Question:
I recently started working in a new office and I have found that all of
my sinuses start bothering me when I've been in the office just a few
hours! The company had an air qualiry testing company come in and they found
nothing out of the ordinary. They also cleaned and sanitized the Window
AC unit in the office. I also brought in a Honeywell HEPA/CPZ air
filter.
Dispite all of this the symptoms persist while I'm in the office but I
don't have any problems at home or even outside. I've never had
symptoms like this in an office before!
I suspect that some allergen is in the area in high concentrations to
give me the symptoms (allergic to trees, grass, weeds, mold, dust).
What could be floating around that doesn't raise a flag on air quality
tests and isn't significantly mitigated by a HEPA air filter?
Answer:
If it's not affected by a HEPA filter, the next most likely item is a
chemical source. Have you been tested for allergies? That's a
starting point, if none turn up the finger points to chemicals. If
they do, it is possible you are much more sensitive to some irritants
than most people. Ozone in a copier room gets blamed a lot but my
experience it is from the chemicals used to treat paper to hold toner
that gets emitted when the paper is heated in the fuser. People with
allergic rhinitis will test 100 times greater sensitivity to irritants
than most people. One drop of perfume might as well be half the
bottle in that case so the source may be difficult for standard test
to identify. Best to keep a log of when symptoms start, where you
are, who is around, and importantly what was going on the couple of
minutes before symptoms. Allergy onset isn't instantaneous - usually
takes a minute at least. It also sounds chemical to me. The same happened to me when my office got new carpeting installed. It
didn't go away during the year I was there when I left the job to have a
baby.
I have moderate to severe allergies to trees, grass, weeds, mold, dust, and
cats. I have been on allergy shots for years and am taking singulair,
zyrtec, astelin, nasonex, and nasalcrom to keep the pollen related symptoms
tolerable (as long as I don't spend much time outside;-) The HEPA filter did have a positive affect. Before I put in the filter, my
sinuses were in severe distress after just 2 hours. With the filter, took
4-5 hours to get to the same point. Since they "cleaned" the window air
unit, I was in moderate distress after about 6 hours. Still not a viable
working environment.
What else can they check for beyond what is done for a typical air quality
analysis?
At this point it's going to be pretty much detective work on your
part. You'll need to make specific and testable suggestions. Since
the HEPA filter and cleaning did have a positive effect, most likely
it is an airborne allergen not quite adequately controlled. Any
coworkers with cats and how good is the air circulation in the office?
If I'm in a small room with a cat owner for extended periods, no
amount of HEPA filtering is adeqate. My nose intercepts just enough
before it gets to the filter to cause problems. Large rooms with
adequate circulation are less of a problem. Could also be an air leak
from the interior walls or basement into the rooms. I had that
problem in a conference room at work. Once maintenance sealed the
edge of the conduit access cover with duct tape, the problem went
away. I also had some problems near the plants but it turned out that
the windows they were in had air leaks near the bottom - not visible
from above. Keeping a daily log of problems and circumstances will
go a long way toward discovering the cause but it will take time.
Trouble is that you may not last long enough to discover the cause.
