Ronnie
Message 1 of 1
I have the following described situation, that makes me believe that perhaps my boyfriend and his co-workers are slowly being poisoned in their work place. 1) They moved into a re-modeled part of a 30+ year old building about 4 months ago. 2) He has experienced cold and flu symptoms since moving in there, which NEVER materialize into a cold. Mild to severe headaches more frequent than normal. A very high level of lethargy and sleepiness. He typically needs 8 hours of sleep.. but now, I think 10 hours isn't enough.. he is constantly wanting to sleep. By Friday, he is a wreck, not able to concentrate, "needing space", irritable, and just plain worn out. Recently he had an attack that we thought might be a heart attack. Chest pain, elevated heart rate, shortness of breath, waves of nausea. He was in the hospital for 3 days having all kinds of tests run and nothing! All the tests came back negative for a heart attack or circulatory system problem. I thought that he might be suffering from some kind of depression or something like that. But the rest of this seems to point to something different. 3) One co-worker last week put up a filter on the furnace duct register above his desk because whenever he comes to work after the weekend he finds black soot all over his desk. Another employee who was moved from that space to another location in the building says he feels better and a lot of his health challenges have cleared up since moving to a different office. Several of the gals have experienced an inordinate number of headaches. Most of them are smokers, and exit the building several times a day to smoke. But one lady who never leaves her station even at lunch time has recently been under physician's care for mystery illnesses. My boyfriend is a non-smoker, therefore he is in the building most all of the day. The fellow who put up the filter over his desk has experienced fatigue, headaches, nausea, etc. "Just not feeling good". Which is what my boyfriend complains of. "Just not feeling good most of the time". He seems to rejuvenate on the weekend, but then from Monday to Friday is a general degeneration in his attitude, energy, vitality. (Seems normal for some who hate their job. But read on.) 4) Recently the company had the ducts to the furnace cleaned. Whatever solution they used to clean the ducts over the weekend were pretty strong. An odor and immediate reaction from all the employees sent them out of the building to escape the "fumes". Is this a case of "Poor Ventilation"? No outside air so by the end of the day, CO is permeating their work area from just the bodies exhaling it? The furnace and air conditioning system is right next to their work area. Is there a possible leak in the exhaust system? What is the best way to attack these suspicions? Do they involve a govt. agency to monitor and test? Or do they do a preliminary investigation by the workers? Who do they contact to do such testing? Is this an OSHA issue, or an EPA issue? How can my boyfriend and his co-workers find out if they have CO, or some other environmental issue involving their health and well being? What tests? Is it best to go to their primary care physician first, and ask if these things can be addressed specifically? Sorry for the long post... If anyone out there has experience with this,or, is a physician who is knowledgeable in this area, I would really appreciate some direction here. Please do not send me sales advertising for monitoring devices, if that is your ONLY response to my questions. Thanks so much, and may you all have health in abundance. Ronnie