is this illegal??

[Evil Genius]

At work on Friday, they were painting a large conference room. The smell was horrible, later in the afternoon, they came in and laid down carpeting. So now mix paint with glue fumes. We all had headaches, burning eyes and nose. Alot of us went and asked if we could open some doors to ventilate.

Fast forward to today. The painters show up and start painting, so what does the head of the company do to keep down the fumes??? He turns the heat off in the entire building!!! It was 22 freakin' degrees out today. We ended up working in our coats and gloves.

Can he legally do this??

 

[JR6ooo4]

Well how cold did it get? I think 68 degrees F is an energy conserving setting. But if you were at like 55 degrees, that is near refrigerating temperatures.

Mikeeeee

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

At work on Friday, they were painting a large conference room. The smell was horrible, later in the afternoon, they came in and laid down carpeting. So now mix paint with glue fumes. We all had headaches, burning eyes and nose. Alot of us went and asked if we could open some doors to ventilate.

Fast forward to today. The painters show up and start painting, so what does the head of the company do to keep down the fumes??? He turns the heat off in the entire building!!! It was 22 freakin' degrees out today. We ended up working in our coats and gloves.

Can he legally do this??

What he did was illegal. Should it ever happen again I believe you could call the fire department. They have to have things well ventilated.

 

[oxfordcircus]

call OSHA and see if there was a violation.

 

[dementia412]

Probably is illegal, but I doubt you can get anything done about it... try though... I love hearing the positive cases where something gets done!

My DH used to work in a kitchen with no windows, ac or fans... in the summer it would be absolutly terrible cooking in that place. My dh would come home with heat rash all over his arms and neck. Some boses have NO common sense.

 

[ameraumi]

It is not illegal to turn off the heat, but it might be againsy OSHA regs on the ventilation. What a sucky way to work!

 

[Evil Genius]

At 2:00 it was 52 degrees in the office.

I never thought of OSHA. We glue boxes together in the plant. And you can all ways smell the glue, and coatings in the office. Could explain the constant headaches I've had for the month I've worked there.

 

[MomPOM]

I'd say it's a definite OSHA violation and you should look into it. Those are fairly hazardous conditions ot be working in. Not so much the chilliness but definitely the fumes.

 

[Luv'sTink]

At 2:00 it was 52 degrees in the office.

I never thought of OSHA. We glue boxes together in the plant. And you can all ways smell the glue, and coatings in the office. Could explain the constant headaches I've had for the month I've worked there.

What do they have to keep the fumes from the people in the plant?
I would think that if the people in the plant would have complained about the fumes to OSHA, and if they did then the were checked out and that part is fine in the office by OSHA standards. Or you feel office people shouldn't be exposed to the smell?

 

[dementia412]

If someone there has a medical condition it could be dangerous. There are some people who can not handle cold or heat, and it is not an expected condition in an office so they can't be expected to just deal with it... but that's just a what if situation I wanted to mention.

 

[miss missy]

You should check with OSHA for sure! The ventilation needs to be legal for sure.

 

[Evil Genius]

Not quite sure how the plant is ventilated. (We aren't allowed back there, since we don't wear steel toed shoes) And if it was just the smell, I wouldn't mind it. But when a headache starts an hour after being in the office and doesn't stop no matter what you do, until you are out of the office for at least 2 hours it makes you wonder.


We do have a woman in our office that has lupus. You could see she was suffering, but since office employees don't get sick days, she just suffered through.

 

[Tony P. IL.]

It depends on what chemicals are in the glue/paint. You might want to check out this website.http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/pollutants.html