This week on the Natural Super Kids podcast I am joined by building biologist, Nicole Bijlsma. Not only is Nicole a building biologist, but she is a bestselling author (Healthy Home Healthy Family), founder of the Healthy Home (Building Biology) movement in Australia, and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies.
In this episode Nicole and I will be talking about the impacts of toxins and chemicals in the family home. Nicole will also be joining me next week to chat about EMFs (electromagnetic fields) and their impact on our children's health.
Nicole shares with us:
Episode Links:
This week on the Natural Super Kids podcast I am joined by building biologist, Nicole Bijlsma. Not only is Nicole a building biologist, but she is a bestselling author (Healthy Home Healthy Family), founder of the Healthy Home (Building Biology) movement in Australia, and CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies.
In this episode Nicole and I will be talking about the impacts of toxins and chemicals in the family home. Nicole will also be joining me next week to chat about EMFs (electromagnetic fields) and their impact on our children's health.
Nicole shares with us:
Episode Links:
Welcome to the Natural Super Kids podcast, where you will discover practical strategies to inspire you to boost the health and nutrition of your kids. I'm Jessica Donovan, a qualified naturopath specialising in kids health, and I want to make it as easy as possible for you to raise healthy and happy kids. Let's get into it. Hello and welcome back to the Natural Super Kids podcast, jessica Donovan here, so happy to have you listening in today. If this is your first Natural Super Kids podcast episode, a big warm welcome. You've landed on a really interesting topic for today's episode and you have a lot of past episodes to dive into at your convenience as well. So today I am chatting with someone I highly admire. Her name is Nicole Bilsma and we are talking about toxins and chemicals in the home. Nicole is also going to be joining me on next week's episode when we dive into the fascinating topic and a little scary. This topic is of EMF's electromagnetic fields and how they affect our kids health and how we can minimise our family's exposure to them. That's next week. Today we're talking about the chemicals and toxins within our homes and how to make a healthier home environment. So we talk a lot about water quality, we talk a lot about air quality and some of the key things that Nicole suggests parents think about doing and making changes in terms of their home environment to create that low-tox, healthy home environment. If you're not familiar with Nicole, she is a building biologist. She's a best-selling author. Her book Healthy Home, healthy Family is the most amazing resource. I am always referring to it for information. Nicole is the founder of Healthy Home Building Biology Movement in Australia and the CEO of the Australian College of Environmental Studies. Nicole has lectured at tertiary institutions for 30 years. She's published in peer-reviewed journals and is regularly consulted by the media to discuss mould, electromagnetic fields and toxic chemicals. She lectures in Australia and abroad about environmental health issues. Her research explores the impact of environmental exposures on human health and their ramifications for clinical practice for us practitioners. Today, obviously, we're talking in a broader sense, to parents, to you guys, on some really practical ways that you can start to make your home healthier. So here's Nicole. Hello Nicole, I'm so excited to talk to you today. Hey, jess, looking forward to this. Yes, me too. So let's dive straight in and start to Actually. Do you want to just introduce yourself and let everyone know who might not know of you? A little bit more about yourself? Sure.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm sort of the healthy home expert, so to speak. I start as a naturopathic epuntrist and notice many of my patients were not getting better from changing their diet or lifestyle. And then when I moved into our own home that we bought had insomnia or sleep disturbances, and so did my husband, and then had 10 miscarriages and the neighbour said no and had successfully had kids in this house. So it got me thinking about how our home, where we spend most of our time, could be impacting the health. And then I did a deep dive for 10 years off my own back, just researching that, and because I was lecturing at uni at the time in Chinese medical theory and naturopathy, I started to teach a lot of this to the students quickly get through the nutritional curriculum so I could quickly shove some stuff on environmental stuff and they're going oh, you need to create a course from this. So in 1999, I established the Australian College of Environmental Studies and then in 2005, I became nationally accredited as a registered training organisation and run the only nationally accredited course in building biology, which is an advanced diploma. Essentially it's a healthy home expert. So building biologists are trained to go into people's homes and see if they're making them sick. A big part of the work we do is to assess water damage, buildings and mould. Mould is so big, much bigger than anybody ever imagined in terms of health effects, chemicals, of course, and electromagnetic fields and allergens. So they're the four big things we do. Most of the work we get paid to do is to assess the mould in the building. So it's the only government accredited mould testing course in Australia and I'm about to launch some programmes for the public on how to understand mould and EMFs so they can get the terminology right, so they don't get ripped off by the insurance company and by restorers and remediators and they know, you know, is their house making them sick. So looking forward to now that I'm at the tail end of my PhD is to create good content for the public, to get rid of a lot of misinformation that's on social media and to educate them so that they can create healthy homes, especially for the kids. I'm a mum, you know, with three kids. I had three under three. The teenagers are now 16 and Charlotte's 14, so you can just shoot me right now, because that's really bloody hard at times. I've got to say, even though I've had 10 miscarriages. I love the little buggers. But gee, no one compares you to teenagers and I probably should have done a psych degree, but apart from that they're great most of the time and even with my background in research in environmental exposures and the EMFs, I'm still yelling at them get off that bloody device. So probably a good place to start there.
Speaker 1:Oh well, that is. That is so reassuring because I'm right there with you. I've got a 13 and 16 year old and I agree I don't know if it's the past kind of dilutes the challenges of the toddler years is diluted now, but I don't know if the teenage years are some of the hardest years in terms of parenting.
Speaker 2:Well, look, I think physically it gets easier as they become into it to know their beautiful personalities, but mentally it's like, wow, that's why it's just started walking. Just get out of the house, call, just zip your lips and just don't take anything personally and just finger shitload of organic coffee, and then I'm cool.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree, not taking things personally. I think is huge, isn't it in the teenage years? Absolutely yes. So in the next episode we are going to talk about EMFs, so that is going to be really interesting, but I'm glad that you struggle with that as well, like keeping them off their devices. Oh it's so hard. But this episode we're going to be talking about toxins and chemicals, so can you go through some of the main toxins and chemicals parents need to be aware of that are impacting their children's health.
Speaker 2:All right, chemicals is an interesting one because it's not like you get run over by a bus and then you have a broken leg and you go oh, that's the cause of my broken leg. Chemicals are insidious and they are everywhere and they occur from the cradle to the grave. That's the problem is that we realize when I first studied naturopathy 30 odd years ago, I we, when we're looking at prenatal care, we go six months before you get pregnant, as a minimum, get your diet right, get your lifestyle right and you'll have a healthy baby. Well, that's actually not correct. We now realize it happens with your grandparents. And something very interesting happen with our parents and our grandparents is that they were exposed to a huge amount of toxic chemicals in the form of pesticides. When they change farming practices, that essentially Resulted in this what we call transgenerational effects, which means these chemicals were passed through the placenta and through the breast milk. And now we are seeing a pandemic of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, adhd. I've got two kids with ADHD. My ex had ADHD, has ADHD and you know ADHD and it's becoming normal. It's, it's everywhere. And I think the key change when I looked at this in my own research when I was doing Completing my PhD on the impact of environmental chemicals and health. That big one was pesticides, because the organic chlorine pesticides, ddt, came in in the 50s and 60s with changes to farming practices and they are what we call a persistent organic pollutant. They stay with a fat is and, unfortunately, every cell membrane, every cell in your body has fat. The repository of fat in an unborn fetus is all in the brain and that's the problem. So during pregnancy, when they're going through the placenta, they're being deposited into the central nervous system. That's why it's really important to think about all. Women of reproductive age need to cut down their fish dramatically. No more than one fish meal a month. In 2016, mark launched a campaign to warn all pregnant women. Fish contain PCBs and toxic metals, especially mercury. So no more than one fish meal a month, and we see this a lot with hand mineral analysis, but also toxic load in general. Really be mindful about what you're putting on your skin. There's a lot of toxins that happen through skincare. That is misinformation on on marketing Diet. Of course, you're putting 22 tons of food through your gut over 70 years, so there's a lot of toxins there. When I had looked at my gene profile and my Toxic. When I looked at the chemicals in my blood through GPL tox, which is a US test, I had Low levels of organophosphates and my doctor said are? You? Obviously are an organic diet because the levels of pesticides in your body Hello, which is a good thing. He said cold because your capacity to detox that chemical is almost non-existent based on your gene profile. So how, what we're getting to get an idea is is that how people deal with the toxins varies. It's so unique to each person so the same person can end up with kids with ADHD or autism and others with the same toxic load don't. So what is really important is, overall, to reduce that toxic load through the diet, through not putting you know things on your skin that are not good enough to eat. Really thinking about where you exercise, not near heavy traffic, where you live, not near heavy traffic. You know chemicals, cleaning products. All of those things are very, very important. Having a as much as possible, a clean home, as in you know, really close to nature, lots of trees that act as filters, as opposed to being the industry, heavy traffic near ports, near Coal trains, like the reality is. We now know looking at the Australian Institute of Health and Well-Be where the Sacrifice zones are in Australia and they are near ports. They need coal trains. They're near heavy traffic. Flight pass like living within seven kilometres of a flight path will expose yourself to high levels of noxious gases, in particular matter. So All of these things are red flags, which is horrible news and pretty hard to take for the first time when you're listening to what I'm saying. But the good news is the body so resilient that if you can start doing one thing at a time to reduce your toxic load and that would be thinking about what chemicals exist in the house, your cleaning products, your personal care products and, you know, reducing that as much as possible and bringing air purifies in, if you live near heavy traffic or living near a flat path, all of these things can make a huge difference. And, most importantly, you know getting a good vacuum cleaner and air purifies with carbon filters that will reduce the air, you know, enhance the air quality quite Amazingly, yeah and it really like that.
Speaker 1:It's that urban environment really isn't it. That is, you know, more damaging. But then you know like and this is what I find really fascinating about environmental medicine it was one of my favorite topics when I was studying to be a naturopath as well, but it feels so big and so overwhelming because you know there's that, those issues with the urban environment. But then they talk about, you know, the what is that? The green, the tree change and how. Then you know families are moving to. I mean, I live right near a wine area here in South Australia and then there's, you know, all sorts of issues with other environmental things, like pesticides being sprayed and that sort of thing. So I always really love to, you know, break it down into these actionable things that we can do, and you've already started to list, list a few things. So, yeah, can we just dive into some of those? You know, steps that parents can take to reduce the toxic load for their kids and their families.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, from a house perspective, take your shoes off before you come in. I think one of the most valuable things you can do is remove all carpets. To be honest, it's a bit cool and the reason I say that is because your carpet is the archaeological dig site of the entire home. Every all your allergens are in there, all your chemicals are falling from gravity in there which are attached to the particulate matter and the dust and the dirt. So how you deal with dirt in the home will determine the load of allergens and chemicals you're actually inhaling. So that's very important because allergies, you know, affect one in five people. Dust might is prolific, so the older the carpet, the more the higher the dust load. You know you're accumulating kilos of dust every year in that carpet and if it's 67 years old there's hundreds of kilos sitting there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, and I was just going to say dust might allergy is something we see so often in kids. Yeah, here at Natural Super Kids it's really common, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Massive, like my daughter, has dust might allergy, which means you know it happens all year round. It's worse in the morning. She gets sneezing fits. So I removed all the carpet instantly. But it also meant I had to replace the ducted heating ductwork. So in Melbourne we have our heating tends to be in the subfloor, which is under the house, in that space under the house, which is not ideal. But when you move into a house you don't know the entire history could have had the cat lady there with 16 cats before you. Yeah, that's true. A load of cats are there, you know, in terms of the dander. So unless you remove the carpet and the underlay and remove the ductwork, the ductwork for a three bedroom home up to 200 square meters you're looking probably about $1,500. But I think you're far better off doing that than the amount of money spent on becquitide ventil and because you're getting to the root cause, which is the load. And that's why it's important for people to understand where the allergens and the chemicals are in the house. And it's on the floor, which ironically, it's where the baby's walking. It's, you know, in crawling. That's their breathing zone, right there and that's why skin allergies, respiratory allergies, are very common. You've got to look at where the reservoirs of chemicals and allergens are and it's in the dirt, so in the carpet dust. You've got food debris, pest or frass, so insect parts, asbestos, fibers, lead, dust, particulate matter, food. You've got massive amount of skin cells which actually account for the majority of dirt or dust in the home is actually use shedding skin cells, which means of course that's associated with dust mites as well. And of course you have flame retardants, solvents, perfumes, phthalates all your surface sprays are settling in the dust there. So in many ways it's the archaeological dig site of your entire house. And in addition to that, every hour you're shedding between 14 and 37 million bacterial genome copies per person per hour. Wow, so it's the forensics. Every plant, every animal, every human that walked has its DNA or bacterial genome copies sitting there in the carpet dust. So to me, first thing I did is get rid of the carpets. Fortunately I had really lovely hardwood floors, because I live in an older home, so I got them not polished, but I just got a beautiful vegetable oil lacquer on them and that made a huge difference to my daughter's dust mite allergies and the other thing. Of course, we're replacing the duct and then getting a really good vacuum cleaner. So the vacuum cleaner I got has two HEPA filters. It has a bag, a disposable bag. I don't like the barrels, which Dyson mainly use, so a lot of people have misinformation like oh, dyson's the best. Well, that's the propaganda that's given to you at the marketing, but that's actually not the reality of what we're seeing.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, they're really popular, aren't they? So back to the back, to the sort of you know, older fashioned bag vacuum cleaners yeah, definitely bags.
Speaker 2:You want disposable electrostatic bags, which a lot of the Miele have, but not all the Miele's are good. Dyson does have great models, but not all the Dyson's are good. There's not one manufacturer I go yep, all their brands are great. So you'll see. On my website I've given a breakdown of what I think are good vacuum cleaners and that's part of the course that I'm looking at giving to the clients is looking at what to look at to reduce the allergen load. So last week I had a group of building biologists in Gold Coast where we are assessing house for mold and the particular the Manor mold. You couldn't see or smell mold. You couldn't. The house was clean but it came back high dirt levels even though you couldn't see it because the vacuum cleaner she was using had no HEPA filter. So essentially everything being pulled into that vacuum cleaner was coming out at the other end, where the warm air comes out, and now going up into the end, taking two or three days to fall. So it was just increasing their exposure. And this is the problem when you don't get your vacuum cleaner right is you're essentially becoming getting all of that stuff airborne which you're breathing in. That's why a lot of asthmatics and people with respiratory issues or allergies are worse after vacuuming because because of the fact that it's not being filtered, so yeah, it's still, it's ending up in the air. Exactly so in my book I'm very clear there's very little you need to buy to get a healthy home, but one of them is a really good vacuum cleaner. Of course, a water filter is critical, and an air purifier and a dehumidifier. They're the four things. The rest is knowledge and information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and so on to water filters, like what are, what are some of the, I guess, things that we find in unfiltered water that parents need to be aware of?
Speaker 2:Well, chlorine is the big one. Fluorine is the strongest antibacterial that you're ever going to be exposed to, and of course, the benefit of that is that it prevented all the waterborne diseases like dysentery and cholera, which is a good thing. The problem is there has to be sufficient chlorine at the end of the line. So you know, after hundreds of houses it goes through, that when it gets to the last person's house that there's enough chlorine that's still active in the distribution system, which means you're ingesting chlorinated water, which is the strongest antibacterial that you could possibly be exposed to. And now we know the gut microbiome is essentially an important marker for health. So if you're ingesting chlorinated water, you essentially could be impacting the gut microbiome, which is the worst thing you want. You don't want to do that. So everybody needs a water filter If there's no point spending thousands of dollars in supplements if you're going to continue drinking chlorinated water. So you want a carbon filter to filter out the chlorine because you do not want to. It's actually the most common cause of eczema that I've found. As a naturopath, I could give clients hundreds of dollars worth of herbal tinctures for their skin problem, but when I started getting them to use filters in their shower and their bath. 60% of them their eczema went and 40% had a significant improvement in their management of eczema. Because most eczema patients will go I can't bathe, it makes my skin worse. Yeah, chlorinated pool makes my skin worse Because it does. It's an antibacterial. They're already inflamed, so simple things like that made a massive difference and I started to reevaluate a lot of what I've been taught and thought. Really, when it comes to asthma analogies what your breathing is causing a lot of the problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I mean it's a huge issue, isn't it? Now you know the rate of allergies and those are topic conditions like eczema again. We see so much of that here at Natural Super Kids. Okay, so yeah, the water filter. And then talk to me more about air purifiers and why they're important.
Speaker 2:All right, Well, still on water, fluoride is a big problem. Oh yes, toxic metals and fluoride are the other ones that are really an issue. Most countries have never fluoridated their water system and I think that's important to make that clear to everybody. Western Europe has never fluoridated its water supply and its dental decay rates don't exist in the way we've been marketed. So, and the reason why they didn't fluoridate is because it's unethical to mass medicate an entire population with a pharmaceutical drug which fluoride is because it's designed to treat a medical condition called plaque and tooth decay, which is the most common disease in the world. So they've never fluoridated. The real decline in tooth decay was better dental hygiene, better diet and, of course, flossing and brushing their teeth with fluoridated toothpaste does provide some protection topical protection but ingesting fluoridate water does not provide those benefits and that's why most countries there's only 11 countries out of 300, I believe that fluoridate their water supply. Australia, canada, us and New Zealand are part of those 11 countries, but most have never fluoridated. So the problem is, with high dose fluorosis, you have osteoporosis, you have bone related disorders, you have, you know, decay and mottling of the teeth. But of course, the big issue that's coming to light is thyroid diseases that are closely linked with some not all thyroid, of course, but thyroid diseases could be linked also with fluoride and its impact on the pineal gland, which secretes melatonin. So there's a lot of more data now on fluoride high dose fluoride and bone related disorders and thyroid conditions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and mentioned heavy metals as well, and I mean water is something we're all hopefully we're all drinking like quite a bit of every day, so that's a really important you know place that we want to. We want to look at that chemical exposure, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because I mean you just allot through your drinking water, through your cooking water, through your kettle water, through your bathing. You're just allot through your skin, so it's important to get that right. Toxic metals most of the metals you're exposed to in drinking water is not from the distribution system, from the council. It's actually from your own reticulation system, the domestic pipes under your home and your faucets. So brass if you built from 2000 onwards, there's a good chance. Your brass, your drinking water brass taps contain up to 6% lead in the valves, which is a nightmare, and last year the government announced $2 billion to replace new brass taps because it had lead in them. Now lead is exposed, is associated with drop in IQ, learning and behavioral disorders. It's lead is still the number one problem for kids. If you have any learning behavioral disorders, you must check your child for lead before a diagnosis of ADHD and autism you must. It is still a massive problem and what's becoming clear is because in my year, born in the 60s and the 70s, is that we had lead petrol, we had lead paint in our homes and now, as I'm in menopause, as the bones demineralising, they're actually re-releasing the lead. So lead exposure in post-menopause women is a big problem that could relate to mental illness, anger issues, because we now know lead is very closely associated with males in prisons who are illiterate. Most of them have high levels of lead and their violent behaviour. So you know, we need to look at this and unfortunately, doctors forget about how toxic lead is, and it's still a big issue. Any child who's been diagnosed with a neurobehavioral disorder needs to be checked for lead.
Speaker 1:I think yeah, really good point. It's, yeah, and, like you said, we've gotten rid of lead in the petrol, in the paint and that sort of thing, but it's popping up Like I didn't know that I didn't know that the brass, you know, within the water systems contains lead. So that's new information to me.
Speaker 2:And the other one is last year there was a study that was released in Sydney that showed that backyard chooks in Sydney, in the city of Sydney, had 40 times higher the lead content than a factory chook. And the reason why there's such high lead content in Melbourne, sydney etc. Is because we used thousands of tonnes of lead petrol for decades and that lead is sitting all over the inner city areas and people have a veggie patch. As a building biologist, I train my building biologists that when they're doing audits in inner city areas of Melbourne and Sydney etc. And they've got a veggie patch, you know get the soil tested for lead, because where do you? Lead does not break down in the environment and you have tons and tons of lead sitting all over the inner city areas, sitting along major traffic routes. If you, if you're drinking tank water, you know there could be lead flashing on your old roof. There could be lead just sitting there because it's been redistributed through the wind onto the roof catchment area and then in rural areas people are drinking that. So this is all part of what a building biologist is trained to look at where there could be potential hazards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so important because a lot of people think they're doing the right thing, you know, growing their own veggies, using a water tank to try and avoid that chlorine in the, in the, you know, tap water. But, yeah, there can be these other issues, which is why it's so important to look at these things and get a building biologist to help you. Okay and sorry, let let's go back to the air purifier. Then Can you explain a little bit more about why that's important?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean because of mining, and since pre-industrial, post-industrial revolution, the mining has resulted in a lot of the toxic metals that were in the ground are now airborne. So that's the first thing. The other thing is because of traffic related air pollution. We have high levels of noxious gases in particular manner. So if you live on a street where you're living on the same street where there's a school, you've got many cars stopping and starting. When a car accelerates it's releasing more particulate matter and noxious gases than any other time. So living near an intersection where cars are stopping, living near schools where there's lots of cars stopping and starting, you know, twice a day, that's going to expose you already to high levels of noxious gases and particulate matter. You want to keep your windows closed in those environments, you know, during peak hour and then open them up during non-peak hour areas, just being mindful that you're being exposed to that. When I'm doing an audit, I'm looking at the colour of the dirt in your home. So if I see that it's dark or black towards the front of the house and migrates to be more of brownie colour at the back, then I know it's probably traffic related air pollution that's creating that. If it's yellow, then there's high levels of pollens during different times of the season. If it's black throughout, then it could be more aspen from mole growth etc. So that's already key and of course also cleanliness. It's important to clean that as much as possible. So air purifiers are good when you're living in inner city areas, if you're living near any road where people are stopping and starting I'm not talking about your neighbours who live next to you, I'm talking about a crossing or schools or you know if you're living where there's basically people, cars stopping and starting, a lot of traffic, so flight zones as well. I mean three weeks ago I was doing an assessment with students in Sydney for mould and every seven minutes I had to stop because there was a 747-200 metres above me from Sydney airport that was flying out. It was just extraordinary. I just took multiple pictures to go. There's no point looking at mould in the house if you've got a big, fat red elephant right above you. That really cannot create a healthy environment for this couple and this young child, this baby, in living in this home. It's like you're going to have to seal your entire home. You're going to have to bring in air purifiers because you live in a toxic environment. Every time you go out you're inhaling this issue and unfortunately this is the sacrifice zones that exist throughout that people aren't thinking about, let alone the mould that could be in the house and the EMFs, etc. So to me, another reason why everybody needs an air purifier is because we've got more and more bushfires. So recently in the last 18 months, there was bushfire in close proximity to my house and you could smell that bushfire in a particular manner, etc. Or I'm also living in an environment where a lot of people use open fireplaces in winter. So, even though it's a beautiful bushy environment, unfortunately I can smell in winter time people using their open fireplaces, which means it's coming into my house. So it's important to make sure your house is well sealed and also that you have air purifiers in multiple rooms to filter that out, because if you don't get a filter, your body and lungs become that filter. That's something I say a lot at conferences is if you don't get a filter, you become that filter and it comes at a cost to your health. So bushfire alone I would strongly suggest that you have filters ready to go, that you know that you can close your house up Hopefully it's well sealed and the windows are, you know, well sealed and that you reduce that. If you have mold in your house, if you have asthma allergies and it's been worse since you've been there or after renovation, then having an air purifier can significantly reduce your exposure to mold spores. So to me, a mold. A air purifier is critical for anybody who's wanting a healthy environment, because there will be multiple times you'll need to use it, even in your relatively healthy home.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, that's a wake-up call for me, because I do not have an air purifier. I mean, I live in it like I. I've always kind of thought to myself, well I'm, I'm an hour south of a small city, adelaide, like I live in a coastal sort of suburb, but there's so many re, you know why not. I mean, it sounds like a pretty important investment.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely definitely, and the other one is a dehumidifier. So yes when you have a water event, an overflowing bath, laundry, whatever and water starts lapping into the home way. That's not good. You want to quickly, you know, turn off the tab, get rid of the water out of the bath and then get every towel out of the house, into the, out of the lint cupboard and, dried out, bring the dehumidifier in. So there's, the moisture is evaporating into the air. It's actually been taken up by the dehumidifier to pull the moisture out to dry. You only have 48 hours to dry after a water event. After that you have microbial growth and spores that are going to start coming into the air and and going to adjacent rooms.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, and dehumidifiers are great for people with allergies as well, aren't they? Well?
Speaker 2:dehumidifiers reduce water vapour. So if you live in a humid environment that where the humidity is regularly above 70%, then you need something to reduce the humidity because above 70% you're gonna have dust. My proliferation Us might stone and mouse. They use the moisture in the air to proliferate. You're going to end mold and allergens, base bacteria. So you need to have some form of dehumidifier. Now the good news is your split system of refrigerative air conditioner you know the ones war mounted air conditioners Act as a dehumidifier, but when you turn them off, the humidity goes up. So it's important that you have some form of dehumidifier to reduce the water vapor. If you're in South Australia or Melbourne or Adelaide, perth, and you know your humidity levels are going to be, most of the time, between 35 and 60% Catelyn, they go up to 70, so you're in a relatively dry climate. Being on a coastal town, however, the water vapor will be raised because you're getting that sea spray which can significantly increase water vapor in the air. So the beauty is with what we've found over many years of doing this testing homes is that every house is so unique and it's micro climate that it's impossible to make blanket statements about. Well, this is what you do in this, how, in this urban, this town, etc.
Speaker 1:Of course, and so okay. So I think, to summarize what we've talked about today, we all need to be investing in a really good quality vacuum cleaner, water purifier, air purifier and dehumidifier, especially if we're in that sort of more humid sort of climate. What in terms of recommendations? Because I know, I know, we're going to get these questions like which, which Water filter, which vacuum cleaner? You have these sort of resources on your website and in your book, don't you? Yes, I do so.
Speaker 2:There's chapters on each of those in the healthy home, healthy family book which you can get through my website or book topia also will probably sell it cheaper. So my little my website. There's also quite a lot of content in my web, building biologycom. That are your website. Yes, I said I will be launching courses in February on all of these topics to help people Understand, you know, what's going on with allergens, electromagnetic fields and mold, so that they can help create healthy homes, because a lot of people don't realize they're not in healthy environments.
Speaker 1:Because it's not always obvious, is it?
Speaker 2:No, the worst times I see for mold, you cannot see or smell mold. So there's key questions that make me realize that mold is a problem. 90% of the time, though, it'll be a significant problem when they answer yes to these questions. So, based on their symptoms, based on the timing of when they got sick, when they did the bathroom reno you know, because the builder comes in, does a bathroom reno, strips it to frame, gets rid of all the jib rock and the tiles, and now that mold issue in the wall cavity, which was the wall, helped to conceal it. Now they're spread throughout the house and they've got very sick because they didn't realize they could contaminate that. So you know you've got termites and then you're going to have mold. If you live in central coast, sydney, queensland, you've got mold. I can tell you it's already growing in your house because you've got the humidity levels. People don't realize. With mold you don't need to have a water effect to have a a significant problem, because the mold is utilizing either liquid water off the surface for 48 hours it grows, or if the humidity is above 60, 70, especially 70, within 48 hours, all the spores sitting all over the house they're gonna start growing.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, oh, my gosh, the whole, the whole mold issue is is huge and really hard to kind of wrap your head around. So thank you so much for sharing all of this, all of your amazing wisdom, and I I know that your book is like a bible to me. It's just so it's really easy to read. You don't have to read the whole thing, but it's a really good resource to kind of you know. Turn to you know a particular area that you're interested in. I think every family should have one. So I'll make sure that the link to grab your book is in the show notes, and I also think that your website is such a great resource, um, you know, for people who might not have your book. Uh, I know the book goes into a lot more detail. So if anyone's wondering about the specific recommendations for those things We've talked about today, definitely check out Nicole's website and book, and thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much. Thanks, jess.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.
Speaker 1:Head on over to our website naturalsuperkidscom for the show notes for this episode, as well as a whole heap of inspiration To help you raise healthy and happy kids. I'll see you next week.