Being exposed to exposure of cold air in workplace coming in thru the front doors causing aggravation of asthma, bronchitis, aggravation of arthritic conditions (back, hip, knee, neck, chronic cough,  aggravation of heart problems bringing on heart flutters and shortness of breath. This has been going on for 10 yrs and every year around the same time this happens to many of us and I have the worst conditions at the place of employment, Naval Hospital. You would think after 10 years of this they would have built a wall to brace the winter cold to avoid it reaching us but not so; they just allowed us to suffer. Our office is the only office that is open to that air. All other offices are down a hall enclosed behind doors. I have had this cough for over 10 years and it is really taking a toll on my health. I don't have the energy when I get this aggravation. This year has been a cold year and believe me, I, along wtih others have suffered so I ended up going to the Occupational Health Doctor and now have to put in a claim because it is an occupational disease and not an injury therefore the continuation of pay is not in effect for me with the first 45 days. Now i have to probably buy my leave back. They ended up closing my case last July when I was still having these problems and a couple that was caused by this over 10 yrs ago and have never gotten rid of and when the asthma and all is aggravated it gets deep and worst. they want you to go to your outside doctors and make a bill for something the job has caused therefore you have a copay for your doc, copay for chest xray and copay for medicines. Now that is over $100. So why not just be able to get treated thru Occ. Health. Complaints from others have gone into the higher officials and it went to them over 5 years ago. But when they did research things after I put in a workman's comp claim, they started tracking. They found out that office furniture had been placed in front of a thermostat that had not been turned on all those years. Then coming thru the main front doors, the down draft of hot air thru a heat curtain, they found there was no heat curtain even installed in the place where it was supposed to have been. Now that is a shame. So they put in one and within months it broke down and have been breaking down every since leaving us without a solution many times and not even able to use space heaters in our office because they weren't approved by safety. So now I have to go a step further. After they have probably put out near $150,000 - $200,000 out in just my claim alone I don't see why they couldn't have built a wall for us by now to block the cold air. Better still move us to another floor from where another office is moving out and is a perfect spot for us away from the cold and conveniently locasted near the pharmacy for the patients. Now I am planning to return to work and no blockage is in place. They may be working on something but do you tell me they have been working on something for ten years as we have complained just that long. One lady has developed lung disease from this atmosphere. You may say why not get reassigned somewhere else. I have been on this job for over 20 years and plans to retire in 2 yrs & 11 months and I love my job and I don't want to go anywhere else dealing with any other new attitudes and drama. I don't want to be uprooted for something that the office environment has caused. Because of the breathing problems that this problem has caused I am tired all the time because i don't breath well, short of breath, painful because of cold has aggravated arthritis; the heart flutters has gotten better but you are not going to tell me that this has been going on for 10 years and having this chronic cough hasn't damaged my heart and affected my lungs, etc. I coughed so much one time until something in my back area happened and it is still very painful. This is just a small version of how much we have suffered. What do you all think? This is at a federal gov't civilian job and I want lifetime medical benefits to cover doctors' visits, xrays when needed and medicines. Now I have to open a new case thru workman's comp (more paperwork) all because my case that should have stayed open, is now closed. A headache for sure.

Arlene Spencer

Portsmouth, VA