UPDATE: Cal/OSHA also cited UCLA last week for not reporting a 2008 lab accident that seriously injured a researcher – about a year before the lab fire that killed Sangji, the LA Times reports.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health will fine UCLA an additional $67,720 and issue more citations in relation to lab safety in the aftermath of a tragic lab fire that killed a young researcher last year.
In a Cal/OSHA newsletter, the agency said the university continually failed to train laboratory employees on the hazards of working with particularly hazardous substances:
As of the Division’s inspection on August 25, 2009, the employer had not provided training to laboratory employees regarding the hazards and required additional protection when working with particularly hazardous substances, including select carcinogens, reproductive toxins, and chemicals with a high degree of acute toxicity, including, but not limited to, methyl chloride, benzene, formaldehyde, ethidium bromide and osmium tetroxide.
In a news release last week, UCLA officials said they would fight the fines and citations. Kevin Reed, UCLA vice chancellor for legal affairs, said in the statement that Cal/OSHA's findings "do not reflect current operations and procedures, especially as they pertain to training."
Staff research assistant Sheri Sangji, 23, died in January 2009 after suffering severe burns when t-butyl lithium she was working with exploded in flames during a December 2008 chemistry lab experiment at UCLA, the LA Times reported. She hadn't been wearing a protective lab coat, and hadn't been properly trained.
The March 1 story by the LA Times' Kim Christenson revealed that, two months before the lab fire, UCLA safety inspectors had found more than a dozen deficiencies in the same lab, Molecular Sciences Room 4221.
In May, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined the university $31,875, citing UCLA for one regulatory and three "serious" violations.
UCLA paid the fines but initially appealed the violations, trying to get a stipulation that the university admitted no fault in connection with the findings – a legal move aimed at limiting liability, the Times reported. UCLA ultimately dropped that appeal.
Sangji's family filed papers with Cal/OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board accusing regulators of going too easy on UCLA.
Soon after, Cal/OSHA Chief Len Welsh said he would oversee a criminal investigation into the lab fire. But Welsh said that any future action would not include harsher civil penalties against UCLA.
UCLA officials say they've taken measures to improve lab safety since the 2008 lab fire. Within the first six months after the tragedy, UCLA said it had made several substantial safety improvements, including purchasing flame-resistant lab coats for chemistry and biochemistry researchers who work with flammable materials.
In July, a campus committee conducting a review recommended more changes to expand outreach and training in order to bolster safety. Their 91-page report also recommended increases in accountability and oversight.
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