Undone

another fan-FREAKING-tastic day. While the upside was working with Gert, and the excitement from Red Coming up from college, the downside was the fumes.

yes, the fumes. Shall I call them, the FUMES FROM HELL! Imagine that you’re working at a nail salon, you get one of those masks to keep yourself from inhaling all of those fumes, and what not, and you get paid damn good for charging the prices you do. Yes, it’s good to be a nail technician. Now, imagine, you’re getting paid jack, AND you aren’t working in a nail salon, but you STILL get the fumes. Isn’t that fun. OH, and minus the mask. So basically, you don’t the the chatty fun from being a nail technician, you don’t get the pay, you don’t get the nifty paper mask– YOU GET THE FREAKING FUMES… and that’s it. And as a bonus for all those wonderful things you gave up, you get to have headaches, bloody noses, respiratory problems, and skin irritation. Isn’t that fun!? I’m sure you’re thoroughly enjoying it. To add upon that, you have people telling you “You should really complain about the fumes! THey’re horrible.”

NO REALLY? I THOUGHT THEY WERE WONDERFUL

Yeah. The fumes from hell. I’m considering calling Osha, or possibly the Fire Department, or fetch, if i feel like this too much longer– the friggin’ hospital.

Let me leave you with what i, and my coworkers, have been suffering with.

Eyes

Eye contact with vapors and airborne dusts can cause irritation and redness, burning, itching, or discomfort. Your eyes may water and your vision may briefly become distorted. Once you stop being exposed, these effects usually go away fairly quickly. Chemicals which can cause these effects include acrylates (ethyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate, isobutyl methacrylate, methacrylic acid, and ethyl cyanoacrylate), and many solvents, such as methyl ethyl ketone and acetone.

Nose, Throat, and Lungs

These same chemicals can also irritate your nose, throat, and lungs. Symptoms include irritation or soreness of the nose and throat, hoarseness, coughing, lung congestion, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. Cigarette smoking can worsen these symptoms. These effects are temporary and should disappear soon after exposure to an irritating vapor ends.

Chronic bronchitis can result from repeated exposure to irritant chemicals. Symptoms of this condition include lung congestion, cough with phlegm, difficulty in breathing, and greater susceptibility to respiratory infections.

Repeated exposure to certain chemicals found in some artificial nail products can cause allergic reactions in the respiratory tract. One type of allergy mainly affects the nose and throat, causing sneezing and other symptoms similar to hay fever. Another type of allergic reaction affects the lungs, causing asthma. Symptoms of asthma include difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and tightness in the chest. Once you have become sensitized to a chemical, very small amounts of that chemical can cause an allergic reaction.

Exposure to irritant chemicals that would not affect most people can provoke an asthma attack in a person who already has asthma.

Methyl methacrylate dust can cause asthma. All of the other acrylates (methacrylates and methacrylic acid) and ethyl cyanoacrylates can cause asthma.

Nervous System

Breathing in the vapors of certain chemicals can affect your brain the same way as drinking too much alcohol does. The technical term for this intoxication is central nervous system (CNS) depression. Overexposure to these vapors can cause headaches, nausea, and dizziness as well as making you feel irritable, confused, or drunk. These feelings should go away soon after you stop working with the chemicals.

Many of the chemicals which cause these effects are organic solvents. Some organic solvents often found in nail products are methyl ethyl ketone, acetone, toluene, xylene, and ethyl ether. Large amounts of vapors from the methacrylates can also cause the same problems.

Derringer Meryl [G’bye Brain] Out