Next to your bedroom, you spend the most time in your workplace. You might assume that people with industrial jobs have the most allergy problems. Not so, says Dr. McGrovern. Office workers – secretaries, clerical workers, administrative assistants, computers programmers and so on – suffer the lion’s share work related allergic complaints.

”In almost every major office you will find people who are bothered by an allergy,” notes Dr. Falliers. Not too surprising, if you glance around the average office. Carbonless typewriters ribbons give off petroleum fumes. Photocopy machines gas out a host of chemicals.

Paper is impregnated with formaldehyde and other chemicals – to say nothing of the ink. Then you’ve got vinyl chairs, and formaldehyde in the paneling, rugs and ceiling tiles. Felt tip marking pens. Correction fluid. Fluorescent light. Cigarette smoke. Potted plants. Devout users of perfume and aftershave lotion.

All in all, enough to math the fumes in any chemical factory if you’re highly sensitive to chemicals. Even if you could easily find a new job, you would have no guarantee the same problem wouldn’t arise in your new workplace. So your best is to stay put and make the best of it, and here’s how.

• Dilutions is part of the solution. If you can, reduce the chemical content of your breathing atmosphere. Open a window and dilute the chemical concentration by ventilation (unless of course, a fleet of diesel trucks parks right outside your building. Or your office overlook a parking garage).
• Try to leave the building once or twice a day if the outdoor air pollution levels permit. Take a walk outdoors at lunchtime instead of spending the entire hour in the cafeteria.
• If you spend a lot of time on the phone, remove the wad of bacteria killing cotton in the receiver (not all phones have it. To check yours, simply unscrew the mouthpiece on the receiver).
• Cover the typewriter ribbon and well with a plain piece of cardboard.
• Plug in an air filter

Smokers in the workplace pose special problems. Banishing smokers to the rest rooms is really no solution at all, since nonsmokers eventually have to go to the bathroom, too. A lot depends on how cooperative your boss and coworkers are. Your physician may be able to back you.

”I have personally written letters to employers on behalf of a patient saying: ’This person should stay away from smoke,’ says Dr. Falliers.” Most companies are willing to accommodate. Maybe they can move the person to a different work station. I’ve had a couple of flight attendants as patients, who got sick if they serve only the front and someone else serves the back. But there aren’t such easy answer.”

Of course, you may be not necessarily in your misery, and in an office situation, ”strength in numbers” can more easily bring about change for everyone.

”We’ve had buildings closed because 100 people got sick,” says Dr. McGovern. ”Two people in one office would got sick, two others from the fourth floor would get sick, and so on, until one way or another they all wound up in my waiting room. In giving their history, they’d all say, ”I work at such and such an address.’ And I’d say, ’Wait a minute! Other people working in that building are also getting sick. Let’s investigate.’

”So I tell people to go to their union. Or get the names of other people who are allergic. Or write to the company and ask them to improve the ventilation in the building. Sooner or later, companies will find they can’t seal up the windows, blow smoke in everyone’s face and allow toxic indoor pollution to accumulate in the workplace. Too many people are being permanently disabled. Lawsuits by people with environmentally induced illnesses are increasing.”

For some, just getting the home environment cleared up will enough to enable them to go to work and do their job. ”Maintaining the home oasis can go a long way toward making unavoidable exposure in the workplace more tolerable,” says Dr. Rea.

”After patients start to remove the chemicals in their office,” says Dr. McGovern, ”and they clean up their house – mainly giving them selves a ’safe’ room – they’ll improve within a few days or a week. They’ll be able to think more clearly, or their joints will stop aching, et cetera, and they’ll notice the difference.”