Expoy Fumes, Allergies, and Bronchial Collapse
Now before anyone reads any further, understand that as I write this, I am fine. However, I had a scare yesterday.
I don't generally suffer from allergies. Or more specifically, I've never been diagnosed by a doctor as suffering from allergies. However, I'm beginning to suspect that I do, at least when I'm exposed to an entire new continent of pollens and airborne stuff for the first time. Lately, I've had a lot of sinus pressure, a runny but non-infected nose, and just general BLAH feelings. I'm taking the usual drugs for this kind of thing, waiting to see if they make a difference.
However, it has weakened my immune system slightly, from it's usual state, and that set me up for my adventure yesterday.
The floors in the factory are being painted while the rest of the installation is happening. I don't think this is the best of scheduling, but no one asked me. The paint is going down in a two part process, first the colour, then a day later a clear coat. This clear coat is nasty stuff, and the people applying it are wearing heavy duty safety gear, to protect their eyes, and heavily filter the air they breathe. I'm willing to chock up the following experience to naivety and inexperience on the painter's part.
Wednesday, one of the younger painters started applying clear coat right next to where we are working. less than 10 ft away. He was in his full safety gear, but offered us nothing, and didn't even warn us that he was about to start using some nasty chemicals. We later set up fans, but 10 minutes of uncut exposure had already done a lot of damage to all of us, making us all cough, and leading later to headaches. Being somewhat slow ourselves, we kept working, and didn't leave the area, thinking that the fans blowing the majority of the fumes away from us would make everything ok.
It didn't
I went home that night with a stuffy head and a bad cough. I went to bed, thinking it would go away overnight, because as soon as i got out of the area, and got some fresh air into my lungs, i was feeling much better. I didn't sleep much, but felt good when i woke up. However, as i was about to find out, I had irritated my lungs rather significantly.
On Thursday i was back at work, and again the painter started working right next to us, this time with the colour layer. Within 30 minutes of him putting paint down, i started coughing, first just a little bit, and then progressively worse, until i was coughing constantly. I went outside to get fresh air, but still the coughing continued. I came back in, and the Boeing site rep looked at me, and told me to go home, which I began preparing to do. A second Boeing rep told me i should think about going to the doctor, and getting some oxygen. Now most of you reading this will know that I am stubborn as a mule when it comes to going to the doctor, so you'll realize the significance of me almost immediately agreeing with this boeing rep, and getting a coworker to drive me to the closest doctor. By the time I got to the doctor, i was having serious trouble breathing, had two lines of pain across my chest, and couldn't stand up straight.
The doctor took me in the back, began listening to my lungs with the stethoscope, and grilling me about asthma. I've never had it, and told him this. He put me on emergency asthma medication anyways, and it made a world of difference. After two doses of this stuff, over about 15 minutes of regulated breathing, I could catch my breath, and the pain in my chest was diminishing. A chest x-ray later, and i was released with some prescrition inhaled asthma medication, in case i started feeling worse.
The short story is this: because of my weakened immune system, my lungs were susceptible to irritation. Thanks to the paint fumes, they were irritated big time, so much that I had an accute asthma attack that mimicked pneumonia in its effects on my lungs. My bronchial tubes nearly closed shut, and my lungs weren't absorbing oxygen. But thanks to the drugs I was administered, everything is back to normal.
The net result is that the painter is shut down on site, and no longer allowed to work when others are in the building. After I left, the safety guys interviewed a lot of my coworkers, many of whom said that they were suffering from headaches or coughs, but had chalked it up to a bug moving around. Turns out we were all suffering the effects of the chemical inhalation, I just got it worse than the rest.
But I'm ok now, treating my allergic symtoms, and resting at home. I should be back at work on Monday, but will be taking it easy this weekend, and not working.
I don't generally suffer from allergies. Or more specifically, I've never been diagnosed by a doctor as suffering from allergies. However, I'm beginning to suspect that I do, at least when I'm exposed to an entire new continent of pollens and airborne stuff for the first time. Lately, I've had a lot of sinus pressure, a runny but non-infected nose, and just general BLAH feelings. I'm taking the usual drugs for this kind of thing, waiting to see if they make a difference.
However, it has weakened my immune system slightly, from it's usual state, and that set me up for my adventure yesterday.
The floors in the factory are being painted while the rest of the installation is happening. I don't think this is the best of scheduling, but no one asked me. The paint is going down in a two part process, first the colour, then a day later a clear coat. This clear coat is nasty stuff, and the people applying it are wearing heavy duty safety gear, to protect their eyes, and heavily filter the air they breathe. I'm willing to chock up the following experience to naivety and inexperience on the painter's part.
Wednesday, one of the younger painters started applying clear coat right next to where we are working. less than 10 ft away. He was in his full safety gear, but offered us nothing, and didn't even warn us that he was about to start using some nasty chemicals. We later set up fans, but 10 minutes of uncut exposure had already done a lot of damage to all of us, making us all cough, and leading later to headaches. Being somewhat slow ourselves, we kept working, and didn't leave the area, thinking that the fans blowing the majority of the fumes away from us would make everything ok.
It didn't
I went home that night with a stuffy head and a bad cough. I went to bed, thinking it would go away overnight, because as soon as i got out of the area, and got some fresh air into my lungs, i was feeling much better. I didn't sleep much, but felt good when i woke up. However, as i was about to find out, I had irritated my lungs rather significantly.
On Thursday i was back at work, and again the painter started working right next to us, this time with the colour layer. Within 30 minutes of him putting paint down, i started coughing, first just a little bit, and then progressively worse, until i was coughing constantly. I went outside to get fresh air, but still the coughing continued. I came back in, and the Boeing site rep looked at me, and told me to go home, which I began preparing to do. A second Boeing rep told me i should think about going to the doctor, and getting some oxygen. Now most of you reading this will know that I am stubborn as a mule when it comes to going to the doctor, so you'll realize the significance of me almost immediately agreeing with this boeing rep, and getting a coworker to drive me to the closest doctor. By the time I got to the doctor, i was having serious trouble breathing, had two lines of pain across my chest, and couldn't stand up straight.
The doctor took me in the back, began listening to my lungs with the stethoscope, and grilling me about asthma. I've never had it, and told him this. He put me on emergency asthma medication anyways, and it made a world of difference. After two doses of this stuff, over about 15 minutes of regulated breathing, I could catch my breath, and the pain in my chest was diminishing. A chest x-ray later, and i was released with some prescrition inhaled asthma medication, in case i started feeling worse.
The short story is this: because of my weakened immune system, my lungs were susceptible to irritation. Thanks to the paint fumes, they were irritated big time, so much that I had an accute asthma attack that mimicked pneumonia in its effects on my lungs. My bronchial tubes nearly closed shut, and my lungs weren't absorbing oxygen. But thanks to the drugs I was administered, everything is back to normal.
The net result is that the painter is shut down on site, and no longer allowed to work when others are in the building. After I left, the safety guys interviewed a lot of my coworkers, many of whom said that they were suffering from headaches or coughs, but had chalked it up to a bug moving around. Turns out we were all suffering the effects of the chemical inhalation, I just got it worse than the rest.
But I'm ok now, treating my allergic symtoms, and resting at home. I should be back at work on Monday, but will be taking it easy this weekend, and not working.
posted by BigPete at 11:27 PM
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