Workplace detrimental to health?

Anyone else had anything like this?

About 4-6 weeks ago i had my normal Spring time bout with the cold/coughing. Historically i've had issues with it not going away, have had to make use of a steroid inhalant due to lung thingies getting "stuck" in "aggravated mode." Not a big deal. In the meantime, i just cough, but feel fine.

This year... not so much. I haven't had a chance to go to the doctor, but i've now noticed something.

This is probably almost 6 weeks in now.

I feel FINE, GOOD, even when i'm at home. I feel FINE and GOOD when i'm outside. Don't even cough.

At work? Cough my face off. Struggle to catch my breath. Throat is sore. Pounding headache. Intense congestion.

Feel great every morning when i get up and during my commute to work. 30 minutes within sitting at this goddamn desk i feel like death. Feel like death right up until about an hour after i arrive home from work. Cough lingers a bit until bed time, but still drastically lessens. Cough completely gone in morning.

What do i do here?

Thinking about running to HD to get some mold tests.

Weird thing is that i seem to be the only one having issues in my area, though my boss seems to have had a cough for a bit over a week now. She says she feels sick at home too, though.

Does your workplace have humidification control?

In our area mold levels inside are 20 times lower than outside. Our HVAC filters do a good job keeping the mold spores outside.

The problem we have is LOW humidity. Long cold winters = very dry air. A small portable humidifier may help. Many of your symptoms can occur from air that is too dry.

NGTD wrote: Does your workplace have humidification control? In our area mold levels inside are 20 times lower than outside (long cold winters). The problem we have is LOW humidity. A small portable humidifier may help.

Yes we have humidity control.

Also what i think is a big no-no is 10-15 degree temp fluctuations, and a fiberglass drop ceiling.

Highly doubt it's humidity-based. I've been in this building for 8 years, was never a problem prior to now. That i know of.

Used to have a problem like this with one particular room at university, within 15-30 minutes I'd feel the congestion and itchy eyes coming on, and I'd be stuck with it for a few hours afterward. That room always seemed particularly humid inside even though the AC was always blowing cold.

Entirely possible. I know that at previous office buildings that if the filters are getting close to their time to change that I would have issues that would go away a day or do after they are changed.

Also, don't be afraid to speak up as that sort of stuff can be very location specific and people can react differently as well.

Did maintenance change something (or not)? Sometimes 'improvements' can have other effects. You have clearly isolated this to the work environment. Could be as simple as changing suppliers for HVAC filters and the new less expensive ones are not effective.

Either that or it's just industrial disease and it could be your body is telling you to work somewhere else.

Since I stopped working in a building with 3,000 other inmates...sorry "employees"...I have rarely been sick. When there were some major construction projects going on in the building I swear the chemical fumes would spread through the whole place. When they put in new carpet it was also horrible inside. Maybe there have been some recent big changes in the building that kicked up some nasty funk?

No changes in the building that i'm aware of.

Honestly at this point i'm pretty pissed that this has gone on this long. Whether i'm more pissed that it's happening, or that it took me so long to catch it remains to be seen.

Also raised floors and dropped ceilings are great hiding spots for nasty E36 M3.

Another thing to check - what do they clean the building with and has it changed? Many components of cleaning chemicals can be "sensitizers" - they can cause some people to have aggravated reactions similar to low grade asthma. They aren't unsafe or toxic (good ole bleach is one of the worst), but certain people react to them. With your history of respiratory aggravation you may be more sensitive than others. If they've switched brands lately it may be something in the new formulation.

As someone who formulates cleaning chemicals, I'm not one to over react about their effects. OTOH, it is something to check as there are people who have real, measurable effects from stuff.

Do any of your coworkers have a similar issue?

turboswede wrote: Also raised floors and dropped ceilings are great hiding spots for nasty E36 M3.

Yep. We have both of those.

And that's why i mentioned the temperature fluctuations.

They turn the a/c way up (as in let the temp creep high) at night, they start to cycle it around 6:30. It's easily 10 degrees colder in here at 8am than it is at 8pm.

SWMBO just got her Serve-Safe certification. Apparently that's a big no-no in the food industry with drop ceilings. Generates mold and gross E36 M3.

mtn wrote: Do any of your coworkers have a similar issue?

Not that i've really noticed. Not a ton of us working in the office anymore, though. As for the rest of the 4000 employee building, i don't know any of them, and someone is always sick.

As Ultracycle said, could be a change of cleaning chemicals. OSHA requires that MSDS, or SDS (Safety data Sheets) be available for employees to view. This is one way to see if anything has changed there.