Hello, friends,
Had a little piece of my chemical-exposure history returned to me today. Someone happened to mention that a building in which I'd worked for two years had previously been a hair and nail salon just before our company leased office space there. I then recalled that I once knew this and then forgot it. The information wasn't even in my mind when I set up this blog! Unfortunately, the heating ducts leading into that office space hadn't been cleaned before our company arrived there. Upon discovery of much debris in the ducts, a heroic cleaning effort was made, not by the building's owner, but by the company for which I worked. Even then, it was inevitable that there was still considerable debris remaining in the ducts; therefore, neither the irritating substances -- nor the chemical residues they left behind -- were completely eliminated. No one even thought about addressing chemical residues back then.
What I can't forget is working many 12-hour days in that building, my eyes burning and burning; getting one migraine headache on top of another; drinking three large Dunkin' Donuts coffees a day to cope with the pain and inflammation; and a co-worker's smoking in the building. By that point, I had fully established that cigarette smoke gave me migraines. In those days, however, smoking indoors was still permitted, so I eventually had to ask the co-worker if she would please smoke outside.
So, after becoming fully sensitized to cigarette smoke, I actually worked long hours for two years in a very "sick" building where various forms of dusty debris and hair-and-nail-salon chemical residues were emanating from a forced-air heating system. How about that?
There's more of an "excuse" for my chemically sensitive condition than even I thought . . .
It all fits together.
Cheers!
~ Daisies
Revised for clarity on 7/17/14.
Had a little piece of my chemical-exposure history returned to me today. Someone happened to mention that a building in which I'd worked for two years had previously been a hair and nail salon just before our company leased office space there. I then recalled that I once knew this and then forgot it. The information wasn't even in my mind when I set up this blog! Unfortunately, the heating ducts leading into that office space hadn't been cleaned before our company arrived there. Upon discovery of much debris in the ducts, a heroic cleaning effort was made, not by the building's owner, but by the company for which I worked. Even then, it was inevitable that there was still considerable debris remaining in the ducts; therefore, neither the irritating substances -- nor the chemical residues they left behind -- were completely eliminated. No one even thought about addressing chemical residues back then.
What I can't forget is working many 12-hour days in that building, my eyes burning and burning; getting one migraine headache on top of another; drinking three large Dunkin' Donuts coffees a day to cope with the pain and inflammation; and a co-worker's smoking in the building. By that point, I had fully established that cigarette smoke gave me migraines. In those days, however, smoking indoors was still permitted, so I eventually had to ask the co-worker if she would please smoke outside.
So, after becoming fully sensitized to cigarette smoke, I actually worked long hours for two years in a very "sick" building where various forms of dusty debris and hair-and-nail-salon chemical residues were emanating from a forced-air heating system. How about that?
There's more of an "excuse" for my chemically sensitive condition than even I thought . . .
It all fits together.
Cheers!
~ Daisies
Revised for clarity on 7/17/14.
1 comment:
HI, I think my chemical sensitivities were cause by having nails applied. I'm terribly sensitive to solvents, and fragrances, which I wore a tonne of! So I'm surprised this happened to you.
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