7 min read
3 Things I Learned About Creating A Toxin-Free Home From Building Biologist Nicole Bijlsma
My chat with building biologist Nicole Bijlsma on shoes, greenwashing and mould.
I interviewed building biologist Nicole Bijlsma on my Talking Clean With Irene podcast. Nicole holds a Diploma of Building Biology, she's a former naturopath and acupuncturist, and she wrote the bestselling book Healthy Home Healthy Family. She was also on the committee for the first Australian Standards for mould.
When we think about clean living, one of the first changes we need to make is our cleaning products. All of those bleaching agents, the disinfectants, the mould killers. They make everything look nice and clean in the beginning, but what are they really doing to our health long term and the environment?
"Take your shoes off before you come into the house. Your council uses tons and tons of chemicals and pesticides to keep nature at bay. You're tracking it in when you wear your shoes. That's the number one. You reduce your dust load by 50%."
"The bathroom cleaner has a low pH, it's quite acidic. And the reason is because in a bathroom you have E. coli and bacteria that don't like acidic environments. Whereas the surface spray in our kitchen is alkaline. So when you spray it, it saponifies the fat and turns it into soap, and then it makes it so much easier to wipe with just a microfibre cloth."
"You can use bleach. I don't use it because it's toxic. All the bleach is doing is bleaching the colour of the mould, it's not removing it. The bleach can provide a food source for mould, so within days it's coming back."