NOTE: While the live event has ended, don’t worry! You can now buy the festival pack and get instant access to all 18 sessions + resources, including a 2 hour FAQ with all the questions I’ve been asked most frequently on mould, health, homes, humidity, professionals to seek out and more. If health coaching and practitioners are out of budget right now, or you want to gain more literacy on an aspect of the ‘mould world’ before engaging potential professionals for your health, building or living situation, THIS is the digital resource for you.
Hey. My name’s Alexx, and I founded the Low Tox movement in 2009. I’m an author of two published books, host of The Low Tox Life podcast and have been speaking on Low tox topics and advocating for healthier food, home, bodies and minds for over a decade. I’ve now interviewed over 400 scientists, doctors and health practitioners on these topics and environmental toxins and their impact on our health has certainly picked up speed as a topic over that time and when it comes to mould, something has to change. Fast. My family has moved 9 times in 14 years. Yep. We had a deposit ready to rock and then I got sick in 2016. From there, we’ve been on the CIRS rollercoaster, renting numerous properties to no avail. My hope is that all renters, owners and investors understand the importance of mould awareness, prevention, quick action and changing the story on building design and renovation, too, so we can avoid a lot of these problems for human and investment health in the future.
That’s my personal why, but connecting with so many community members over the years with their own stories as property owners, investors, renters and people finding issues in their kids’ schools or workplaces, the problem of water-damaged buildings and the way it’s making people sick is RIFE.
That is why I put together the Mould Festival.
A lot needs to change regarding mould awareness, literacy and justice for building and human health. It’s particularly bad here in Australia, in America and over in the UK, but many people worldwide are affected – in countries where relief aid is delivered by way of food, for example, mould-poisoned grains are harming people.
Mould is a natural part of the environment, yes, but in the context of water damage, health-affecting mould spore populations increase greatly, with spores emitting mycotoxins and a whole host of other chemicals that can severely damage human health and building worth in the long run.
Mould literacy is very low:
We don’t have a medical consensus on how badly mycotoxins from water-damage moulds can harm human health, so people can take years (like me!) before being asked: Ever had any water damage or visible mould at home?
Because of a lack of consensus medically, we then don’t build, renovate or maintain to any standards specifically, allowing for a lot of ‘I’ll do whatever’s cheapest’ or ‘Just paint over it or fog it’ type ‘repairs’ and with a lack of housing in big cities, renters are left with a pot luck situation getting a healthy home, with many investors also not understanding that a lack of adequate maintenance and repair and remediation now, equals a worthless investment in the near future.
Heck, until just a few years ago, I myself thought mould was just annoying and I owned “Exit Mould” – a bleach product to ‘kill it’. WRONG! Maybe you’re still there, and that wouldn’t be your fault – as I said, very little is admitted about the health hazard of water damage moulds in particular and what to do about them.
Since I became gravely ill in 2016 (you can read all about that here), I’ve learnt so much – more than I ever cared to know about mould, building codes and water damage, but the meaning I can make from it is that with my skills in education, distilling complex information so as not to overwhelm people, and as a life and health coach, I can bring together incredibly talented humans to inspire change and help YOU hopefully cut some corners and take some shortcuts financially, and health-wise.
Here’s what I know for sure
- No one should feel like they’re going to die or experience many bizarre symptoms and be unable to discover the cause or contributing factors. And yet millions do (PSA: It is NOT normal to have children and young adults with joint pain, rheumatoid arthritis and MS – Is it your building?)
- No one should feel that it’s normal to have to be cleaning mould all the time and have themselves or their kids snotty and coughing permanently, gradually getting sicker over time and yet millions continue to go to the doctor, get a prescription nasal spray or steroid and continue on.
- No one should have to foot the bill for replacing all their possessions after mould contamination in a rental, or in an insurance claim gone wrong because the insurance company didn’t act fast enough, and yet millions do. No homeowner should have to spend their life savings on their property, have a water event, and then have to lump it when insurance only covers a tiny sum for mould or takes weeks to send an assessor, but which time mould has well and tru;y set in – and yet millions do.
- No homeowner should ‘hope for the best’ that they will find building/renovating or remediating professionals who will actually do a great job. And yet, everyone does.
- No one should spend their life savings on a building that starts to grow mould within 2 years. And yet many do.
- No one should be fighting strata when their unit and health are affected by structural building issues, but they’re denied progress in their inquiry because ‘they’re the only ones complaining about it’.
As it stands right now, a healthy home is largely potluck and often impossible to fight for.
However, there is a lot we can learn, a lot we can actively PREVENT if we know how, and a lot we also don’t need to freak out about. Literacy is low so we need to learn more. This is where I can help. Then, a louder more empowered voice begins to pressure policymakers.
From September 27-October 7, I ran The Mould Festival. It’s now available as a library of sessions across:
- Legal considerations for poorly done work or injustice when it comes to water damage.
- Insurance claiming dos and don’ts.
- Building design & renovation considerations
- Mould Technician and Building biology case studies and report findings + recommendations on a path forward
- Remediation do’s and don’ts – how to find trusted allies who know what they’re doing when you need to remove mould.
- Building Materials and methods and the grey area of where sustainability and health don’t always meet eye to eye.
- Naturopathic approaches to healing
- Traditional Chinese medicine approaches to ‘dampness’ and immune/digestive function and restoration
- Nervous system health and psychoneuroimmunology
- And my whopping great 2 hour session stepping you through all the common questions that come up on mould and what to do.
Busy life?
Just use what you need. I guarantee you as someone whose family mould has cost over $100K on this journey, each one of these sessions is worth the $49AUD alone for what it will save you in searching and trial and error.
On October 9th, post-festival, you will receive:
- Audio and video versions of each of the 16 presentations including the 2-hour wrap session Q&A with me.
- Transcripts on each session
- Checklists on cleaning, dusting and home maintenance for the prevention of mould
- Guidelines on “what kind of problem do we have” for renters and owners if trying to assess what you’re dealing with (water damage, excess humidity, human-influenced mould presence that is preventable, and what to do as the next steps for each scenario
- Guidelines on screening questions for finding quality professionals to work with, both in building health and medical practice.
- Further resources by way of support groups, websites, associations and accreditations
- A resource list of the free resources of each speaker + any valuable paid offerings such as products or services, in case they speak to you.
My personal guarantee: Your contact details will NOT be given to anyone and you will NOT end up in one of those god-awful internet funnels.
Fancy joining me to grow the mould literacy conversation and feeling more empowered both in a healthy building prevention context and in a ‘what the heck to do’ context if you have a water or humidity issue and knowing how to build body resilience both while still IN and once out of mould?
Access the Mould Sessions Library now.
Here’s to healthier buildings and people,
