allergies and all these other things and then eventually realized what was going on?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:05:30

I think so. But I think my calling, probably I should have been a doctor. Like I'm a really good diagnostician. That's my like, if anything is my special gift. You know, we all have these special gifts. Somewhere along the line someone gave me being a diagnostician. And so I was able to sort of put all these pieces together at a very young age and say, Hey, this is like, something's going on here with molds. And something went in the environment, but this is way before. I mean, we didn't have testing in residential at all back then. This was like you were doing a petri dish in a house to find out if you had mold. So, you know, before the Indoor Air Quality Association, this is going back, like I'm dating myself. But, you know, I'm 50 and I started this career when I was in my twenties, so there was no Internet, You know, you couldn't get on and just punch in mold and find out what you had. So I had to, I was forced to do the research. And, you know, lucky for me, I got to make a career out of it. So it's kind of cool.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:06:23

Wow, yeah, very neat. And obviously all the more passion to bring to the business today where you know, when it affected you firsthand so directly. And now you get to help lots of other people through that. That's awesome. So so now at this point, yeah, 25 years later, you have a full-time schedule of media appearances and, you know, running your business at the same time, a business called My Healthy Home. What does your business do and why might someone engage with you?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:06:50

So we're I mean, traditionally we started out as environmental consultant. So if you have an issue in your home and you're not sure what it is, that's my job to go in and to assess your environment. And I'm looking at a lot of different things, not just indoor air quality. I think we sort of lately we've gotten on this path where we associate homes and being sick with just indoor air quality issues and there's so much more that goes into it than that. So we look at things like, you know, could you potentially have septic gas leak, could you have, you know, of obviously the indoor air quality issues that we talk about, the gases, the methane, the formaldehyde? Do you have a radon problem? Is your water okay? Do you have things like uranium in your water, heavy metals, maybe you have PFOS? You know, looking at lead and different things, the house is just a plethora of problems and there's a lot of things that can make those things go wrong in a home. And they can also just come in in building products. So covering that whole gamut and looking at mostly why people don't feel good and then is there a correlation back to the home? And are there things we can fix in the home to promote wellness? And not always sick people, but it can be, you know, people who just want to be healthy and stay healthy.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:07:56

Interesting. You know, in the introduction we talked about you're up to 30,000 of these home inspections at this point. So how are those concentrated in your immediate area? Are you pretty far-flung across the country?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:08:09

I've done inspections in every single state across, you know, the U.S. and then I've done international as well. So it's a pretty big gamut. And yeah, and I see so many different problems. And I think because I've been able to acquire that expertise, I think that's what makes me kind of unique. When I look at problems. I'm not sort of like real pigeonholed into, Oh, it's just this right? I'm like, let's it could be this, it could be this. And I think people gravitate towards that. I do have a lot of dense knowledge about homes and what can go wrong. So yeah, but going back to the question about our business, we do environmental consulting, we provide solutions, so we provide education, we provide technologies that people can use, whether it's UV light or we're talking about filtration and ventilation and things like that. So we have those options too. And then of course, we tried to guide people to proper building science, which you could appreciate for sure.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:08:58

Yeah, absolutely. So after you, you know, you start that investigative process for really just the interview process, maybe you call it, of hearing how the homeowners feeling, what they're trying to accomplish. What are what are your go-to next steps then? Do you have some immediate tests you start conducting to get a feel for the structure? What does that process look like?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:09:18

Yeah, we do and it's kind of interesting. I guess overall, the years that I've been doing it, a lot of the times of people come with symptoms. It really can pinpoint me in directions. You know, we can look at, oh, it might be a VOC issue based on what they're exhibiting. Or if you get someone, for example, who has a lot of chronic sinus infections or maybe they have chronic ear infections or pneumonia, we automatically start to look at things like, you know, mold spores and their bacteria concentration. What are they being exposed to? And then you'll get other issues where we see a lot of children, like where they're suffering maybe ADHD or they're having learning difficulties where they didn't before. Then we'll look at maybe volatile organics and we'll look at that line or, you know, I had a client the other day who had mycobacterium avium, which is a very strange bacteria that was occurring in their lungs, not something typically seen. So we got a lot of really strange sort of requests and I think I get the challenging ones because, you know, people say, Oh, I've been to this person, this person they don't know. And and I like it, I welcome it. I think it's cool. It's kind of like, you know, house detective, if you will.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:10:19

Interesting. You've got to have some stories of what you've crazy or unique things you found during that inspection process. And you know, any of those you're willing to share like you.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:10:30

Yeah.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:10:31

Have you found grapes growing in the attic, or anything like that?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:10:33

No, no, no, no, I haven't. But no, we find really crazy things like we found mummified raccoons in ductwork. We found horse hair, horse dander like in L.A., in the middle of this mansion that was just like, making somebody sick. And it was coming in on. And I tell the story all the time that the client had a massage therapist that was coming into his home. And he was in his eighties and she had horses. So she was going to the horses and laying in the stables and being with the horse, and she was bringing it into my client's home and he was getting sicker and sicker and nobody could figure it out. And eventually his doctor said, Look, like everything comes back normal. We don't know what's wrong, but there's this woman on the East Coast and she's like, amazing. Like, you should figure it out, call her. And so sure enough, he ended up having like a horse protein exposure. We see it with cats, we see it with dogs, we see with rats, mice. We these things are around us and in close proximity and you don't realize it and they transmit proteins or maybe you go somewhere and you pick up the proteins on your clothes or things like that. I mean, it's just it's endless. You know, I've had clients that have issues, had somebody that was, you know, vaping a lot, you know, cigarette smoke, that's all common stuff. Sewer gases, crazy bacteria, histoplasmosis. It's like all this crazy kind of stuff that can happen.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:11:50

How do you go about figuring out what it is? Do you just by process of elimination and kind of narrowing it down based on symptoms?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:11:59

Yeah, a lot of it is like symptomology and and kind of really listening and and like I said, going back to this weird thing that I have this really good diagnostician innate ability, right? So I hear people's stories and then I'll say, Well, that's weird. Like, that doesn't jive with this. It could be this and then I kind of funnel it through. I mean, there's so many different things. Like I had a client that was in, in a shore location in New Jersey, and they had three people in the home developed cancer, different types of cancer. One had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, breast cancer, and then there was another case of cancer in the same location. And they came to me and said, look, you know, we really think we were exposed to Roundup, which is glyphosate, at the time. And we had used it. And I said, Well, I really don't think, you know, this is a two-year period and these things do they break down, right? They break into metabolites and they disappear. And I said, I really don't think this is the cause of your cancer. And it wasn't something that I had normally tested for. So my client said, Look, we really want to test to see if it's here. And I said, Well, there's no known test for it, I'd have to develop a test. And I did go to California Laboratory and we developed the test. We took their vents out of their ducts, right? We took their filter and we analyzed it to see if they had glyphosate exposure in the home and sure enough, they did. So like things like that. And I had to present that to a conference because that had never been done before. So it's these kind of kind of unique things that I welcome. But sometimes you don't like the answers that you find and you're surprised too, right? Like I was thinking, no way that they use this product over two years ago and they had this chronic exposure in their home. But what we came to find out and what we think happened was the next door neighbor was spraying incessantly for, you know, weeds and other things. And that concentration was so heavy that it was ending up in our client's home. So that's the kind of stuff that can happen. And we're just this interconnected community and we like to think that we're not, right? We like to think, well, if I don't do something bad, then therefore it's not going to affect me. But here you've got a perfect example, your next door neighbor spraying up the place and you're going to end up with it in your ductwork. And I don't think, you know, that's not the first case of it. And it will never be the last. That just if you magnify that out, how many times that happens across the U.S., it's probably a very big problem that just we don't ever look at, right.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:14:15

Wow. Yeah, incredible story.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:14:18

You're like the Dr. House of houses is what I'm thinking of.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:14:22

Kind of.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:14:23

That's an old-school show. So it's just trying to dig into the strange and unique and figure out what's going on. So, you know, you had mentioned as we were getting ready to start that this field, it's always on the the leading edge and there's always new and, you know, figuring out, you know, maybe what new compounds or contaminant is, you know, is now becoming a problem. Where is that edge currently? What are the new things you're learning right now and seeing become an issue for folks?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:14:50

Well, I think like glyphosate is definitely one, you know, that's been in the media a lot and we're definitely seeing it sort of be incestuous throughout, you know, not only agriculture, right, but throughout our homes now that we're finding that that's there. You know, water is constantly an issue that we're looking at. Obviously, PFOS is a big thing that also these chemicals just end up in our water. They end up in everything and they're very hard to get rid of. And so we're finding them in places that we never did. And water is one of those things where I encourage my clients, like, you need to be testing your water every three years regardless of whether you're on a municipality water or you're on a community well, or you have a well yourself. These are things that change. And as the pipes go through the ground, what starts out over here at the lab or not the lab, at the plant is not necessarily what you end up with. And we see this time and time again, right? There's transitions that happen, things get absorbed. You may end up with bacteria in the water. You may end up even though you know, you're coordinating and doing these things. Also, the chlorine breaks down into what we call chlorination byproducts, which is can be carcinogenic. So, you know, you may have a lot of chlorination byproducts in your water and that may be contributing or raising your risk for cancer. So these are the kinds of things you have to look at and regularly test and stay up on. Because if you don't, you know, you can end up with a serious issue. Your body, you shower in this, you know, it absorbs 80% through your skin. So it's something you do every day and you don't realize your exposure. So water is a big thing. I think people need to be testing more frequently.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:16:17

So how do they go about that testing? Is that something they, a kit they order on Amazon or something?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:16:23

That's a little I mean, there's levels, right? It's like, I like to encourage everybody to test. It's kind of funny because people go, Well, you know, don't you want them to test with you? And I do. And the quality of the testing we do is obviously substantially better right then. But I like to encourage people to test in general because it makes people aware that they need to start this process with their home and sort of be on the schedule. Like I go to the doctor and get all my tests done once a year, right? Your home's kind of the same thing. You know, it needs this of constant evaluation. Your ductwork needs to be looked at. You need to run a camera in there. I call it the colonoscopy of your ducts. So you need that done regularly, you need water done. You should be doing air or some sort of sensing monitor. There's a lot out there that I like now that allows us to kind of get constant reads on what's happening so you kind of limit these exposure.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:17:13

Interesting.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:17:14

A home's like a person.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:17:16

Yeah, that's what I was sitting here wondering is that, you know, here and you list all these potential issues and, you know, it seems like, yeah, you could never stay in front of it. There's such a long list that could create a problem. But yeah, those sort of proactive ways we can get out in front of and at least mitigate it somewhat through the, through the testing. But so now I'm nervous. My wife has been trying to get me to pay for this ductwork dusting or cleaning service, which I assumed was a racket. But it sounds like.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:17:47

You want to do that.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:17:48

You're done.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:17:49

You'd be surprised what you hear coming out of there.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:17:52

Yeah, it's it's really important and it's think about it as the heart and lungs of your home, right? If that's bunk in any capacity, you could have mold growth in there, which is a common thing because you've got your condensate in all of your air conditioning. And so what happens is a lot of people forget about their drip pan and forget to, you know, service that air conditioning. It needs to be serviced. If you're in the four seasons, I'll let you service it once a year. If you're in a place where you've got, you know, summer three, let's say Florida or even Texas. Or even Arizona, California, you need be servicing this thing twice, maybe sometimes three times a year to make sure you don't have any moisture buildup in there, because if you do start to form mold inside the duct, inside the air conditioning or the handler, and then that starts spewing out through your ducts, it's just like a huge avenue, if you will, to get it through your home. So it's really important to do that. We also see lots of things that like to nest in there. So like I talked about raccoons. You can get mice in there, you can get bats in there, you can get all kinds of stuff in your ducts. Also the ducts, it's a good idea to put a camera. So when I do my evaluations, I have someone who goes out for me and I have a company that I work with very closely, and they put a camera in there just like a colonoscopy. So I can see what's going on in your ducts and know how good they are. And that kind of like allows me to not focus on that area of the home so much. Like it's it's piecemealing it. So the first thing I'll usually do is have someone do a gas check to make sure you're not leaking any gases. So that would be if you're have natural gas, methane, all of your, you know, petroleum-based products. And then the second thing that I'll usually do is have somebody have a duct evaluation. And then I come in because I want to make sure those areas are good, because if they're not there, they have to be addressed immediately. So there's a whole protocol.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:19:38

Gotcha. Well, I'll go home and tell Nicole that she's once again been proven wiser and smarter than me. So I'll get on that.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:19:47

Make sure she uses NADCA. You guys use a NADCA-certified cleaning company. And you want a lot of CFM. Like, don't hire a company that just comes with a shopvac, right? And just says, Hey, we're going to shopvac your ducts. That's a scam. But you need serious like 15,000 CFM of airflow where they bring these big trucks that almost look like like a fire truck, they're huge. And then they're going to hook up these big vacuums and they're going to blow air through there. And you need substantial airflow. And they use whips and other things, too, in there. But that's the kind of stuff. And if you can get a camera and that's my preferred choice to make sure everything's, your ducts are all sealed.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:20:21

Good to know. NADCA, what'd you say?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:20:24

NADCA, National Air Duct Cleaning Association. Yeah, NADCA.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:20:29

NADCA, and then what does CFM stand for?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:20:31

Write that down. It's not mistletoe, but it's NADCA.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:20:34

There you go. So I wanted to ask you, we've had a few instances over the years where homeowners across the country with multiple chemical sensitivity have gotten in contact with us, you know, looking for an alternative to asphalt shingles and other roofing products that off gas and leach out byproducts as they age that could be a problem for them. So they come looking at metal to see if it could be a better roofing solution. So you've had some exposure and, you know, the unfortunate, you know, debilitating condition that these folks are dealing with and the struggles of finding, you know, pure products that that won't create challenges for them, you know. What general advice would you give to someone trying to cope with multiple chemical sensitivity? And how would you recommend they go go about finding products and practices that they can tolerate?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:21:27

Yeah, and we deal with this a lot and it's becoming a more prevalent problem that people are sensitive. I mean, over 16 million Americans have asthma now. So that's one of the starting points. And we're just seeing more and more people developing these kind of sensitivities. So in my opinion, a house should be, not have any smell to it. Should be sort of like nose-benign. When you walk into a house, you really shouldn't smell anything. It should be just sort of a neutral place. And so when you start to smell things and you start to have these odors that are very profound, there's usually something that's not right. But there's lots of better choices. I mean, you can do a full build now without having this, what I call that new construction type of smell. I mean, there's better caulks you can use, better spackles you can use. You know, I'm really a traditionalist when it comes to real plywood and wood and trying to stay away from the aromatic woods and going towards the woods that have less odor to them. And of course, now they're making a lot of water-based low-VOC products, which is great. You know, that helps a lot when staying away from the petroleums and the oil bases and things that are really going to have odor. But I would think, like with metal roofing outside of you having, you know, you have your underlayment right, you're going to have some type of plywood, which is if someone's using CDX with chemical sensitivity, they typically won't have a problem with that. So using like a plywood and then you use a vapor barrier in between there, I would assume, for for metal.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:22:49

Mm hmm. Yep.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:22:50

What do you guys usually recommend with a metal roof, or does it depend on the structure?

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:22:54

So typically, if there's a ventilated attic space underneath, then it's just standard self-adhering, some sort of bitumous product at the eave edges in most areas of the country and then polyethylene synthetic product for the rest of the roof. You know the industry has evolved away from tar paper and felt paper and gone to that PE-based product typically.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:23:17

Mm hmm. So, I mean, as long as I you know, when I tell people always get like a piece of it, you know, and put it in the house with you and see how you do with it and always ask your. You know, the thing is to work with a contractor that is open to understanding your condition and if they do not, then get rid of them. Like we don't need to tolerate bad contracting. And like, I mean, I've been in this business for, you know, a long time and I know what people are up against. And you shouldn't have to explain yourself, like the consumers are so educated now and they really have a good handle on what's out there. And unfortunately, like a lot of contractors, they're rushed and they don't want to answer questions. But your home is your biggest investment. You don't need to be out of your home because you use something toxic. And this can happen to people who aren't who aren't chemically sensitive. I mean, I had it happen in my house, which was we did a a build. I was doing remodeling, I was putting in new doors and windows and sliders out the back of my house. So I had to take off the back and I put in some insulation, right. Used a Owens Corning product and I'm not shy to say what it was. And I came in the house and my significant other had been cooking some sausage that day like this, this is weird. It was like maple sausage. And I said, Do you smell like caramel, like in the house? Like it smelled like Starbucks, like a caramel macchiato? And he's like, Yeah, he's like, I was cooking the sausage. Now it was the same day he cooked the sausage, and we had the insulation put in, so you would just assume it was this maple sausage that he was cooking. And that was something that we would never make, right? So two days later, I'm like, It still smells like caramel macchiato in here. I'm like, What is the smell? It's like the sweet caramel stench. And I'm like, and like, it didn't smell bad. It wasn't like a chemical smell, but the whole house smelled like it. So the poor guy's like, Oh, I must have got it stuck down in the vent, you know? It must have adhered to the the downdraft he took takes the whole vent apart, goes into the garage, because I'm like bitching about the smell. So he takes it apart and I come back in and I'm like, It still stinks. And he's like, Well, I don't know. And so we go through this whole process. It was the insulation, they had over baked it. So this can happen to anyone, you know, when you get products yet they can be bunk. Like anybody, they can go bad and skunked but they had over baked the insulation and so with the new fiberglass which is you know formaldehyde-free, I guess they're using more of like a almost like a sugarfree base to it and it's more environmentally friendly. If they overcook it, you know, there's this, they have to bake it so it hardens. When they overcook it, it smells like caramel. So they had to actually come and they paid for us to have it all taken out because it wasn't going to go away. The whole house was going to smell like like a coffee shop for, like, ever. But it was I mean, it was strong. It wasn't like, you know, a little odor. So we had to have it taken out. And this can happen to the best of us. I mean, look, it happened to me, right? And I'm in the business of doing it. So kind of a crazy story.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:26:03

Right? And so how many people would yeah, be chasing it down a smell in their house the same way you were? I'm not sure.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:26:10

Well, it was such a change, you know, like it wasn't like our house is, you know, pretty good. And when you walk in and you smell this, it was overwhelming smell. So we just thought it was something we cooked in the house that day. Who would have thought because we were doing construction at the same time, you would never think that it was the product. But then after a while and it didn't go away, and then our contractor was like, he's like, I don't know. And then he came over and when we opened up the the overhangs, so we had the batting was out in the overhang and then up in the wall, he was like opened it up and it was like, like the smell was just like a smog of like caramel. He's like, Holy cow. He's like, I can't believe this would happen. Normally insulation, just for the audience doesn't you know, it doesn't really have an odor. Crazy stuff happens.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:26:52

Kind of nice it smelled somewhat pleasant, I guess. I mean, it could, that could have been really bad, you know?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:26:59

Yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:26:59

That could have smelled horrible.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:27:01

Like some kind of burnt chemical or something, right?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:27:04

Yeah.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:27:05

But this is why I'll always have a job, I think. Like, it's just these problems occur, right? And we're, there's the human factor in there. And, you know, I've had clients that have painted their house. I had one client and he got, I guess he got some skunk paint at Home Depot or whatever. And he, you know, he bought it and he painted his house and he had been through like a bunch of environmental consultants. He's like, I'm sick. There's something in my house that doesn't smell right. And like, we retraced the steps and I went through it with him and he had gotten bad paint and he had put the paint over a room that had used a lot of air freshener, like, you know, those Glade plug-in kind of air fresheners. And so the bad paint with the combination of the Glade or the the, you know, the chemical compounds that were in the air freshener bonded together and made this like chemical stench. So the whole thing had to be ripped out like literally that, like all the walls and everything had to be gutted and then you were back to normal. But like, these are the things that happen, it's crazy.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:28:00

Wow.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:28:01

Goodness. Yeah, it's so interesting hearing about all the variety of ways, you know, things can happen that affect us. But then, yeah, all the variety of things that can affect us, how delicate our own bodies are, let alone how, you know, complex the construction is and how those two things come together to create these situations. But, you know, overall, do you think we're making improvements, you know, in towards building more purely and, you know, things that are going to benefit our health rather than be a detriment or?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:28:32

Yeah, I mean.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:28:33

You mentioned you'll always have a job, so maybe not.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:28:36

Well, because we like to make products that don't really, you know, we don't test anything, right? We don't have any governing body over us in the construction industry that really looks at, you know, we don't have an FDA, right. So we can just throw out whatever kind of construction products we want and let's, you know what sticks, sticks. I've always said we need some sort of team effort to govern these things. But yeah, so, I mean, I think we're going to always have problems and, you know, building homes, it's sort of a testing thing, right? It's like we test it out and try it and see how does this work. And then five years later we find out, oops, that was a really bad mistake we shouldn't have done, you know, whether it's asbestos or we're using, you know, different types of building wraps that are too tight or, you know, different types of OSB or whatever. But yeah, I do think we're improving. I mean, when I started My Healthy Home and I started, you know, got called America's Healthy Home Expert, that term healthy home didn't exist, right? So now we see everybody in America, you see all these big corporations jumping on the bandwagon, Oh, healthy home, this and healthy home that. And that makes me smile. And people say, well, they're using your name. And I'm like, They're not using my name. But that term healthy home is something that we were striving for years ago that nobody ever recognized. So every time I see it, it, it makes me happy because I say, you know, we're on the right direction, definitely.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:29:50

Yeah, and you mentioned when we started that you started this before the Indoor Air Quality Association was even a thing. So making some progress and at least awareness. But so you mentioned, you know, just now that we don't have an FDA, we don't have some sort of governing, you know, government or otherwise sort of organization holding us to standards for along these lines. Is that something you'd you'd like to see? Are there any initiatives out there trying to put a put criteria together, put guidelines together for this?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:30:20

Yeah, I mean, there really aren't and there should be. I mean, there's a lot of people in the industry who are pushing for more environmentally friendly, sustainable product, right? So and we try to push people in directions. I know there's other consultants out there too, like when people come to us and ask us, like, what products do you recommend? We've got this pretty good list of things that are much healthier, right? Like, we don't, I don't know anybody who's really trying to create an industry standard or even a governing body for that type of thing. But what you do do is you work at, like I'm working an advisor positions with companies that are making from an entrepreneurial standpoint better products and helping to support them and helping to guide them to to creating better things. So I think that's one way to go, is that in that entrepreneurial space, you know, we talk about startups and biotechnologies and things like that. I think it's important to look at these companies that are coming up and try to kind of funnel companies that are going to be making healthier products for home building anyway.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:31:16

Sure, absolutely, and I know we've been aware of, you know, lists out there and efforts. You know, I think Red List was one of them that was out a few years ago and trying to do lifecycle analysis. And, you know, on all stages of the stream of products being produced. But you know something, you know, that list becomes outdated when the new technology or the new method comes out the next week. So being on the leading edge of that and working hand in hand, love that manufacturers are bringing you in in that advisory role. So what's your advice typically for them and what does that relationship look like?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:31:50

Well, it's talking about like sustainability. You know, my focus has always been health, right? We always hear this term sustainability, sustainability, but. Which is important, it's like energy efficiency. But my focus is always to bring us back to health. And I feel that if we really look at health and try to manufacture products and make homes healthier, we're going to achieve these other goals, right? It sort of like funnels down from it. So if you're putting something in that's healthy, you're going to have less chemicals, You're probably going to have something that's water-based and more biodegradable. You're going to have something that doesn't end up in the atmosphere and cause other secondary complications, right? So that's why I try to funnel back, like look at the health aspect of it, and then we're going to achieve these other goals. And that's, you know, my health has always been my number one priority. Is are we in a healthy environment? I understand that it's important that we have energy efficiency. And I, I want that. But I also want to feel like we can live in these houses and we're not going to be sick.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:32:45

That's new nuance to that sustainable conversation where that so often it's easy to for some to dismiss as such a future consideration that doesn't directly impact us but maybe, you know, grandkids and beyond generation. But, you know, in trying to think proactively 100 years into the future, but this, like all these examples you see on a daily basis, this does impact us here and now. And something, you know, in every building could impact every one of us. So, you know, good for all of us to be mindful and aware of it for sure. So it's a question we like to ask and here in your story of starting out young and finding a passion that then got you in in a unique way in this building and construction field. For other folks who may be in that same position, a listener of ours out there who is looking for something to devote perhaps their business or career to. Do you have any words of advice for them if they are feeling attracted to the area of home health?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:33:42

I mean, just for anyone that's a business owner. And I think it's important to stay true to what your vision is, because it's, you know, you're going to hear along the way. No, you can't do that. No, I mean, I heard that, like I would say, molds making people sick and, you know, people would be like, what are you talking about? Like, it's just mold. Like it doesn't do anything. And I'm like, no, no, no, it's not good. And, you know, you're I think when you're on to something that's innovative, you're always going to hear no, because people don't like change. It's just the nature of the beast. So, you know, stick to it. If you really believe in it, educate yourself, get all the education you can and and prove your point and just keep moving forward.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:34:19

Fantastic. Let your passion guide you, learn as much as you can along the way. And yeah, you'll figure it out. Like you obviously have. So, well, thank you so much. This conversation has been enlightening and fun. So we are wrapping up the kind of the business end of things. But before we wrap up here completely, is there anything else that we haven't covered that you'd like to share or touch on?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:34:43

Just if you're out there and you're listening to this podcast and you know, you have these unexplained health issues that you're not sure or there's no cause, right? Maybe you go to the doctor and they say everything's fine, but you still have headaches, sinusitis, maybe a muscle pain. Start looking at your environment, start looking because that amount of inflammation, these things in our building create inflammation in the body which contribute to disease. So you need to really take a look at your environment. You're spending all this money to go to the doctor and go to functional medicine, go holistic, go acupuncture, and it's not working. Just take a look, start paying attention to what's around you because you'll find out that, you know, 85% of what's happening is probably environmental. We do it to ourselves most of the time.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:35:22

Goodness, yeah, so true many times. Well, thank you. Before we close out, I have to ask if you would like to participate in something that we like to call our rapid-fire questions. These seven questions can range from serious to silly, and your only commitment is to provide a short answer to each one. And as always, audience knows that if you agree to it, you have no idea what we are about to ask. So what is it? Are you feeling up to the challenge of rapid-fire Caroline?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:35:53

I am. I like a challenge.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:35:56

Great. So, Ryan, do you want to alternate asking our questions?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:00

Yep. Sounds good.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:36:01

You can go first.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:36:03

I can see him. He's got a look in his eye. He's got this, he gets this, like, little devilish look in his eyes.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:10

They're not that hard, they're not that bad. And we'll start off with an easy one. What is your favorite meal?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:36:18

Oh God, I'm a foodie. I like everything. Can I say everything? Because, I mean, there's, like, maybe one thing in the world I don't like, and it's like sardines. So I'll say something I don't like. And I do that because I really I mean, like, I can't make a decision. I just love food. So, sardines is the worst.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:31

That's fine. That's funny that you say that, though, because sardines was a challenge word a few episodes back.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:36:40

And as a foodie, sardines are kind of trendy right now in the Keto, Paleo...

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:46

Are they?

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:36:46

Yeah. Eat sardines and olive oil for breakfast.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:36:49

Gag me.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:36:49

Yeah. I can't handle that fish right first thing in the morning. So second question, if you had to choose, would you rather go skydiving or bungee jumping?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:37:05

Oh my God, guys, none. I am afraid of heights. No.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:37:09

You have to pick one.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:37:12

Oh God. I guess bungee jumping's like that thing where it like boings you, right? Like it, like flies. And then I don't want that, so I'll just have to go skydiving. But that's not happening.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:37:22

Is falling for longer or is whiplash worse?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:37:25

Yeah. No, no, whiplash. So skydiving.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:37:30

I think, I don't like heights either, but I think I would choose skydiving over bungee jumping any day.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:37:36

Yeah, just that whipping feeling of no, I've got bad neck and joints. Forget it, not happening.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:37:43

What would you like to be remembered for?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:37:49

Hmm, that's a good one. Making people's lives better, making humanity better.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:37:51

Fantastic. Question number four, what is your dream vacation?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:37:57

I'm easy, Hawaii. It's my go-to, anywhere on the beach or anywhere and, you know. Whether it's the road to Hana or Maui, Oahu, any of it, I'll take it all.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:38:09

I was going to ask if you. Do you have a favorite island?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:38:12

No, I like them all. I've spent quite a bit of time there, so I like, I'll do anything there, I just love it. It's my favorite place.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:38:18

Yeah, I've had the pleasure of a few times, so it. Yeah, one of mine as well.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:38:23

It's my home away from home for sure.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:38:26

What is your favorite movie?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:38:29

Oh, God, there's so many good ones. I can't, I can't gauge. I'm a, like rom com, like anything comedic, so like, I don't watch anything serious. So, like, I would have to say any John Hughes films. So like that whole era of like Pretty in Pink and 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, any of that kind of stuff is my go-to.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:38:50

What is your, yeah, we're giving you lots of favorite questions and they're probably, yeah, obviously difficult. And yet another one, what is your favorite genre of music?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:39:00

Oh, God, you guys. I'm like, into everything. Like, I'm like a music buff, so everything. But right now I'm going to say I'm into Måneskin. They're like my new, like, favorite thing that I've been the band, the Italian Euro band. If you're not familiar with that. Yeah, So I'm really into them right now. So I'll say them.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:39:19

Måneskin, interesting.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:39:20

I don't know that I've ever heard more than I mean, there was that one song I can't think of the name of it that kind of got them popular on the radio and then another one. But beyond that, I haven't listened to their work.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:39:32

They're so great and fun. It's kind of like rock, euro, euro punk. I mean, they're just, they're like a mix of everything and they're really cool. And I'm just it's been a while that I've really been obsessed with like a band because I'm like, typically I'm like from that Hair Nation. So, you know, like, like Poison and Cinderella and all that kind of stuff that I grew up on. But I mean, I just am crazy about this band and they're new and they're fun, so check them out If you don't know who they are, look them up.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:39:59

Awesome.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:40:00

This is not a rapid fire question. It's an extension of the last one. Do you play any instruments?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:40:04

I don't, but I'm like an avid collector of memorabilia. Yeah, like I'm a big rock and roll person. I mean, our house is filled with, you know, everything from Angus Young to Eddie Van Halen to Van Halen signed stuff to Goo Goo Dolls. Like, we're real into it, so.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:40:20

Oh, wow. Cool.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:40:21

Collecting a lot of cool stuff. And, yeah, a music buff for sure.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:40:25

All right. I thought, this is interesting. I don't know, have you heard this? I'm a guitar player. So when Eddie Van Halen passed away, I had read some articles about him and he had, kind of dovetails with our topic today. He thought he had gotten, he thinks he had gotten cancer from his the metal picks he used.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:40:43

It's completely possible. I mean, it makes sense, you know? I mean, you don't know, right? But it's, I'm sure he's a pretty educated guy and he went all over the world for treatment. So it wouldn't surprise me in the least bit that that was a possibility. But he also you know, he was also an avid alcoholic. He was also an avid smoker. So you don't know. But he had a pretty good history for getting some sort of mouth or throat cancer. So, yeah, a lot of risk factors.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:41:08

Okay. Final question. If you could give a gift to everyone in the world, what would it be?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:41:17

Oh, that's easy, a healthy home.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:41:18

Perfect. Yeah, great way to end our conversation. So, Caroline, thank you again. It's been a real pleasure, a lot of fun, and enlightening, like I said. So for folks who want to get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:41:32

Easiest way is to type in healthy home expert or healthyhomeexpert.com. And we come up all over the place and or you can find us on podcasts just like this one. And you know, it's we're pretty easy to find. So if you type in Healthy Home you're going to come across us somewhere.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:41:47

Fantastic. Thank you for getting out there and helping so many people, 30,000 and counting. Healthy homes, healthier people, healthier world. So before we wrap up, Ethan reminded me here off to the side, we do need to touch on challenge words. A couple of us were successful. I think we may have had one not so successful.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:42:10

I fumbled.

Seth Heckaman:

: 00:42:13

At the goal line, got it over. There we go. So Ryan's was fumbled, mine was grapes. So grapes growing in the attic? Yeah, weird thing Caroline's going to find. Caroline, what was your challenge word?

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:42:31

Misteltoe, and I got it in there. I did it.

Caroline Blazovsky:

: 00:42:33

Seth Heckaman: There we go. We were all successful. Good deal, well Caroline, thanks again. And thank you listeners for tuning in to this episode of Construction Disruption with Caroline Blazovsky of My Healthy Home, America's Healthy Home Expert. So please watch for future episodes of our podcast, we have many more great guests on tap. And don't forget, please to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. Till the next time we're together, change the world for someone, make them smile, encourage them. Two simple yet powerful things we can do to change the world. God bless and take care. This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode of Construction Disruption.

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