"Sick" Building

Myself and several of my staff are convinced that there is something in our building that lends itself to headaches. I've been home since Thursday with back issues. While I had my daily headache, it stayed at about a 2/3 with no nausea.

I came into work today and within an hour I have a full scale 8 with horrible nausea. Many of us find we go through the weekend fine, but once we come into work we get zapped. We have decreased the lighting to no avail.

Who would we contact to do an evaluation of a building? I have no idea what type of agency or company to get a hold of.

We are in Illinois. Thanks for your help.

Hi,
Even working with florescent lighting can make people ill. The change from normal to energy saving lights has been reported to trigger migraines in some.

Well worth getting someone in to give it a check,

Peter

I guess I would start with a heating/cooling place to have the system checked. Make sure that they aren't leaking something.

If that comes out clean - have the building tested for mold. Long story short, one of my offices was constantly being tested and the mold levels were out of sight (not safe for human occupancy) and they ended up having to abandon the space because they couldn't get rid of it. I know when I was in that office I would get horrible headaches, not M status but just awful headaches and nausea. Not sure who does this but I know there are companies out there that do this.

You can have the gas company come down and check for CO levels. That can cause severe headache if you have gas heating. Wouldn't it be lovely if you found something there that caused the migraines! You'd have less of them once they found the source of the problem and eliminated it!

Yes florescent lighting was a big one for me, if they didn't outright cause a migraine they would push me over the edge when I had one...PC screens were as bad if not worse. Our heating system used a fresh air vent that was located outside on the ground...not a good spot for a variety of reasons. I always thought that when I retired the headaches would change, they didn't..but it's alot easier to deal with them when there's not as many "have to"s in your life.