Podcast Transcript
Summit For Wellness
Wed, Oct 19, 2022 1:28PM • 40:42
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
mold, people, moisture, inspection, indoors, problem, humidity, musty smell, dampness, fungi, remediation, producing, health, called, exposed, house, test, mold growth, building, fact
SPEAKERS
Bryan Carroll, Jason Earle
00:00
Welcome to the summit for wellness podcast, where we help you climb to the peak of your health. And now here is your host, Bryan Carroll.
Bryan Carroll 00:09
Now let’s Spring time has finally arrived, the moisture content and the humidity and the areas that we live in, tend to start to increase this time of year, which can lead to a lot of different issues inside of your home, including mold growth, which is what we’re going to be talking about in this episode today. What’s up everyone, I’m Bryan Carroll. And I’m here to help people move more eat well and be adventurous. And today I have Jason Earle on the show to teach us all about how to test your home for mold. And see if mold is having an impact on your health. If you know my story, then you know that I was exposed to mold andit laid me out for months and months.
And I really couldn’t do anything, I literally felt like I was dying. So mold is definitely a toxic environmental exposure that we want to avoid. And with all this humidity and moisture in the air, there are ways that we can help to reduce that moisture content, and also test our different rooms in our homes, to see if there is any mold spores or anything along those lines growing. Now when I had my mold exposure, I wish that there was products available on the market like there are now that make it a lot easier to test your living environment for mold. Back then people really weren’t talking that much about mold and its impacts on people’s health.
And now that larger companies, larger buildings are getting impacted by mold. And we’re seeing the impact of that. And, for instance, here in Seattle, we had the Children’s Hospital actually have deaths among some of the patients because of mold. We are now seeing in real time, what this stuff can do to us, and it’s not good. So we want to avoid it as much as possible. So Jason Earle is the man on a mission, he realized that his moldy childhood home was an underlying cause of his extreme allergies and asthma. And that led him into the healthy home business in 2002. And since then, for the last couple of decades, he’s been working on trying to figure out how to test more efficiently your homes and living spaces for mold, so that he can get ahead of it before the mold really takes over.
And the remediation process tends to cost way more if the mold gets out of hand. But before we dive into this conversation with Jason, I have been using an electrolyte called LMNT, l m n t, for I don’t know a year now, at this point, and I have it every single morning first thing when I wake up. And not only does it taste good, but it makes it feel like I’m hydrating much faster, I’m able to have more energy when I wake up and I feel refreshed and ready to go for the day. Typically, I don’t like to put stuff in my drinks. Usually I’m just a plain old water type of person.
But element actually tastes really good. And it’s been very effective. So if you want to learn more about it, then head on over to Summitforwellness.com/lmnt and take a look at the different flavors they have. Usually I use raspberry, but I think they have great fruit coming out which last year we really liked as well. And that one usually only comes in smaller supplies. So it’s like a seasonal type of flavor. So again, go on over to Summitforwellness.com/lmnt to learn more about element. All right, let’s dive into my conversation with Jason. Thank you, Jason, for coming on of the show.
Jason Earle 03:44
Good to be here, Bryan. Thanks for having me.
Bryan Carroll 03:46
Of course. And I’m excited to chat with you because we both have our own stories with mold. But I want to hear a little bit more about your story with mold. So can you give us a little background on how mold has impacted your life and how that changed the direction that you are now going with your life?
Jason Earle 04:02
Sure. Best place to start it’s in the beginning. If you rewind all the way back, I grew up on a small nonworking farm outside of Princeton, New Jersey. And it was it sort of a ramshackle house I’d say there’s there’s there was there’s a lot of sort of unfinished repairs and things like that. And we were you know that the family dynamics were typical sort of the 70s and 80s. There was a low level of awareness around health and indoor air quality and things like that. But I suddenly got sick at the age of four, where I lost a ton of weight. And I was having difficulty breathing. So my parents brought me to the pediatrician who said you should actually take him to the hospital.
And so they brought me to Children’s Hospital which is renowned for respiratory illness. And their initial diagnosis was shocking to my parents devastating actually. Initially based on my my symptoms and family history, they thought I had cystic fibrosis, which was a death sentence back then. And it was particularly dismaying to my father who had lost four of his cousins before the age of 14 to CF. So they spent the next six weeks basically crying, while they waited for the second opinion, which fortunately, confirmed they didn’t have cystic fibrosis, evidenced by the fact that I stand here talking to you at 45 years old.
And actually, what I had was asthma compounded by pneumonia, which was my first big dose of antibiotics, which is another tangent. We could pursue a whole nother podcast actually. And they tested me for allergies and back then they did it I’m not sure how they do it now, but I they put me in basically a papoose or like a straitjacket for toddlers. My back was exposed and they had a grid drawn, and they tested me for all of the the allergens and I tested positive for every single thing they tested me for. Every single thing. My dad said I looked with a ladybug, big red swollen back with dots all over it. And so it was, you know, I was again growing up on a small nonworking farm, surrounded by, you know, all of these different, you know, common allergens I was allergic to every single thing I was around in grass, wheat, corn, eggs, dogs, cats, even cotton.
So my clothing, sheets were problematic for me. And so I lived like that basically on inhalers, and actually, interestingly, spending a lot of time outside for some reason, my intuitively, I guess my body knew that there was something indoors was, was undesirable there. And when I was about 12 years old, my parents, my parents split up and move that I moved out of the house, and all my symptoms suddenly went away. Wasn’t instant, but it was, it was it was fast enough that we just chalked it up to me growing out of my asthma that we my grandfather had.
And I didn’t think about it again until fast forward. And I had I had a series, my mom died suddenly and and I and I got Lyme disease within about a year. And I missed a lot of school, dropped out of high school and ended up getting rescued out of gas station to work on Wall Street, which is again another story for maybe another podcast. But after nine years of that I decided to go on walkabout after the dot-com bubble burst, I decided that I want to do something meaningful in my life. And while I was away, I read about a guy who’d gotten sick. I was actually in Hawaii, reading about a guy who was in Hawaii who’d gotten sick from the hotel where he was an employee.
And he had at 40 years old had developed something called adult onset asthma. Something I’d never heard of, as well as all these allergies to foods and other other things that he’d never had a problem with before. And it was like a deja vu moment for me. And I immediately thought geez, he blamed the mold in the hotel where he was working, which turned out to be the biggest mold problem in modern history. It was a $55 million mold remediation project to help him clean a tower in Ohio. It’s an interesting thing to Google. But in any case, the bottom line is that when I saw that, and I read that, I thought, I wonder if we had a mold problem at Old Trenton Road. I wonder if that was the issue. So I called my dad from a payphone which probably isn’t there anymore. And said, hey man, do you think we had a mold problem on Old Trenton Road?
And he just laughed at me. He said, of course we had mold. We had mushrooms in the basement, why do you ask? And it was just that sort of like that flippancy he just… he was like, of course yeah, of course what you know, of course, we had mold. I said do you think it contributed to my respiratory illness. And he said, well, certainly didn’t help. And it…but that just goes back to like the 70s and 80s, where, you know, my parents both smoked too, indoors and in the car with the windows closed. You know, and it wasn’t for lack of love, it was lack of awareness. And it was you know, there was a lot that was a widespread lack of awareness back then.
But I immediately became fascinated with not just mold, but actually how buildings impact our health. And we spend 90% of our time indoors. And everyone’s worried about the outdoor environment and we focus very little on the indoor environment where we actually have real control. But in essence really what mold did for me was it first of all, it was an immediate impediment to my quality of life as a as a kid. But it was such a mysterious thing that nobody really could pin the tail on the donkey. But as in when I when I discovered this what I recognized at least shortly after I started doing the work, because I came back to New Jersey after my stint in Hawaii and got into the industry.
Actually took a job working for a company that was doing remediation to learn the ropes before I started our companies. But what it did was it gave… it connected me with a sense of purpose that I had been missing in Wall Street. And it gave me the opportunity to sort of, you know, find a way to truly be useful in a way that wasn’t contrived, in a way, you know, when you overcome something. It gives you the ability to authentically source something that you could never have any other way. And so in many ways, mold gave me the tools to make me a truly useful person.
Bryan Carroll 10:34
Are you… you mentioned going to the Children’s Hospital? Are you familiar with the Children’s Hospital issue that Seattle had a couple years ago?
Jason Earle 10:42
Yes, the irony, right?
Bryan Carroll 10:44
Yeah, yeah, it’s super interesting. For people that don’t know, essentially, you would think a hospital is a hyper sterilized place. But they had a mold issue. And one of the wards in the children’s hospital and some children actually died from it. And that’s when they were realized that they had a big issue. But how many hospital places do you think have mold issues without even knowing?
Jason Earle 11:09
Well, so hospitals in general have a combination of problems. First of all, they over sanitize everything. So they use wide spectrum, antimicrobials, antivirals. And so as a result, all the only things that live in hospitals are things that are on the way that are in the process of dying, or the strongest, possible pathogenic microbes. That’s all that survives. And so hospitals are notorious for being a place to go… if you’re… not to go if you’re very sick. Because in fact, if you’re susceptible, that’s where you’re gonna get the resistant strains. Mold is not, it doesn’t fall into that same category in terms of the way bacteria, there are, obviously resistant, fungi.
And those are nasty, and those are a serious problem. But just garden variety, mold is serious enough for somebody who’s experiencing any sort of health issues, I would say that the vast majority of hospitals, commercial buildings that are under any sort of budget constraint, schools, in particular, universities, anywhere where budgets are constrained, and there’s any form of deferred maintenance, the first thing is going to happen is moisture problems. And the first thing happens with a moisture, problem is mold.
Mold… mold happens very quickly, if you have a moisture problem, it only takes 24 to 48 hours for it to start to grow. And so people tend to think about mold as something that kind of happens like a lightning strike or an earthquake, like it’s something that happens to them. But it’s actually a very, very predictable biological reality. So if it gets wet and stays wet, it gets moldy. And so a little deferred maintenance can become a very big mold problem. And so to answer your question, I think a lot of hospitals.
Bryan Carroll 13:01
Now, how much moisture does it take for mold to start growing? Like does a little bit cause that like a big mold issue? Or does it take quite a bit of water?
Jason Earle 13:12
Well, so mold likes, dampness. And so rather than, like liquid water, so in other words, when something gets wet, mold tends to like it when it’s either just getting wet, or just getting dry. Actual liquid water is not friendly for mold growth, believe it or not, you’ll see more in in the bacterium and other microbes like that, like water. But mold likes to grow right at the edge of wet and dry. So. So in fact, dampness is really the main thing to be aware of when it comes to mold, because mold is really not the problem, believe it or not, mold has got the… mold as a four letter word and there’s plenty of reasons to be concerned about mold. But the real problem with mold is the moisture and it takes very little moisture.
In fact, it can be so subtle that you won’t even notice that moisture is is happening. So there’s a technical term is called water activity. Some people call that condensation, but basically where you’ve got humidity in the air that develops as little tiny droplets on the surface and we’ve all seen that happen on windows, you know on the in the glass in your shower. That also happens on sheetrock around your windows or even on poorly insulated wallboard or even just where you got high humidity can happen on everything. And so when things just get that little bit of dampness that is the sweet spot. So make no mistake if you see liquid water, you have a problem, but you can have enough dampness that you can’t see.
And that’s why it’s very important to monitor humidity with gauges because we’re not very good humidity gauges humans. We do it accurate. We’re actually not built for that. Our senses are good for hot and cold, we don’t do wet very well, believe it or not. And so the bottom line is it does not take much water. And it doesn’t take very long. And so it’s extremely important that you’re vigilant and raise your awareness around this.
Bryan Carroll 15:18
Now, you had mentioned to me that you live in a place that gets some big temperature swings, which when you have those big temperature swings, does that create more condensation?
Jason Earle 15:28
Yes, that’s a great question. So the main thing that forms condensation is actually temperature differences. So I live in Minnesota now. And so of course, it’s cold, very cold here for about six months out of the year. And so what that will do is just like a glass of ice water will have water bead up on the outside. When it’s cold outside, you know, you’ll see obviously water activity or condensation on windows and things like that, where there’s no insulation, where there’s no resistance to that temperature transfer. But that also happens inside of walls. And it also happens on the surfaces, especially down low round baseboard trim.
That’s why when you’ll see in a basement, or typically the mold will manifest very low on the wall, not from a leak per se, but from moist air. And of course down low is cooler. So cold air will hold less water, it will actually will squeeze the water out, you’ll actually get condensation down lower on the walls, rather than a higher on the walls in warm areas. So you always want to look down and towards outside walls, if there’s concerns about humidity that might be forming condensation and leading to mold.
Bryan Carroll 16:42
Interesting. So in places with those temperature changes, how do you minimize the mold growth in between the walls when you are getting those swings?
Jason Earle 16:51
Most important thing you can do is first of all, well insulated building what won’t have that dynamic. So if you’ve got issues with, you know, substandard insulation, that would be something you’d run towards if you live in a very extreme climate. The other thing and the most important thing is you want to really manage your humidity. It’s really the name of the game. So the ASHRAE, which is the American Society of refrigeration and heating and air conditioning engineers, it has guidance on this and they suggest that you keep your heat indoors relative humidity between 40 and 60%. And with a target of 45% all year round.
Now, I will tell you that it’s impossible to stay at 45%. Basically, in the wintertime, it’s going to get really low in most cases. And then in the summertime, it’ll get really high and in most climates in the United States. And so most of the time, you’re just going to kind of pass by 45. Say hello when you pass it and then you’re going to pass it again when the seasons change. But if you do a good job of of monitoring that so dehumidifying when necessary and then humidifying when necessary, I always say you shouldn’t modify what you don’t quantify. And so when it comes to moisture in the air, because again, our hands and our bodies are not good sensors for humidity. You want to get gauges, you want to get those digital humidity sensors, set them up on your phone with an alert.
And you want to make sure that when it goes below 40%, you’re humidifying and then when it goes above 60%, your dehumidifier. That’s the best thing you can do to control condensation, because you’re not going to be able to control the outside temperature, you’re probably not going to control very well the materials that your building is made out of immediately.
But the one thing you can’t control is how much moisture you’re allowing to accumulate in your building. Which of course means that you may have to change things like ventilation, that only ventilating bathrooms and kitchens and things like that. Anytime you see liquid water, clean it up immediately because again, you get 24 to 48 hours. But humans produce moisture. We exhale. we plant, we water our plants, we cook we clean. We’re producing moisture all the time. And so it’s very important that you monitor and then and then mitigate as necessary.
Bryan Carroll 19:01
It’s actually pretty interesting how much moisture we put out. Sometimes when we go backpacking we might leave late at night to get to the trailhead and then we’ll sleep in the car and then get started then the next morning but even that just a little bit of sleeping in the car we can wake up and all the insides are frozen, there’s just tons of moisture everywhere. And it’s just from two people breathing for a couple hours within the car.
Jason Earle 19:26
Absolutely yeah I’ve noticed that if you go if you switch your your you your circulation, setting on your car so that you’re allowing air in versus not allowing air in. You’ll quickly see that in the wintertime your car will fog up and you won’t be able to see it you’ll you’ll you’ll you’ll create water activity you’ll create a humidity cloud in the car was just one person in just a matter of minutes. We are We are constantly through respiration through transport through our through our skin, it’s coming out. I mean we are producing and And, and distributing moisture.
Also, again, you know, just the little things. I mean, not having a properly vented bathroom exhaust fan can can lead to serious problems, not having your kitchen exhaust, it’s incredible how much moisture we produce drying clothes inside, it’s a common mistake we see, we even see people that will run their dryer vent into their, into their house instead of to the outside to to keep for heat. And and also for humidity. And of course, you know, you’re also introducing all sorts of lint, even if you filter, it’s just, this is something that that people are just starting to wake up to, even though we’ve been living with mold, since before the dawn of humanity. We’re just now sort of waking up to it now as as a modern society.
Bryan Carroll 20:45
Yeah. Very interesting. And going along with, we’ve been living with mold for a long time. Why is indoor mold so much more potent than, you know, being outside walking through the forest with mold on all the trees and algae and fungi and all that type of stuff? What’s the difference?
Jason Earle 21:06
That’s a good question. So first of all, fun fact, the Kingdom fungi produces 50 Mega tons, which is the equivalent of 500,000 blue whales worth of spores every year, every year. Okay, so mold spores are the kingdom fungi is the largest producer of biological particulates in the world. And so we are awash in these things. I mean, there’s no avoiding it. And that’s good, because without the kingdom fungi, every time a tree dies, it would just stay there. And it wouldn’t run. That’s why we have coal, by the way in oil is all that there was a time in our in our world where we didn’t have fungi, and then the that those elements actually went down deep and they became our carbon resources.
But the bottom line is in in, when it comes to why indoor mold is more potent, or more of a health concern than outdoor mold really comes down to concentration. So outside air is constantly changing, even when you’re at the gas station. And but a good analogy might be that if you go to the gas station, you smell the gasoline, you fill up your gas, and you may get a faceful of it here and there. But as soon as you leave, it’s done. But if you take that gas can and bring it and put it in your living room, someone’s gonna get sick, eventually, right?
And so the same thing happens with mold, mold outside when it’s doing its thing, you know, digesting and breaking down organic matter things that were at one time living like sticks and leaves, it’s doing its job. When it’s doing that to your sheetrock or your belongings. That’s not so good. But also while mold is growing, it’s producing a number of different things just like we produce gases when we digest things. Mold produces gases, which is the musty smell, which has very serious health effects, especially to sensitive individuals, but even people who aren’t sensitive, complain of things like headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, things like that a lot of cognitive issues, people that are sensitive and may trigger asthma attacks and sinus issues. So the smell that must that musty smell, accumulates indoors and and whereas it doesn’t, you would not be exposed to any significant amount of it outdoors.
Because it’s these these chemicals are made in literally parts per billion, tiny little minut amounts. But if you can tape you may have a factory of these things in your house, it gets dense and concentrated. Also the spores, the spores, which mold produces when it’s actively growing, it’s producing these seeds to go forth and multiply. Again outside you might be exposed to enough to trigger a minor reaction if you’re sensitive. But indoors, the high concentration can overwhelm people that that that are susceptible to, to exposure to those allergens. And then the the thing that the media loves to talk about is mycotoxins, which is the the the the chemical weaponry that fungi use to kill each other.
And we just get caught in the crosshairs fungi that make toxins use them to for competitive reasons. It’s really chemical warfare on a microscopic level. And so the black mold that the that they talked about toxic mold that they talked about, which is kind of a misnomer, because they’re molds that produce toxins and aren’t black and the black mold doesn’t know it. Not all black molds are toxic and and even the black toxic molds don’t produce it all the time. Even so, but those those when they are producing and they are in production and they are actually doing their thing. And by the way, those molds are the byproduct of chronic dampness.
You don’t see those when you just get something gets wet and stays wet for a couple of days. That’s a long sign of a long term problem. Those toxins can accumulate and become hazardous to all health, human animal, and the like. So indoor mold, in essence, is problematic because it’s a factory was digesting, it’s producing all these things and they get trapped and we get concentrated. And again, we spend 90% of our time indoors.
And so we’re re breathing these things constantly. So not only is it concentrated, even a small chemical exposure indoors is a repeated exposure you breathe ready for this 13, 14 times a minute, if you do the math on that 20,000 times a day. So if you’re exposed to something in your home, it’s not like being exposed at the gas station, you’re being exposed to that gas cans 20,000 times a day. That’s why.
Bryan Carroll 25:48
Yeah, what’s really interesting is some of the most dangerous biological weapons that aren’t currently known have been made from mold and mold spores. So that’s just how dangerous mold is. You mentioned walking into a place and smelling that musty smell, once you smell the must, is it too late? Does that mean there’s already a big mold problem?
Jason Earle 26:12
Well, big or not? If you smell it, you got it. You know, the question is, what’s the source of the moisture, and then what’s the extent of the mold grow. And that’s where you get into testing and inspections and those kinds of things. That’s one experience I and you know, good old fashioned laboratory science can can really help you. But yeah, the musty smell, I always say if you see it, smell it or feel it, you have it. And so or at least if you see it, smell it or feel it. If you see something, smell something or feel something, do something, take action. But that musty odor is a dead giveaway. In fact, the musty odor is okay, there’s all sorts of research emerging on this is the second leading indicator of childhood asthma, behind maternal smoking. It also increases asthma risk in children if they’re just exposed to it as a baby by 250%.
And there’s a whole bunch of other interesting studies about the connection between mold and dampness and depression. And some of the research that’s gone into that has actually shown that fruit flies exposed to the musty smell, stop producing dopamine and they stop reproducing, they develop Parkinsonian like symptoms, and essentially they get depressed. And so the musty smell is not just an indicator of growth, it’s also a health hazard.
Bryan Carroll 27:27
Fascinating, fascinating. What are some good ways that people can test their living spaces is there like at home tests that you can do? Or do you had to bring someone in to start testing everything in the house.
Jason Earle 27:40
So we, so I have a Mold Inspection Company called 1-800-GOT-MOLD?. And all we do is mold inspections and remediation consultant. And we do that because there are a lot of companies out there that do remediation and inspections. And so they’re buttering their bread on both sides. That’s illegal in many states. But there are many states where it’s not illegal. And so, you know, getting involved with a professional takes a specific, you know, you have to really know what you’re looking for. Oftentimes, you can do take the first steps, yourself, and I encourage people to try to do that whenever possible. But the spectrum for testing, is, if you want to have your house tester promote, you can either sort of go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy one of these $10 petri dishes at the checkout.
Those are called settling plates, they don’t work. So I would recommend not using us. They’re scientifically invalid, they always grow mold. And by the way, if you’re concerned about mold in your house, the first thing you want to do is probably not grow more of it. And that’s what they suggest you do. All the way on the other side of the spectrum is companies like mine, 1-800-GOT-MOLD?, Mold Inspection Company where all we do is mold assessments and remediation, consulting. And our inspections are not the most expensive, but also not the cheapest and the average around $1,500 or so for single family home.
So it’s out of reach for a lot of people as the first step. In the middle. There’s a lot of junk science, there’s doing yourself test kits out there that are that look like they might be good science, there’s a product called ErmI, which is really very commonly promoted. A lot of well intended but misinformed doctors recommend it. And that’s a dust sample that’s run through a DNA sequencing, I highly recommend people not use that.
As a result actually of looking at all this junk science that’s out there. We decided a few years ago to create a do it yourself test kit that would actually provide scientifically valid results without without breaking the bank. And so we looked at what the professional professionals use and figured out what the obstacles were to to the consumer. And basically what we did was we took the same devices that we use, which are called spore traps.
Little especially engineered cassettes that capture airborne particulate matter and, and we created an air sampling pump that duplicates professional air sampling pumps so that you can actually test the air with the same devices that professionals use. But without the cost or hassle associated with trying to find and hire one. And we just launched that that’s actually we just brought that out a few months ago. So we’re just coming out of beta testing for that. But really, in terms of what the consumer has to choose from, it’s not easy.
It’s mostly junk science, it’s very noisy. And also, there’s a lot of people offering things like free inspections, be careful, if that guy is gonna get paid somehow, right? There’s… it’s really I would say, for the consumer, it’s, it’s a caveat emptor, quite frankly. But if anybody wants to check out, you know, go to gotmold.com, you’ll see what we think is the best of breed in this space, in terms of do it yourself test kits, as a cost effective first step, not as a replacement for professional inspection, of course,
I’m gonna say that, because in the event that you have a result from a do it yourself testing, you still need to know how to how, and what to do. And, and unless you’ve got a very small mold problem under 10 square feet, according to the EPA, which is only three foot by three foot, and even that can be a little too much, you should you should defer to a professional for actual action on remediation.
Bryan Carroll 31:12
Now, if you walk in and you smell mold, or smell them as sort of see mold, would you still recommend doing that at home tests? Or at that point? Do you call someone in to start doing remediation?
Jason Earle 31:24
Well, so I look at the… I use a building as a body metaphor. So and so I look at an inspection, kind of like a physical, you know, and I look at remediation, like surgery. And so I always ask people, if they when they’ve got a problem if they just scheduled surgery, or did they go to the doctor and get a proper assessment and get an evaluation done, people love to skip over an inspection, they love to because it’s an extra expense. But the inspection tells you… the inspection should be done by a qualified independent professional that has no financial ties to the remediation contractor.
So they can come in and give you unbiased advice that’s free of ulterior motives. And so a proper inspection, that’s one of the reasons why we created the test kits, because there’s so few independent testing companies. And there’s so many conflicted companies that are doing inspections and testing their own work, that all say they would never abuse their privilege by using that data, but they’re all you know, they’re entitled to their to their high horse, the reality is I see what happens in in the real world.
And these rooms… where there’s room for abuse, you’ll you’ll find abuse. So so what we what we recommend is that people get a qualified independent inspector, who will come in and perform a physical inspection, collect whatever samples are necessary to identify the location and extent of the problem, develop a remediation plan, which is a step by step, sort of the sheet of music contractors dance to, and then the contractor will come in and use that document to bid on the project. That’s the way it should be done. But people love the idea of using a test kit and immediately go into remediation, that will be a lot like using a pregnancy test kit. And then when it says positive, find baby furniture and scheduling, scheduling your, you know, scheduling the due date, yeah, there’s a whole bunch missing in the middle there.
And so just a serious consideration for anybody that’s got a mold problem, don’t just go right from do it yourself, or just write to a mediator, because that will inevitably increase the size and the scope of the project. Right remediators get paid by the size and the scope. And and also, you don’t have the checks and balances that you get from having an independent third party that’s there to protect your interests. There’s also going to do the testing at the end to make sure that you’ve gotten what you paid for before you release the final funds to the contractor.
A good inspector will actually be your advocate, it will be the buffer that you need will protect you. That’s why we created want to enter that mold really, it was to protect people from from the contractors. And so we’ve been doing that for 20 years. The problem is there aren’t that many out there nationwide to to offer that service. And again, that’s why we created the test kits.
Bryan Carroll 34:27
Yep. And anyone listening to this episode, you can get 10% off at gotmold.com/summitforwellness using the code summit10, which is very generous of you to offer. Now Jason, what is your vision of what healthy looks like? And what steps do you take every single day to reach that vision?
Jason Earle 34:48
Health is it’s one of those it’s like what do you how do you define success? How do you define health these are these are these are words that we use so loosely But if you know, when you sit and think about it, they tend to be defined by their opposites like health can be often defined as the absence of illness. And I think that that leaves a big gap for me, health, health or being healthy looks like resilience. So you bounce back quickly from whatever it is emotional, physical, spiritual, even resilience, I think, is a hallmark of health, vitality, as well.
And what I mean vitality, I mean, abundant energy, you know, the ability to, to take in energy and to be a source of it as well, I think that that’s, you know, another sort of key hallmark for me. groundedness also kind of comes to mind. So the idea that, you know, you know, humans, the word human comes from humans or soil. And I think that being grounded, is also a sign of health. You know, there’s there’s a bunch of humility is actually also comes from the same, same root.
So, I think that grandness, but I think I think overall, and sort of where it meets the work that we do, I think a positive relationship with your, your environment, and with the relationships in your life, is also health. You know, longevity is closely tied to the quality of your relationships. And I would argue that the house, the buildings that you live in work in, are actually an extension of your immune system.
So skin and exoskeleton and your relationship with the building not only has an impact on the longevity of the building, but because, you know, shelter is one of the base, one of the four basic human needs. Our relationship is a mutual relationship with the building, we need it and it needs us a house that’s left unoccupied, will actually collapse on itself. And that, so I think, a beneficial relationship positive relationship with your environment, which means a higher level of awareness and recognition of your responsibility in that relationship, is also sort of a foundational aspect of good health.
Bryan Carroll 37:23
I love it. Are there any final things you want to make sure we touch on when it comes to mold and testing your home and making sure your environment is mold free?
Jason Earle 37:33
I’m just going to remind everybody that mold is a moisture problem. Okay, so mold is not actually doing anything to you. Mold is not the bad guy. At the end of the day, mold is actually when it produces these, the musty odor and chemicals and even the spores, I would argue that mold is actually sending you a message. If you smell that smell, it’s letting you know that there’s a problem in your building. And I would look at that as a benevolent action on the part of mold letting you know there’s a problem.
So mold is a moisture problem and act quickly. The moment you know that there’s an issue. act immediately, you get 24 to 48 hours, before stuff gets moldy. And according to the industry standards, 72 hours after something gets wet and stays wet. It’s considered moldy, and should be treated as such. So and then, of course, if you see something, smell something, or feel something, do something.
Bryan Carroll 38:25
Awesome, Jason. Well, thank you so much for coming onto the show. Again, people can find more about you at gotmold.com/summitforwellness, you’re also on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. And thank you so much. I know mold is a much bigger issue than I think a lot of people are making it out to be. And I think a lot more places are discovering that they have underlying mold issues, which does get very expensive for all the homes out there. But if you can catch it early, it makes it a lot cheaper to fix. And then you won’t have all those health issues later on down the road too. So…
Jason Earle 38:59
Exactly.
Bryan Carroll 39:00
Catch it early.
Jason Earle 39:01
That’s right.
Bryan Carroll 39:02
Like I said before, at the beginning of this episode, I wish I had easy testing kits like this when I was exposed to mold, because it would have made figuring out what was going on with me it’s so much easier, because I could just set one of these up and discover that hey, yes, there is mold, and that could be a major contributor to why I was stuck in bed and didn’t have energy to do anything. So if you want to get your own testing kit, then head on over to gotmold.com.
Make sure to use a code summit10 to get your ten percent off. Why pay full price when you get discounts. Also make sure if you are looking for an electrolyte to add into your daily routine then check out LMNT which is at Summitforwellness.com/lmnt. I love the ratio of the different electrolytes in that mix and it tastes really good. And my favorite flavor is raspberry so head on over there and check it out. Also since Spring is here, that means the honeybee season will start to pick up and as you probably know I have my own honey bees and we harvest a lot of honey.
So and our honey sells out very quickly. So I am going to set up a waitlist here pretty soon I’ll let you know in the next couple episodes how you can sign up for that. And then right when it becomes available, if you are high up on the waitlist, then you’ll have first access to the honey. Typically our first harvest will be in July which is you know, just a couple months away. So it’ll be here pretty quick and then you can get your own raw honey that is fresh and local or local to me I guess. So just stay tuned for when that waitlist will come up. Until next time, keep climbing to the peak of your health.
