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Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals
theodp writes "Slate reports on the horrible — and preventable — death of a young UCLA biochemist in a t-butyl lithium incident, which led a Chemical Health and Safety columnist to the disheartening conclusion that most academic laboratories are unsafe venues for work or study. It's estimated that accidents and injuries occur hundreds of times more frequently in academic labs than in industrial ones. Why? For one thing, Slate says, occupational safety and health laws that protect workers in hazardous jobs apply only to employees, not to undergrads, grad students, or research fellows who receive stipends from outside funders."
I am a grad student, and every lab I have seen puts an emphases on putting your safety first. I have a difficult time believing that commercial labs are any safer.
Where I work, everyone in the entire BUILDING is required to take safety training. Everyone that actually works regularly in the lab space are required to take more training. If you don't, the school shuts off your access card.
The school makes your supervisor fill out a form each year that specifically inquires as to what you will be working with (gross simplification: animals, radioactive materials, hazardous chemicals.) Training is based off that.
Just because safety protocols at one school sucks (example: Texas A&M) doesn't mean it does everywhere.
Please help metamoderate.
The 15-page report cites a deficiency in the department's records of safety and health training on exposure to hazardous chemicals. It notes that a safety inspection of the Harran lab by UCLA on 30 October had "identified [the failure of employees to wear required protective clothing] and recommended that laboratory coats must be worn while conducting research and handling hazardous materials in the laboratory."
UC's own inspection found deficiencies last October, but they didn't act on them:
"a safety inspection of the Harran lab by UCLA on 30 October had âoeidentified [the failure of employees to wear required protective clothing] and recommended that laboratory coats must be worn while conducting research and handling hazardous materials in the laboratory.â But it says that the lab âoedid not implement procedures for correcting unsafe and unhealthy conditions, work practices and work procedures in a timely manner based on the severity of the hazard.â"
The article also implies they're not keeping records they are required to. A $30k fine seems entirely justified to me (and apparently to the university, who didn't contest it) - that doesn't mean the woman wasn't being foolishly reckless.
I spent 2 and half years (I graduated early) studying Computer science in University. What surprised me when I got out was that the things I stressed over every day in school were only the thinnest onion skin of what was required of me in the industry. If I were to retake an exam after a couple years in the industry, I wouldn't have any problem with it.
The difference is that industry requires so much more focus and professionalism than schooling does. So it's no surprise that students would fuck up in a laboratory much more than a junior clinician with a month of on the job training.
It isn't about lack of OSHA oversight, it's about how academia considers safety as an afterthought.
Don't compare Computer Science to Chemistry. Having Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science on my c.v., M.E. stomped all over CS for professional standards, strict materials and manufacturing lab rules and much more. Why? Because you don't work with Milling Machines in CS or Oxy-Acetylene/Arc Welders while machining and assembling a CAR versus writing test cases in software. The fact this University doesn't have strict standards falls square on the shoulders of their full time professional staff who manage the labs and should be drilling into these kids Factors of Safety. If we ever mishandled metal lathes we got our asses chewed by the machinists. The manufacturing lab, strengths and materials labs and metallurgy labs were brutal on idiots who were not cautious about what they did in a building with plenty of options available to cause an explosion.
I am posting anonymously, since I don't know how much of this information has been previously published, but here you go:
1) Working in a chemistry lab is all about working odd hours. In many labs, your PI forces you to. It's not really a choice.
2) She was not alone in the lab. There were other people there, but they did not speak English.
3) She was a research assistant, so she had a BA and thus the knowledge of the average first-year graduate student. No more and no less.
4) While t-BuLi is spontaneously pyrophoric in lab, n-BuLi is not. Even if you somehow manage to learn this in class (unlikely, since you're probably not going to use it in an undergraduate lab), it's easy to mix up.
5) As is mentioned below, no one in the lab wore appropriate protective clothing. It's hard to blame Sheri for following the example set by the rest of the lab.
I am sorry that this woman died, but I 100% disagree with this fine. The woman was a research assistant who was working off-hours, alone in the room, and did not have the necessary protection on. She screwed up bigtime.
Unfortunately, employment law disagrees with you. The employer is obligated to provide a safe working environment, provide training, protective equipment, supervision, and to protect the employee from their own stupidity.
Pouring liquid nitrogen down a drain does sweet bugger all except possibly crack the pipes. Been there done that. Anyway quickest way to get rid of a small amount of it in a large enough room is to chuck it on the floor - evaporates harmlessly in seconds. More fun is an eppe (eppendorf 1.5 ml microcentrifuge tube) bomb - lump of dry ice in that, put the lid on and chuck it a suitable distance away. Makes a hell of a bang. Watch out for the lid which inevitably goes flying at speed.
This article details what happened. What burned and how the handling mistake was made.
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/January/23010903.asp
Engineering students think that they have it all figured out, and go on to design some wonderfully impractical items.
That's an understatement. Some genius engineer with a company that I may have something to do with thought that it would be a good idea to route a compressor's power wires around a fine-threaded screw instead of a hose.
The compressor's vibration would then cause the wires' insulation to rub against the screw threads and eventually short the wires to the compressor's metal case. An ECO was sent out telling the service personnel to reroute the wires, but if the engineers would've figured that out when they designed the thing it would have made no difference in time or performance to set it up the right way at the factory.
Just another drop in the bucket of the bad stereotype that geeks are ultra-smart but lack common sense.
One more thing. Don't use tin connectors, guys. Just spend the extra 5 cents on gold-plated connectors. Trust me on this one.
There are some 240V wiring systems that have a red and and a black wire. BUT, both wires are hot. Treating a black wire as not is one way to end up very, very dead.
OSHA doesn't protect students worse then employees. They are a set of standards with some strict rules and as long as an employee is supervising, no matter how many students are in the lab or whatever, the OSHA rules apply.
Now the Student isn't on their own if an instructor isn't present either. They are protected by consumer protection laws which means that the lab should have at minimum, guidelines that match OSHA requirements for everyone if not more stringent guidelines because of previous lawsuits.
This entire premise of double standards is a croak and doesn't exist. The only thing OSHA coverage would have done is provided for a fine as well as a lawsuit when the student did something wrong and got killed. The lawsuit is still an option and even agreements not to sue can be invalidated if reasonable steps for safety weren't followed.
Ms. Sangji was probably one lab coat away from being saved, and those are cheap.
A lab coat would have done little good with something that burns as hot and fast as t-BuLi - this was literally a case of inexperience and carelessness (she had a stopper in her syringe, as most safety protocols would dictate, but it somehow came out and splashed into the open air) combined with extremely volatile (splashed into the open air) heat juice.
"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand" - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Go get your degree in organic chemistry and then do at least a Master's thesis before you continue to pretend. "Fancy Shmancy?" You are a fucking idiot. I know I'm going to pay for that, but it needs to be said.
I agree with you... no labcoat would have protected her with something as nasty as t-BuLi...
"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand" - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Here's actual data on the political views of the academy by department.
Every post I make begins with the assumption P=~P.