forced glue-sniffing
May. 9th, 2002 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmollyHere's something unpleasant: being physically ill at the end of every workday because of the shoddy construction practices in your new office. Early last week, we moved into new offices that suck for a wide variety of reasons. The one I didn't expect, though, was that the construction would be so fresh that the whole place would stink of new plastic and fresh glue.
For a couple of days, it was just unpleasant and stinky, but nobody was complaining besides me so I shrugged it off. Then it got so that by the end of the day every day, I would have a body-destroying stomachache that would take hours to wear off. (This is why I couldn't lift on Monday.) So, over the course of the workday, my gut slowly wrenches into knots and my throat swells up. It seems to peak about 20 - 30 minutes after I leave, and then wear off a few hours after I get home.
I am very attuned to smells, but I've never had any sort of chemical sensitivity or allergy before, so I figured I was just making it up or getting organically sick or something. The thing that cinched it for me was not getting sick over the weekend and then starting up again on Monday, full-force. Yuck!
Anyway, my boss researched it and found out that our end of the building was the most freshly-glued. She moved me to a sweet isolated area at the other end of the floor that's much less stinky. My new home also turns out to be very quiet (no inter-cube football) and right next to the window. So here I am, alone, plenty of room, with a little pot of ivy next to my monitor, a view out over some trees and a semi-crippling stomachache. This is an improvement, of sorts -- it's a shame that I didn't move until 4:30 PM today, but I hope it makes me less sick. Maybe I can wheedle a couple of weeks in this cube before taking off to Amsterdam. Woop!
For a couple of days, it was just unpleasant and stinky, but nobody was complaining besides me so I shrugged it off. Then it got so that by the end of the day every day, I would have a body-destroying stomachache that would take hours to wear off. (This is why I couldn't lift on Monday.) So, over the course of the workday, my gut slowly wrenches into knots and my throat swells up. It seems to peak about 20 - 30 minutes after I leave, and then wear off a few hours after I get home.
I am very attuned to smells, but I've never had any sort of chemical sensitivity or allergy before, so I figured I was just making it up or getting organically sick or something. The thing that cinched it for me was not getting sick over the weekend and then starting up again on Monday, full-force. Yuck!
Anyway, my boss researched it and found out that our end of the building was the most freshly-glued. She moved me to a sweet isolated area at the other end of the floor that's much less stinky. My new home also turns out to be very quiet (no inter-cube football) and right next to the window. So here I am, alone, plenty of room, with a little pot of ivy next to my monitor, a view out over some trees and a semi-crippling stomachache. This is an improvement, of sorts -- it's a shame that I didn't move until 4:30 PM today, but I hope it makes me less sick. Maybe I can wheedle a couple of weeks in this cube before taking off to Amsterdam. Woop!
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Date: 2002-05-09 05:25 pm (UTC)One reason I hate new carpet.
It made me ill during a bridge meet once.
What sucks is that I couldn't tell the diff between the glue smell and the old lady perfume.
Well, that's normal.