leighbythesea2
leighbythesea2's JournalMaybe not right forum, health & work environment question
Wondering if anyone here can give me a little guidance on workplace and allergy response. I count on DU and it’s smart membership.
I figured out finally today, what I think I’m allergic to at work, that’s been steadily building for 6 months.
The factors—its a corporate office. It’s a department with specific objectives, resources & tools. Namely, apparel design. We handle a lot of materials and fabrics in our area.
I’ve been working on home decor—new to us. Home fabrics & textiles.
Have steadily felt more & more allergic over time but kept thinking it was internal circulation system, dust, the carpet, the carpet cleaning, etc.
have taken allergy meds, eye drops, & brought in an air purifier for my desk. Not working.
Today it was so bad my chest hurt, shallow breathing and the word asthma came into my head. Using google for this “asthma at work”, stumbled on occupational asthma.
And on the list of most common, is textile workers. I’m a textile designer. Mind you, I’m not in a factory, or mill, which is where this gets discussed most.
I see a dr Friday & anticipate being sent to ENT. (Went thru this & skin test with my allergy prone step-son years ago).
At least I can tell them my theory.
The fibers & fabrics for home textiles are different, & I have steadily increased in exposure. They are “cut” and swatches have more loose fiber. Home textiles are much bigger, and the quantity is bigger too.
My question is—what if I am just allergic to my job? Is my employer responsible for anything around environment, given it’s not a factory or mill environment—-with flying fiber, & dust from cutting or processing tons of fabric. It’s a corporate office.
It’s not like I suspect mold.
I believe it is the tools I’m using to do my job.
Can I ask to move areas? Do something with less exposure ? I can’t be in a bubble.
(noticed in researching textile worker environment they can test for an IGa response, and a skin prick for cotton & synthetic. Will ask my dr about this.)
Could it end up being just my problem? Maybe after 35 years, have gotten to this place?
It’s not “extreme” immersion, anyone doing what I do would be required to handle fabrics.
I’m sure there are mitigating options. Will start with a mask tomorrow.
Just, if end up deemed allergic —would probably stop doing this work. Am close to retirement, & would consider this very critically.
Today I left the floor i work on for 20 minutes to try to stop near-wheezing, essentially. Overall it was so bad, started planning how to quit.
***I’m the only one currently with this issue, to my knowledge.
It’s just so crazy—am possibly allergic to my vocation?! Then what.
Thanks all in advance for any advice. Meet with my director Wednesday. Need to be smart about my conversation.
Death of Angela Chao, (sister of Elaine) Under Criminal Investigation
The death earlier this month of Foremost Group CEO Angela Chao, the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is currently under "criminal investigation," a Texas sheriff's office said Thursday.
Chao, 50, was found dead shortly after midnight on Feb. 11 after being pulled out of a car that had gone into a pond on a private ranch in Johnson City, Texas, about 40 miles from Austin.
"This incident was not a typical accident," the Blanco County Sheriff's Office wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday.
"Although the preliminary investigation indicated this was an unfortunate accident, the Sheriff's Office is still investigating this accident as a criminal matter until they have sufficient evidence to rule out criminal activity," the letter said.
Chao was the sister of McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, who has served as secretary of both the U.S. Labor and Transportation departments. Their father and mother founded the Foremost Group.
[link:https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/angela-chao-death-being-investigated-as-criminal-matter.html|
Admiring my hearts, thank you very much
Ordered a “charcuterie plate for two” from my salad place. Since my SO works across the state 5 days a week, am enjoying it myself—while I very much admire my hearts. Thank you!
Committed to a date for memory care facility today
For my mom. 6.5 years of living together, most of it in my house. Alzheimer’s.
She had polio as a child, and that has been a compounding factor more recently. Also, she has a physical condition, that has been added. Significant.
I can’t do it anymore. She’s in good spirits, and is pretty mild tempered.
I have help, bc I work full time. The cost has become astronomical. People in my house 24-7 has been illuminating, in mostly negative ways.
Any advice on the transition?
And any advice on one specific aspect of caregiver burnout? Have had an over-riding sensation of total numbness. Or, very efficient compartmentalization —that’s so efficient it feels like numbness? Sometimes don’t feel connected to myself at all.
Have googled this many times and still don’t know. Assume it’s just survival paired with sleep deprivation. ?
I expect that to change.
A valentine heart in the hand...
At DU, is worth two in the wild. Thanks for my hearts! Always a fun time here in February.
FBI--Free Biscuit Invitation
Hardee’s Promo
[link:https://twitter.com/hardees/status/1570190585696292865?s=46&t=d1Nm1TEzL7e8MGnJrCi5JQ|
Undercover in Guyana: Exposing Chinese Business in South America
Around minute 20:00, the VP stuttering and sweating through her questions. Great journalism.
This is so well done, wanted to share.
It's been happening everywhere in world, with Chinese infrastructure "investment". This is SA, but Central America, Africa continent, and Carribean...
[link:
To Those Whose Memories have Failed Them Again & Again
Love this.
[link:https://twitter.com/EmmaTK/status/1541858155314962432?t=cmppMURMeE6UVnM8JiOdeg&s=19|
Trigeminal Neuralgia/MS- Anyone w experience?
Hello all. My sister suffers from MS (43). But it's been decently manageable.
She now has developed Trigeminal Neuralgia.
A friend of mine had it 25+ years ago, and I was quite active in his treatment. (Eventual surgery). My aunt also had it, also ultimately had surgery.
The gap in time between these other people treating it, and the current agony my sister is experiencing--- is a lot of years.
I know surgery is still very common.
The drs have her on gabapentin. And then, today, tapered steroids--for the week.
Has anyone here had exposure to:
This condition.
These kinds of therapies?
Any 1st hand knowledge is very much appreciated! Im heartbroken for her. Such an awful disease.
High Cost of Ikea: 2/3rd of Romanias Forests & Violence
Romania is home to one of the largest and most important old-growth forests in the world—but its trees are disappearing at an astonishing rate. Meanwhile, a spate of attacks, and deaths, has shaken environmentalists and activists in the country. On episode 43 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with the reporter Alexander Sammon, who recently traveled to Romania to investigate illegal logging for The New Republic. Can Europe’s forests survive the global appetite for timber?
[link:https://newrepublic.com/article/165354/ikea-romania-illegal-logging?utm_source=digg|
Laura Marsh: In September, the reporter Alexander Sammon traveled to Romania to investigate illegal logging. He knew going in that there had been a spate of attacks on journalists and environmentalists in the forest. In 2015, an environmentalist named Gabriel Paun was beaten unconscious by loggers. The former minister of waters and forest was poisoned with mercury in 2017, after she tried to crack down on illegal logging. In 2019, two forest rangers were murdered, and in 2021, just before Alex arrived, a documentary film crew was ambushed in their car by a group of 15 armed men.
Laura: A lot of people might not understand why the stakes are so high: why there are these attacks, why it’s so fraught. What is at stake in clearing the last of the old-growth forests?
Alexander: There’s a lot of money on the line—that’s one thing. There are huge multinational timber corporations, and there are furniture companies like Ikea, which happens to be the largest private landowner in Romania. They all have a lot riding on those trees becoming things like chairs and particleboard and bed frames and the like. On the other side, you have the European Union and its climate commitments and biodiversity commitments, which are, I think, less prominent and less widely known. Those forests are extremely important because they’re not only the most effective carbon capture method on the planet—the old-growth forest captures carbon at this incredible rate that’s not seen in logged and replanted forests—but they also serve as an ecosystem for bears and lynx and other endangered or threatened species.
Near end of interview:
Laura: I never like to ask how individual people can react to discovering this kind of information—I don’t like talking about the way consumers can vote with their dollar and not buy from Ikea. But if you are in Ikea and you’re shopping for furniture, can you even find out what came from Romania and what didn’t?
Alexander: It’s really hard to tell. It’s actually almost impossible. If you were to go to Ikea right now and look at what’s on the shelves there in the stockroom, the furniture pieces will say, “Made in Romania,” “Made in Poland,” “Made in Russia,” but that only tells you the last link of the chain: It shows you where they assembled the pieces and put them together. It doesn’t tell you where the wood is coming from, and that information is not publicly available.
Alex: You were tipped off to these codes that could help someone to figure out the source of the wood in this furniture, and you actually went to an Ikea and found furniture that could be sourced to a particular company. Tell me about the company it could be sourced to.
Alexander: I was tipped off to this one code that corresponds to Plimob, which is a Romanian-based manufacturer. It’s not owned by Ikea, but something between like 96 and 98 percent of their product goes to Ikea. I was tipped off with their code, and I took it with me on the way down to the Ikea here in Brooklyn. I looked through the chairs, trying to find if I could identify something that had come from there. Sure enough, after a little while, I found a handful of them that had that multiple-digit code that indicated that they come from that particular company. That company, Plimob, had recently been implicated in sourcing illegally logged wood for its chairs. The information is there, but it’s certainly not publicly available. As a consumer, there’s almost no way you could expect to find those things out and act or shop accordingly.
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Gender: FemaleHometown: midwest
Home country: usa
Current location: ohio
Member since: Thu Mar 5, 2020, 02:11 PM
Number of posts: 1,200
