Stephen Williams, HSE Chief Inspector of Construction ~ his message to the construction industry ~

Good thing that the managers at our iffoce have hired a cleaning company to clean around the iffoce. But it still can't prevent the company from losing workers on a sick leave. Which I think is something you will find absolutely ordinary considering the fact that all of us are working in a big open space iffoce.

The chemicals in the pilstacs (just like the new car smell) will off-gas for a while. Even the foam underlayment for the for the floors will off-gas. Open the windows if possible and exchange the air more frequently. As far as the ceiling tiles, they probably shed more dust just being up on the ceiling than what you have 1 month after their removal. Make sure you are using electrostatic filters on your furnace/ air conditioning unit to trap as much particulate out of the air but the most important is to have plenty of air exchange.You open a whole can of worms if you have asbestos testing in your home and it turns up positive . especially if you ever want to sell your home because you have to disclose that information at the time of sale if you were made aware of it or you could be held liable for all the costs for removal. (Or you just scare away most potential buyers.) The real source of any asbestos in your home could be the wall boards and then you are stuck with a hazmat bill to remove all the walls from your entire home. Many of the early drywall gypsum boards had asbestos. When a company comes into your home to test for Asbestos, they will look for ALL potential causes and disclose them or they face a large liability problem. Under a painted wall they pose no risk. If you discover they contain it then YOU are responsible for its removal and storage in a hazmat land fill .. so I guess you have to be cautious what you ask for . You may get a lot more than you bargained for.There is a virus going around as well that leaves the person with a persistant cough for more than 1 month. Perhaps your symptoms are coincidental with the home renovations. Asbestos dust inhalation is usually does not produce symptoms until many years of exposure has occurred or you work in a foundry or brake shop and have constant high level exposure.One additional comment: Hire a company to come in and clean your air ducts if you have forced air/ central air conditioning. Just because a company lays out plastic to catch what falls on the ground, a lot of the plaster dust from sanding will get deposited into your heating ducts because you are circulating air. When the A/C comes back on, it will lift some of this off of the inner duct surfaces and re-suspend in the air to drop out on your furniture and sills. This can go on for months after the job was completed. Having a thorough cleaning of the ductwork may go a long way in settling down the particulate problem.

, was used for bayonet picrtcae and my grandfather had to help try to hold his innards together as he died. Later my grandpa tried to escape and was blinded as punishment- he never saw again, and . .even now he can't bring himself to forgive the Japanese for killing all his friends, even though he accepts he killed many Japanese too. My question is, how can I bring myself to understand what he went through in that prison camp? I love him very much, and of course I am comforting him in his final days, but can I get closer to him by trying to understand what he went through, even though it's something a world away from my own? These days he says he just wants to see his wife, my grandma again (she was killed by a car many years ago) as the pain of his illness is too much, and he is sad because he thinks my generation have forgotten the war.He is Scottish but lives here in England, and he tells me that every day now he can hear the old pipes of his homeland a little louder.What can I do? Thank you so much.Pete, thanks for your answer, what I mean by this question is that he has had a good, long life, but in his last days he is stuck in the horrors of the war- he did not reflect upon it as much as he is now he is dying.NB- yes he does have the Burma Star Medal, I will look in to this- thank you