4 ms·
I worked in a building like this. Over the year I worked in that office, my asthma got gradually worse and worse. I went from using my rescue inhaler maybe once
by cowpewter 8y ago
I worked in a building like this. Over the year I worked in that office, my asthma got gradually worse and worse. I went from using my rescue inhaler maybe once every couple months (for minor cough/discomfort), to using it multiple times per day just to breathe. Inhaled steroids (Advair Diskus) were added to my asthma prescriptions. Eventually I could barely get through the day without prolonged fits of coughing and multiple asthma attacks.
Went to the doctor again, got diagnosed with bronchitis, sent home with prescription cough medicine and even more steroids (prednisone) and was told not to work for at least a week. Got better.
Started coughing again within 30 minutes of entering the building when I went back to work. Then put together that with the fact that I always felt a little better after my lunch breaks to realize it was the building itself making me sick.
We were getting ready to move to a larger office anyway, so got permission to work from home when necessary until the move. We moved offices, my coughing stopped. I discontinued all the steroids and now am back to using my rescue inhaler almost never.
I can't imagine the building had no effect on anyone else, but I definitely got the worst of it. No one else got sick the way I did.
The building itself was a historic building, a Firestone car repair place that had been retro-fitted to be an office. It was built in 1927, and then sat empty since the 1950s, until it was renovated in 2014.
- Pica_soO 8y agoThere are lots of buildings, with a dark history. Glue used for the carpet that constantly exhales solvents- its especially horrible if your building was a industrial site before. Those brick buildings near trainstations, that where formerly train maintenance sheds are particularly horrible, as the oil in most trains was highly carcinogenic and seeped right into the brick during maintenance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_oil#Polychlorinated_biphenyls_(PCBs) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_oil#Polychlorinate... Always read up on the history of the building you are working in. Also, always google industrial scandals in the local news-paper- usually they just rebuild right over spill sites- and the stuff smells up after rain.
- itronitron 8y agoIn addition to mold, mildew, and pollen, a lot of people are allergic to various types of critters and their droppings. I don't want to think about what can accumulate over 50 years in an empty building.