Dorothy Ferrell
Workplace Survival is a true story of a “reckless” renovation. In 2005, I was diagnosed with “Chronic Obstruction Pulmonary Disease.” I never had asthma, nor allergies and I never smoked, but I went to work healthy and ended up sick with lung disease. In a 1999 air quality report, it said that the internal appearance of the air-handling units appeared to be “in generally poor condition with many items requiring attention.” But three years passed before any renovation work was done.
After fourteen-and one-half years of employment with this government, I ended my career overnight due to “recklessness.” It all started with the installation of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit (HVAC) in a 1960s vintage anemic building. Many dangerous toxins were known to be in the building—lead, aluminum, chromium, asbestos, mold, dust, fiber, fungus and God only knows what else. The recklessness caused the dangerous poisons to come through the overhead vents in my office and into my airways and lungs that were injured.
It was my faith in God that saw me through this horrific storm. I learned the place where I thought was my greatest downfall and defeat turned out to be the place of a new beginning with God.
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My name is Dorothy Ferrell. I am a pastor, bible teacher, motivational speaker, and now author. My former husband is deceased, and I am the mother of three adult children and six grandchildren.
I am the founder and president of the Run to the Water Ministries, a non-profit organization. In 2003, I was accepted as a member in The Potter's House International Pastoral Alliance (PHIPA), based in Dallas Texas.
Thirty years of my life was spent in the workforce as a senior administrative assistant in government, the private sector, and in corporate America. During my career, I had the responsibility of researching data to write business letters for my employers. This experience assisted me in writing my own motivational speeches and sermons. I never dreamed that one day I would write a book, but I have done just that.
I am forever grateful for God's grace and mercy in sustaining me through the horrific storms of life, and for also giving me the strength and courage to write this true story to share with others about the dangers of sick buildings and hazardous toxins. |
On Monday morning, November 18, 2002, when I walked into my office on the second floor, panels in the ceiling were missing. In other offices on the second floor—the detective bureau—the plastic was hanging off the ceilings and on the floor in most areas. Work areas covered with plastic by the employees—prior to leaving the week before—were covered with a thin layer of white powdery residue of unknown content.
On the morning of February 27, 2003 at 8:30 a.m., I walked into the building and didn’t know what was happening. The front desk, records, and the watch commander's office (which were all on the first floor) were filled with a tremendous amount of noxious smoke flowing from the overhead HVAC system vents. The smoke caused many employees to have labored breathing and watery eyes.
It turns out one of the workers working on the system in the basement of the police department had just used a torch to cut through the wall of a ventilation system plenum chamber—a space or all space every part of which is full of matter. It’s a condition where the pressure of the air in an enclosed space is greater than that of the outside atmosphere, which resulted in smoke filling the first floor. The plenum chamber was forty-plus years old and had several layers of paint and insulation which were vaporized in the cutting process. This was another major breach in the safety curtain.
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS.
