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  1. Find out what’s in store for this exciting Myers Detox Podcast!
  2. Learn about Terry, his business, and his special Environmental Toxic Assessment system, or ETA. 
  3. Ordinary air quality testing does not provide accurate results. Find out why!
  4. Learn about mold in the home, how to identify it, and why it can be tough to identify!
  5. Mold can often times go undetected and cause no noticeable health symptoms. Find out why!
  6. Terry’s Environmental Testing Assessment system, or ETA, get’s an incredibly detailed read on where mold is growing in your house using laser air quality monitors, just like you’d use in a hospital or a clean room. Learn about how it works, and how Terry uses its data to create solutions!
  7. Terry has been developing water testing and water treatment technologies for more than than 40 years, and developed a technology that is insurance reimbursable for kidney dialysis patients. Learn why water testing is so important and why many tests are inadequate. 
  8. Get more insight into why homes have mold and toxicity issues.
  9. Learn why mold remediation does not always keep the mold at bay, or stop mold related health issues. 
  10. Find out about radon, how it affects the body, and how Terry’s ETA can detect it.
  11. HEPA filters do not adequately remove air contaminants. Find out why.
  12. Get more info on how to keep your family safe from air and water contaminants.
  13. Learn how you can work with Terry and make sure your home is toxin free! 
  14. To get special Pure Air Doctor benefits for Myers Detox Podcast listeners only, including preferred pricing and a free guide, go to pureairdoctor.com/myersdetox

 

Wendy Myers: Hello, my name is Wendy Myers of myersdetox.com. Thank you so much for joining me for the Myers Detox podcast where we explore every topic related to environmental toxicity, heavy metals, and chemicals, and solutions to protect your home and your health. Today we have Terry right on the show talking about air filtration and how to do proper testing for airborne toxins and chemicals and mold. These are tests that are normally not done properly, especially when it comes to mold testing. And most companies coming to your home are only testing for mold spores. It’s not done right and people don’t get the problems addressed because of poor testing.

Wendy Myers: And not only that, but most of the error tests that I’ve seen are grossly inadequate. They’re testing for a handful of chemicals or they’re only testing for mold. Terry’s tests test for 500 different airborne contaminants and a hundred different water contaminants. It’s called the ETA or environmental toxin assessment. Just amazing technology. I’m just so impressed by it. I met Terry in Florida and I wanted to have him come on the show to talk to us about how to do testing properly, advances in air toxin testing.

Wendy Myers: In this show, we’re going to be talking about why it’s important to test toxins in your home before buying an air filter. So you get the right kind of filtration system. It’s not more complex than people may realize. And when mold testing, it’s not enough to only test for mold spores to get an accurate understanding of your mold risk in your home. It’s pretty complex. You want to do tests for mold that’s actively growing, which is different than the mold spores just floating around in the air randomly. We’ll also talk about, are you more likely to have an air quality problem in a brand new home or an older home?

Wendy Myers: We’ll talk about the issues in both types of homes and what to look for, and also why there are more cancers and deaths from radon than from all the other air toxins combined, and what to do about this. And that the ETA tests that Terry has tests for radon. And also why everyone living in a home with an air quality problem doesn’t always experience the same or if any health symptoms. And so, that is whether you’re healthy or not or have breathing problems or not or whatnot is not indicative necessarily of toxins in your home that could be undermining your health at some point now or in the future.

Wendy Myers: Many times people have to be exposed to things for a while before they reached this tipping point that finally manifests as symptoms or a mystery illness. We’ll also talk about, interestingly, how your body adapts to toxins in the air so that you stop smelling them after a period of time. And so, that can make you more vulnerable to toxins because you just reached a point where you just don’t smell it anymore in your environment. It’s a brain protective mechanism. So we’ll talk about all those things and more on today’s show.

Wendy Myers: Such a good show. I’m so excited for you guys to listen to Terry because he’s such a wealth of knowledge. I know you guys listening are concerned about the toxic body burden of chemicals and metals that you may have in your body. So I created a quick assessment that you can do. Go to heavymetalsquiz.com, pick that two-minute quiz, and you’ll get your test results that show your relative levels of toxins in your body, and the next steps, what steps to take to remove these toxins, the type of testing that you should do, the number one mistakes that people make when they try to attempt a detox.

Wendy Myers: You get this free video series. It’s really educational and answers a lot of the frequently asked questions that people have, the very basic ones that people have when they’re wanting to detox their body and want to know where to start. So go take that at heavymetalsquiz.com. Our guest today, Terry Wright Senior is founder and CEO of Wright Way Environmental Technologies and pureairdoctor.com. Specializing in environmental health and wellness, Terry established Wright Way Environmental Technologies nearly 40 years ago and nobody was talking about this.

Wendy Myers: He’s licensed as a certified environmental advisor. And a clinical background in brain-based behavioral therapy. He has developed numerous environmental testing and treatment technologies. These processes have been highly effective helping people suffering from both neurological and physiological health problems from exposure to environmental toxins. Developed for residential consumers, Terry designed the Pure Air Doctor ETA, or Environmental Toxic Assessment system as a comprehensive yet cost effective air and water testing system.

Wendy Myers: It not only samples for over 500 air toxins and 100 plus water contaminants, but also identifies the reasons why these problems occur and provides guidance on how the problems can be corrected. In addition to being an authority on air and water quality, Terry is also a licensed residential commercial builder, certified as a mechanical contracting inspector and an HVAC ventilation system expert. He has also developed medical grade technologies to help individuals and families on their journey to optimal health and wellness.

Wendy Myers: Insight gained from his expertise in the clinical setting, along with his environmental and engineering background, have helped him to provide solutions to the complex problems of those suffering from environmental-induced health challenges. You can learn more about Terry, his ETA toxin test, and his air and water filtration systems at pureairdoctor.com/myersdetox. Terry, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Terry Wright: Wendy, it’s really my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Wendy Myers: I am so excited to have you on because I have been researching air filtration and looking for different air filter tests, and they all are kind of a joke for the most part, the tests, to test for, why do you want to filter your air? Some people want to know this information or need to know. They need to know if they have chemicals, or mold, or bacteria, or exactly what is going on in their environment, and then get a solution for that. But so many people are left to their own devices and having to hire different companies or just doing tests that really don’t tell them what’s wrong with their air quality. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into having a company that helps people in this regard, and developing the air filters that you have?

Terry Wright: Absolutely. I have actually been in this environmental industry for almost 40 years now. Even as a young child, I really enjoyed science, and health, and wellness, and I figured if I’m going to do something for the rest of my life, I’m going to really enjoy it and help a lot of people along the way. So that’s where a lot of that really came from initially. My background scholastically is in environmental science. Also health. The testing that we do really has come from my background and understanding that so often many things are missed. You’re either going to spend thousands and thousands of dollars doing a test, and those will give you an idea of what the contaminants are.

Terry Wright: But if we miss why it’s happening, the resolution is always still a mystery. And so, many, many years ago, we would actually go out to people’s homes, do the testing. And it was great, other than I, and my staff, and my team were always getting subjected to being in all these bad environments. On one particular day, I had actually went into four homes, about two hours a piece. And what I later learned was these were real-estate investment homes. A group of investors came in, they purchased the homes. The homes had been shut up, mold everywhere. Water had intruded into the basements, four or five feet tall. And it was a pretty bad situation.

Terry Wright: By the time I had that eight hours of exposure, I got home that night. It had hit my heart, my central nervous system, my adrenals. It literally wiped me out three days in a hospital just trying to recoup. The docs had said, if I had not had done all the things that I’ve done over my years, and started staying healthy and those type of issues, probably would not have made it through that environment situation. And so, today we built our environmental testing assessment system. It’s called an ETA, Environmental Toxic Assessment.

Terry Wright: It identifies over 500 different toxins without me or my team ever having to be in a home. So the reason that typically very expensive testing is very expensive, there are literally thousands of dollars worth of testing equipment to come up with the right answers. Well, for a consumer to go out and buy that, it’s simply not a justifiable. But also going out and spending thousands of dollars with professionals, unless you absolutely need to, also may not be a good choice. And so, we took all of our professional equipment, put it into our testing case. We send that out to that consumer. All they do is take the devices out of the case for about a couple of hours. And then at the end of that timeframe, they put the devices back in the case. It comes back to us.

Terry Wright: We provide the shipping to and back from that customer. And then, once we get it back, we do a full laboratory analysis of over 500 toxins. Most companies, most individuals are doing mold testing, which is fine. But if you’re only checking for mold spores, you’re missing many, many other contaminants. And people will sometimes tell me, “Well, I’m only concerned about mold,” and understandable. I get that. But air is like water. If I took a glass of water and put a spoonful of salt and stirred up, that salt dissolves quite easily.

Terry Wright: If you try to put 187 spoonfuls of salt into that water, the water becomes saturated. It can’t hold anymore. So air is the same way. If I have a slight amount of mold but a lot of chemicals, and I don’t identify those chemicals, I can actually think from my report, “Oh I’m okay because my mold levels are low.” But they’re not really low. They were crowded out by other things in the air. We’ve learned long ago how to identify all types of categories. Even though you’re only concerned with one or two, if I don’t know all of them, I’m not going to give you the right answers. So we’re actually checking for them.

Wendy Myers: I love doing this. I love doing this podcast and interviewing people like you because I have never heard that before. I’ve never heard that mold testing can have like a false negative when there’s lots of chemicals in the air.

Terry Wright: Sure. Even when you’re checking for mold spores, a lot of people will use the little mold plates. And they’ll set up around the house. The problem is you’re waiting for the exact moment that that spore is going to drop into that plate and hopefully everything is just perfect. It doesn’t really happen that way. Traditional mold spore inspectors, they will take a little cassette that they hook up to an air pump. The air pump runs usually for about five minutes, and they’ll draw a certain number of spores in that five-minute timeframe. They send it off to the laboratory. The laboratory will analyze it and they’ll tell you how many spores they found, and usually what type they are.

Terry Wright: But in order to understand, okay, are my spores higher or lower than what they should be, they’ll often go ahead and do an outside control sample. And so, the thought process is, well, if I have a higher level in my house, probably is indicative of a mold problem. Or if I have different types of molds inside my house, it’s probably indicative of a mold problem. The problem is you’re taking these samples at the same time or relatively within a few minutes of each other. Well, the air in your home today is not being impacted from the air outside today. It was impacted from the air outside two or three days ago.

Terry Wright: So last night, did it rain? Was it windy? So now the control sample is really no longer a control sample because it’s of a totally different time frame. It’s like me going into somebody else’s house, testing their air, and then telling you what your problem is. You just can’t compare the two. And so, that’s a really important situation. We’re also looking for active growing mold. Reason being, when you do a mold spore test, every home in America is going to have mold spores, but not every home in America is going to have active growing mold. And that usually is the bigger problem.

Terry Wright: Spores, well, might be laying on a table, on a countertop. Mold that’s actively growing doesn’t want to be around where you’re going to find it. It’s very smart. It’s survived for a lot of years for a very specific reason. It knows how to hide from you. And when it’s actively growing, it’s probably inside a wall behind a cupboard underneath flooring. And so, mold spores don’t find that active growing mold. We do a unique test that actually draws the area, and for over two hours, not just five minutes, allowing me to know what’s going on in the entire house.

Terry Wright: It gives off a very specific chemical. So as we do this analysis, if you have that mold growing, we’ll find it. If you had a low spore count, it may be low because you have a low spore count, or it may be because it’s actively growing. And while it’s growing, the growth is very high in concentration, which you’re not testing for it. And the spores are very low because they’ve already converted into another contaminant. So you have to really understand the environment, a full range of contaminants, so that you’re not missing something.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, you’ve really thought about every tiny aspect of this. It’s so important because, like you said, that so many people are doing mold testing and they have this company come out, and they spent a lot of money to do proper mold testing or this Mickey Mouse mold testing that doesn’t give you information, or they’re testing for chemicals. And everything that I’ve seen for environmental toxins and chemicals tests for maybe 10 things. They’re really grossly inadequate and really don’t give you accurate information. So let’s talk about all of these different issues separately.

Terry Wright: Sure.

Wendy Myers: So chemicals and mold. So many homes today have mold. Can you give us the scope of the problem, about how many homes do have mold issues? Because a lot of people have mystery illness where they go to the doctor and they’re presenting with all these different symptoms, brain fog, and fatigue, and all the different symptoms of mold toxicity. And the doctors are not looking at this. They know nothing about it. And people just are left to go home and continue to be ill. So, what role does mold play in an illness?

Terry Wright: Well, it’s absolutely huge. We’re talking about millions of homes, millions of families. This is why insurance companies today in your homeowner’s insurance policy are so often now excluding mold as being a covered item. They’ve spent literally billions of dollars fixing people’s homes and they finally said, “Okay, this is not happening once in a great while. It’s happening over and over consistently now for years.” Sometimes when you’re looking for that mold situation, and you don’t physically see something on a wall, you think, “Okay, well I don’t have the problem,” or you might do again the mold spore test and get a low concentration, thinking that there’s not a problem again.

Terry Wright: But it’s the active growing mold that we find to be typically the bigger problem. Everyone is always talking about that dangerous black mold. The color of the mold often really is not attributed to how toxic it is. The mold is of course feeding on substances. So when you see a color on a wall or a surface, that coloration is more often due to the feces of the mold up from what it was ingesting, not necessarily the level of toxicity. So that’s a big situation there.

Terry Wright: When you’re trying to identify, maybe I don’t have a mold problem. And so now you start looking at your office, at your parents’ home, at your friend’s house, and because you didn’t really their problem in your home where it’s probably more than likely at, and where you spend more time than anywhere, if you miss that problem there, you’re down another rabbit hole, spending more time, more energy, more of your health, and never really understanding what’s going on. So you have to do a quality analysis at your own home and it has to check for every room in the house.

Terry Wright: People will say, “Well, I smell that musty smell in that back bedroom? So the logic would say, let’s go check back in that back bedroom. Well, if I told you to go in your kitchen right now and start cooking some food, and then when you told somebody else to go back in the far back bedroom and close the door, in five or 10 minutes, they’re not going to know what’s happening. In a half hour or an hour, they’re going to say, “Hey, what’s for dinner?” The source of the food aroma is in the kitchen. But how is it making it back to that back bedroom to let them know that it’s actually going on? So you can’t always just logically think, “Okay, I smell it here, so it must be here.”

Wendy Myers: Exactly. Yeah.

Terry Wright: Your bedroom air today is your living room air tomorrow. You’re living room air tomorrow is your basement air the next day. So people will often buy an air purifier. And they say, “Well, look, I can only get one, so I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to move it around.” Well, at the same rate you’re moving it around room to room, the air is also moving from different areas. So you’re never going to play a catch-up at that point. You’re never going to get ahead.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Also, you don’t always smell mold. There’s a lot of toxic mold that don’t have any kind of musty smell either.

Terry Wright: Or it’s masked over by other contaminants. One of the things that we really spend a lot of time, and it’s my background too on a clinical basis, is understanding how is somebody impacted. If you’re in a home with a lot of mold that had an odor, or if you’re an environment with a lot of chemicals, well, clearly you smell them and you notice them early on. But when that happens for an extended period of time, the brain is getting what they call an excitotoxic chemical reaction. It’s basically putting the brain on fire.

Terry Wright: Well, if that were to happen for long enough, you’re going to die. And so, the brain says, “Well, I don’t want to die. So what do I need to do?” So it literally starts shutting down your ability to taste and smell so that the brain doesn’t continue getting those excitotoxic chemical reactions. The problem is your body is still taking in those contaminants. So you’re thinking everything’s fine. It must have went away. No, your brain just figured out a way to kind of ease your brain up, but you’re still getting that level of toxicity.

Terry Wright: And so, this is why when that happens in more and more cases with more and more contaminants, it’s not just a respiratory issue. People will often say, “Well, I don’t think I have an air quality problem because I don’t have a breathing problem. For a lot of mold or spores, they may get entrapped into the lungs and cause that respiratory issue. But with active growing mold and chemicals, those are actually going through the lung tissue into the bloodstream. And now because they’re so small, they can get anywhere in the body, which is why the problems are so wide.

Terry Wright: You might have one person with a respiratory issue, the next person having brain fog. The next one is having cardiovascular issues. Somebody else is having inflammation and pain, all from the same contaminants. But where it goes, where’s that weak link in that brain body connection? That’s usually what will cause that issue to be so profound for one and hardly noticeable in another. I’ll often have a husband and wife, she is having major issues and he’s saying, “What mold?” And so, again, you can’t just go by symptoms because that’s what normally happens when somebody is trying to solve the problem. They’re addressing the symptoms.

Terry Wright: In the same way that functional medicine today is so much ahead of the curve because we’re really understanding the problems and solving them rather than the symptoms. Well, from a home standpoint, you have to identify that same situation. We want to test. We want to find out where those problem areas are. We also want to understand why it’s happening. If I only know what the problem is and I give you a report and tell you, “You have a lot of problems.” So part of our ETA testing system on that Pure Air Doctor program, is we’re also identifying conditions in that house. So we’re taking laser air quality monitors just like you’d use in a hospital or a clean room, and literally going room, to room, to room.

Terry Wright: If I get a number in your first bedroom of 230, go to the second bedroom, 245, bedroom number three, 3000, ding, ding, ding, we know you’ve got a problem and we can identify more where it’s actually going at, rather than saying, “I have a house with mold.” We’re also looking for temperature, and humidity, and carbon dioxide. If you have an elevated carbon dioxide, what we breathe out, it may be that you just have a lot of people in that house or it may be that the home itself is not breathing correctly, and all of these contaminants every day keep on concentrating.

Terry Wright: So the thing you’ll know is next week it’ll be worse than next week. Next month it’ll be worse than this month. And so, we have to understand the contaminants and the conditions. That way we’re able to come up with an actual resolution and a plan of attack. The one nice thing I kind of bring to the table is that we’re not only air quality specialists, but we are environmentalists as well. But I also am a licensed residential commercial builder, a mechanical contractor. I’m licensed for all of these areas along with having that clinical health background as well.

Terry Wright: So now we can really help you to understand what should you do? Is it a furnace problem? Do you need air purifiers? Do you not have enough insulation in the attics, so now your home and your attic are actually breathing together? Is the basement having too much moisture come in? People will run dehumidifiers and thinking that’s the answer. Well, if the moisture’s in the basement already and you’re using a dehumidifier, the horses aren’t at the bar. The problem’s already there.

Terry Wright: We use technologies like air exhaust ventilation that take the moisture from beneath the foundation, exhaust it to the outside. Now they solved the real problem. So, again, problem resolution is really what we’re focused on more than simply just symptom correction.

Wendy Myers: I love it. I love it. And you do this for water also. You also do water testing, which is so key because I mean, there are just so many contaminants in water. Even if people are drinking perfectly filtered water, which most are not, they’re still showering in toxic water. So tell us about the water testing that you do.

Terry Wright: Sure. So as most people know, if you pour a glass of water, it often looks fairly clear. So you’re thinking, “Okay, well I don’t really have a problem.” Or you might smell some chlorine in your city water, and you go ahead and get a simple charcoal filter so that the water looks, smells, and tastes better. And you think, “Okay, well at least I’m doing something.” The problem is most contaminants in water are dissolved. If I took arsenic, if I took lead, you don’t see it. And so, the goal is, same thing, problem resolution, not symptom control.

Terry Wright: So by analyzing the water for a full range of toxicity, we’re looking at bacteriological, heavy metals, organic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, radioactive compounds, and you think, “Oh gosh, Terry, how often do you probably find those things?” Unfortunately today it’s more the norm than it is the exception. I’ve actually developed water testing and water treatment technologies for better than 40 years. 40 years ago I developed a technology that back then and still today is actually insurance reimbursable for kidney dialysis patients. So you’ve got to imagine how good that water quality is.

Terry Wright: But we have to understand what’s in the water. And then, we talk to the consumer and find out, what are you trying to accomplish? I have some customers that say, “I’m fine if the water looks, smells, and tastes better.” That’s a pretty easy task to do. But when you actually want to remove the contaminants, that’s another situation. And there are so many different types of water out there today. You’ll hear about mineral based water. Then you’ll hear reverse osmosis. Then you’ll hear alkaline water. And the problem is there’s often so much marketing hype, the science has been thrown to the side.

Terry Wright: And from day one, when we started doing this, we said, “We’re going another path. We’re going to really educate somebody to know what you should do, what you shouldn’t, and most importantly why.” Then you can make a good decision. Most companies today are really good at marketing. We want to cut through that marketing hype and bring down to the science. The testing is checking for over a hundred different toxins, so now we don’t miss anything at that point.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And that’s rare. Again, I’ve done or had different water tests done, and they’re either testing for like four heavy metals or just a handful of chemicals, maybe some sodium and calcium, and just wholly inadequate testing for water. And it gives people this false peace of mind like, “Oh, I’ve done my water testing,” and they’ve done nothing. They’ve only tested for four heavy metals and a few minerals. So really important to do testing so you know what type of filter you need, because everyone has different needs, especially if you have well water versus city water.

Terry Wright: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I always tell people, “You’re either going to buy a filter or you’re going to be the filter, because you’re bringing it in no matter what. And if you don’t do that high-quality analysis, I find you’ll fall into one or two categories. You’re going to just think, “Okay, well, I have everything,” and spend more money than what you need to, or not test for all the things you need to know about and then not get those solved. And so, really bringing that science to the equation really puts that consumer into the driver’s seat, rather than somebody telling them what you need and they don’t even know what that quality of water is starting off with.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. I love that. You’re either going to get a water filter or be the filter. That is just brilliant. Yeah. And so, let’s go back to mold. Lay out the problem for us. Statistically, how many homes have mold?

Terry Wright: Well, so I’ll give you a good analogy to start off with. People will often tell me, “Terry, I’ve lived in this house for 50 years. Why now? Why am I having these problems now?” And so, I go back to them and say, “Well, have you put a new roof on?” “Oh yeah, that was 23 years ago.” “Okay. How about a new heating and cooling system?” “Yeah, that was about 15 years ago.” “All right, how about new doors and windows?” “Yeah, that was eight years ago.” So what I come back to them and tell them is, “You’ve lived at the same address for 50 years. You haven’t lived in the same home for 50 years because every time you do things like that, you change the breathable dynamics of that house.”

Terry Wright: And so people say, “Well, is a old house better or a new house better?” Older homes from back in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, they weren’t built really well. There was a lot of leaky windows and doors, a lot of cracks and crevices. So homes, they were actually able to be breathing at that time. Air was coming out, air was coming in. And so, that’s a good situation. However, if you had a problem at that time, you’ve now been in that problem home for many, many more years. So I’m going to buy a new house then.

Terry Wright: Well, with a new house, by building code standards, they’re required to be much more energy efficient, better doors, better windows, better insulation, all great things, until you recognize that we’ve just buttoned ourselves up in a home with all of these manmade chemicals, heavy metals, and toxins, and formaldehyde. And so, for different reasons, we’ll look at those homes specifically based upon that building time and what modifications have been done. But we’re checking still every one of those homes for all of those conditions and contaminants to really understand what’s going on.

Terry Wright: So there is no right time to build or buy a house thinking that you’re okay either way. There’s generally going to be a problem, but for different reasons. So, back in the seventies and eighties, when the energy crunch was starting to happen, that’s when the building code started to change to build the homes tighter. We didn’t want to have our dependency on foreign oil. Well, that’s great. But if you look back at that time, we started seeing childhood asthma, autism going through the roof. And it wasn’t genetics because you’re not going to change genetics in a matter of just a few years.

Terry Wright: But what was the common denominator? And that was home construction and the level of toxicity that kept on rising in these homes, so even in our carpets and paints. People today, they try to buy lead-free this and lead-free that, and chemical-free this and that. The problem is that a manufacturer, even on our cleaning chemicals and our personal care products, you think, “Okay, well I’m buying healthy. I’m buying natural. Well that’s great. But the problem is, when you and I are buying a fragrance-free product or an odorant-free product, we want to have a product that doesn’t have any odorants and fragrances in it.

Terry Wright: The manufacturers are looking at it from another story. They’re looking at it from, “Oh, they don’t want to smell something.” So they take their original fragranted product. They have their chemists on staff figure out what other chemicals and odorants they have to add to it so that you don’t smell them. So the actual chemical concentration is higher, typically, on a fragrance-free product. And you’re thinking you did a great job. People say, “Well, I read the label, Terry. I’m a good label reader.” Well, that’s great. But unfortunately the manufacturers are able to call that a trade secret so they don’t have to list it.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. Yeah. Is that the same with paints, because recently my fiance bought a can of paint because I’m always crying. He loves painting stuff and I’m like, “The smell, oh my God. You’re killing me.” And then he got a can of paint and it didn’t smell at all. And I was like, “Wait a second, what’s wrong here?”

Terry Wright: Right. Yep. That’s a very common situation. So even when you buy a no VOC paint, or a low VOC paint, it’s a good thought process. Good old college try. But so often, that’s more, again, of a marketing claim. And it’s often towards, again, the odor of it, not the fact that there’s not the chemicals in there.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was afraid of that. I kind of just sensed that intuitively, that this is still a problem. Like we just cannot have painting going on. No. I like that you bring that up, that older homes going to have various issues that could have lead paint underneath the newer paint. But then newer homes don’t actually solve that problem, because I was looking around for homes in my area and went to some brand new ones. And the smell of all the carpet, and the paints, and the new furniture, and the this and that just knocked me over when I would walk in. So it’s like you just have to find an environment and you have to create your cocoon with doing air filtration and proper ventilation and all the things that you talk about.

Terry Wright: Absolutely. And once again, they move into that new house. The first day, it hits them like a ton of bricks. Second day, little less. In a week or 10 days, “Oh, finally it off gassed.” I’m going to tell you as being an analyst and a scientist and a researcher, things don’t off gas in a matter of days or weeks, and not even in months, and sometimes, not even in years. It’s that same brain connection that I mentioned before, the brain shut down their ability to taste and smell. “Oh, hey, my house is off gassed.” It hasn’t off-gassed. You’re still being subjected to those chemicals and contaminants.

Wendy Myers: Yes. And so, let’s talk about, say, if someone has a mold problem. They discover they have a mold problem. And let’s talk about some of the problems with mold remediation. Like, say someone has a big mold problem before a company came in and fixed it by doing remediation, and they did an air test right after they finish, and it showed that everything was looking good, it was fine. But they’re still having some health issues. What’s going on there?

Terry Wright: Sure. In addition to being a nationally accredited environmental evaluator, I’m also certified and licensed as a mold inspector, as a remediator, and on and on and on. Not to have a bunch of initials behind my name, but to really help somebody figure out, okay, what’s really is going on here? So you call a mold inspector, and there’s a lot of good ones out there. So don’t get me wrong. But they’re looking for mold spores, not the condition that really made that problem happen.

Terry Wright: So let’s say we do a mold inspection and we’ve got a five-foot by eight-foot big blotch of mold on your kitchen wall. So the remediators will come in. They’ll cut that wall out. They will apply an antimicrobial. Then they’ll call the drywallers, drywall it back up, paint over it, everybody’s high fiving and say, “Hey, we did a great job. I’m going to make sure that if I ever have another problem, I’m going to call you back again.” Well, guess what? The probability of them coming back again to fix another problem is pretty high because they fixed what they could physically see. They did not most often find out what really happened to cause the problem in the first place.

Terry Wright: So either it’s going to come back in that same area, or come back in a different area. And when it does, you say, “Oh, they did a good job the last time. So let’s call them back again.” You need to find out why that problem is happening. Do we have a leak under the kitchen sink? Do we have too much humidity? Do we have a home that’s not breathing effectively? And so, now even the moisture content from showering and bathing in a closed up home is actually enough to cause that mold issue, something clearly that it’s not a tree that fell through the roof. It’s not a car that drove through your wall. It’s something simple and common. Showering and bathing and clothes washing. There’s enough moisture there to cause a mold problem if that home is not breathing.

Wendy Myers: Yeah, really, really interesting, because you don’t think about these things. You think it’s got to be a leak or it’s got to be something. Let’s talk about radon.

Terry Wright: Sure.

Wendy Myers: I’ve heard that radon in the air is one of the number one causes of lung cancer in non-smokers. So how can someone tell if they have it? What can they do about it?

Terry Wright: You will not see it. You will not smell it. You’ll not taste it. Without really testing for it, you’ll never know until you have the health issue because of it. And on the unfortunate side, as you mentioned, it is the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. But there’s a secondary part of that that you don’t hear so much, but it’s quite profound. And that is that the mold… I should say the radon particles are what are coming into the lungs. And in the radioactive, you typically will have uranium and radium beneath your house that decomposes. And the radioactive byproduct of that is radon.

Terry Wright: And so, now it comes into your basement, or even across space, even through a slab foundation. And then it either gets drawn in through your ventilation system or just continues to migrate through the rest of the house. So that’s the lung cancer, is from the radioactive particles. But the radioactive gases, these are even much smaller. And as you breathe those in, once again, they go through the lung tissue into the blood stream. Passing the blood brain barrier is one of those issues. So very common and tied to brain cancer, brain tumors, Parkinson’s, because it’s ionizing radiation.

Terry Wright: And if it gets past that blood brain barrier, and you’re now ionizing radioactivity to the central motor skills of the brain, we’re going to have some issues. And so, testing is very simple. This is actually included in our ETA testing system. If we were not finding this so many times, we wouldn’t include it. But it’s something that we find very, very consistently. So much so now that from a real estate transaction, when you go to sell your house, starting in about three more years, by federal law, it will be a mandatory requirement that the radon be tested.

Terry Wright: And if you have that problem, they’ll make you fix it before they’ll let you transfer the ownership of that home, at your county records department. Last year there were about 21,000 deaths. So, clearly we have some pretty huge numbers out there. I mean, we hear breast cancer, and colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer, all huge numbers. Take all of them, combine them, then double that number. That’s the number of lung cancer cases that we have. And when you think about the number one cause of lung cancer and nonsmokers is radon, yeah, we need to have some eyes opened up.

Terry Wright: And so, we made it a mandatory, critical part of it, our ETA testing system. We’re checking for it and letting you know if you have that problem. Are you at risk? The beauty on radon, unless you do some major home construction issues, if you test for it, and if you don’t have it today, it’s never going to show up. And if you do have it, it’s not going to go away on its own. So it’s a very clear and defined testing process and that’s why we made it part of that ETA program.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And so, if someone believes they have an air quality program, should they just go out and buy an air filter. So, say you have really good air filters. You’ve been researching this for 40 years. Should someone just go get one if they feel like they have an air quality issue?

Terry Wright: Well, when you look back 40 years ago when I started into this industry, air filters were an oddity. In fact, when I started 40 years, water filters were an oddity. And people would say, “You’re in what business? You’re treating water? I mean, but my drinking water is fine.” Now, today, bottled water is the number one beverage sold in the world. So, clearly, minds have changed because facts have changed. And so, when you go out and buy an air filter, and there’s plenty of them today, and there’s a lot of good companies.

Terry Wright: But here’s the problem. HEPA filters, that term HEPA is a very common name or process that’s being thrown around in the industry quite a bit. HEPA filters filter down to 0.3 microns in size. The reason they do that is that’s a point at which it starts coming into the lungs. When you’re above that 0.3, it’s often more attributed to what I call coffee table dust. And so, when you look through a window on a sunny day and you can see all the particles floating in the sunbeam, it appears like there’s a lot of them, and there are. But the majority of what you see there floating visibly is too big to get into the respiratory system.

Terry Wright: So when you start to filter at that level or larger, you’re missing 90% of the things you can actually breathe in. So at that point, a HEPA filter is really not all that good. You’ve got to get down to those ultra-fine contaminants. Those are the things you’re breathing in really impacting lung issues, but more importantly going through that lung tissue, again, getting into the bloodstream and causing the systemic inflammation, the neurological, the brain fog, those are those ultra fines.

Terry Wright: So even if you went out and bought a great HEPA filter, you’re still going to be missing most of the things that are in the air. So what we try to do is by the analysis, I can tell you what type of contaminants you have. So now you can go get the right filter for the right problem, rather than second guessing it and missing the very process that you need and wondering why are you still sick?

Wendy Myers: Yeah, absolutely. I had a HEPA filter at one point long, long, long time ago. It was so loud. I didn’t want to turn it on simply because of that, because it was just like a locomotive in my living room. And then if you don’t change the filters often enough, they can get bacteria and mold growing in them, which they just blow back out into your home. So they’re really just kind of a joke. Yeah. So let’s talk about next to getting your air tested. Is there anything else that people should know when it comes to keeping their families safe and healthy?

Terry Wright: Absolutely. Again, checking for the contaminants, and you want to, again, do that comprehensive type testing that’s in that Pure Air Doctor ETA test. Water testing, same situation. We have a device and actually it’s called a laser air quality monitor. It’s what you’d find in a hospital clean room. And so, what we’ll actually do is we’ll take that from room to room to room and what people say, “Oh my gosh. We just noticed it. It was like pretty good numbers, and all of a sudden it spiked out of nowhere.” And said, “Okay, well what happened? Did more people come into the house?” “No.” “Were pets moving around?” “No, but my daughter just took a shower.”

Terry Wright: And so, the airborne contaminants in the water as the shower is misting is dissolving into the air. And so, it was another airborne contaminant, but it started off as a water contaminant. So that’s why we find testing both the air and the water are so critical, otherwise you’re missing too many pieces of the puzzle.

Wendy Myers: That’s so key. I love that you brought that up because a lot of people don’t realize when they’re their dishwasher’s going and that their showers on, there’s this mist that comes out or this vaporization of chemicals from the water that you breathe in and people just, they don’t understand that the stuff is in water. There are so many chemicals that the city doesn’t filter for, they don’t even test for. There are just so many of them that are affecting people’s breathing quality. It’s soaking into their skin when they’re taking a shower. It’s really a huge problem that people don’t realize is undermining their health.

Terry Wright: Yep, absolutely. So, yeah, we would definitely encourage… There’s a lot of links that’ll be on this here to help them make contact with us. There’s some free reports that will just give them good information. What should I check for? How should I check it? What are my options? There’s the opportunity of having some consults with us as well too, even if it’s just to get some questions answered. Money didn’t get me into this business and it definitely doesn’t keep it in today, but getting the answers.

Terry Wright: I mean, there’s a reason why I’m so involved with this today. I turned 61 here actually the beginning of this month. And so, this is my mission. This is my passion. We’re going to find ways to help people have a healthier life. When you look at how many individuals and families that are getting impacted by this, it’s a shame.

Wendy Myers: It’s astronomical. It’s astronomical. Yeah. And so, if you guys want to learn more about getting your ETA air filter test, go to pureairdoctor.com/myersdetox. Tons and tons of information on that page. And so, how do you work with people? So you do the at-home test that has 500 different chemicals and molds and things that it tests for. And then you have the air filters. Do you come out to people’s homes and do tests or remediation? How can people work with you?

Terry Wright: Sure. So remember when I mentioned before about my background also as a residential and commercial builder, mechanical contractor, HVAC and all these other areas, with technology today, I can be 3,000 miles away from you and we can hop on Skype call, we can do a FaceTime call. All I need to do is be able to see what’s going on. And then couple that with the analysis process because, again, I’ve looked at the contaminants and the conditions. Now it’s just like I’m there, but we didn’t have to put ourselves in harm’s way, and we can get in front of a lot more people a lot more quickly. And that mission of helping more people more quickly is now being fulfilled because of that ability.

Terry Wright: So no matter where you’re at, I do this all over the world. Most of our time and efforts are here in the States and Canada. But literally there’s nowhere that we can’t do this process. And once we’ve done the analysis, we’ll go ahead and we’ll schedule a time to either do an online review of your test. We’ll hop on the phone and we’re going to spend whatever time is necessary. We also have a variety of online training programs to help you get through that process.

Terry Wright: So you might have your own remediator or your own air filter company, no problem. We’re just going to help guide you as to what you should do and why, so that you don’t spend money, time, and effort, and energy into making mistakes. Because I have so many people that come to me, “Terry, you don’t understand. I’ve worked on this for 10 years. Terry, you don’t understand. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars.” It breaks my heart because I know they didn’t have to. So we’ll spend whatever time is necessary to help walk them through that process. I can guarantee you they won’t walk away with any of their questions unanswered.

Wendy Myers: Okay, fantastic. Yeah, it sounds like you just have so many resources for people. And there’s also a free guide you guys can download, also, if you go to pureairdoctor.com/myersdetox. So Terry, thank you so much for coming on the show. Is there anything else that… Any parting words of wisdom that maybe we haven’t discussed yet?

Terry Wright: Absolutely. Again, I thank you so much. It’s really been really just an exciting time to be able to do this with you because there are continuing to have these problems happen more and more every day. And so, whether it be a technology question or a testing question, you don’t necessarily have to use our services to get those questions answered. We’re here for you. If I can bring anything away, don’t just take it at face value that there’s no way to solve your problem. There are ways that we can help. And even if it’s just getting questions answered, it will save you money, time, and energy. So yeah, don’t waste more time. Find the real answers today to those problems, and don’t just chase the symptoms.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. And knowledge is power. You need to test your home’s air and water to see if you have an issue, because I guarantee you that most people do have some type of issue they need to address when it comes to chemicals and metals and mold in their home that is undermining their health. It can impact every different organ system in the body. Your mitochondria, energy production, your brain function, your blood sugar control. People don’t realize how tightly knit and the correlation between chemicals and toxins and their health issues and their doctors isn’t making those connections for them.

Wendy Myers: So, go to Terry’s site and check that out. And, everyone, thanks so much for tuning in to the Myers Detox podcast where we explore every topic related to heavy metal and chemical toxicity and solution. So, thanks for tuning in. It’s a pleasure serving you guys and educating you every week. And thank you for listening, and I’ll talk to you guys next week.