I was require to work with pure toluene every workday for three years. The building where I used the toluene was not adequately ventilated, so over the three year period, I inhaled quite a bit of the vapors.
Years later, I was terminated by the same employer at a time when I was under a doctor's care for chronic rectal bleeding and psychological problems that I attributed to stress.
I filed a claim for Worker's Compensation for stress and the bleeding problem. Last year, I was diagnosed as having a brain injury induced by exposure to a neurotoxin. The diagnosis was based on a scan of my brain, and my neurological and psychological problems.
State Lands had stopped using toluene in 1989, and had built a modern lab the same year. I never was informed of the fact that toluene had been found to be a neurotoxin. The only MSDS sheets I had seen listed it as a carcinogen. Too bad I was unaware of toluene's true toxicity at the time I was fired.
My Worker's Comp. Case remains unresolved.
Robert
Dixon, California
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