Can We Prevent Chemical Spills?

When Gregory Tucci, assistant instructional laboratory coordinator in the chemistry department, spoke to Cambridge firefighters about handling hazardous materials in early October, he didn't anticipate having to give a hands-on demonstration.

But during the lecture, a toxic chemical spill at Mallinckrodt Chemical Laboratory set off a small fire, forcing the Cambridge Fire Department (CFD) to mobilize in the middle of Tucci's talk.

A student had broken a bottle of tetrahydrofuran (THF), a highly flammable solvent, and a nearby electric stove ignited the THF fumes.

"The spill happened while I was there [giving that lecture]," Tucci says. "That's hysterical."

The spill is part of a recent spate of lab-related accidents. The Mallinckrodt spill was one of three spills to occur in the past six weeks and one of four in the past six months.

The recent rash of laboratory accidents prompts questions about safety measures and precautions in Harvard's laboratories. Despite the spills, students and faculty say they continue to feel safe when they work in lab.

SPILL AFTER SPILL

The first major lab-related accident this year occurred in May, when three post-doctoral fellows triggered an explosion while compiling an inventory of laboratory chemicals.

The researchers were cleaning up an infrequently-used chemical storage area in an attic of the Converse Chemical Laboratories. One researcher turned around a two-liter glass bottle of isopropyl chloroformate, an eye and skin irritant, to identify it. Moments later, the bottle burst.

The explosion sprayed the chemical and the toluene in which it had been stored in the face of the researcher who handled the bottle. The chemical also touched the clothing of the other two researchers. All three were rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they received treatment for minor injuries.

David A. Evans, Abbott and James Lawrence professor of chemistry, heads the laboratory. According to Evans, the chemical in the bottle should have been stored in a refrigerator, but the label did not specify the temperature of storage. As a result, the chemical was stashed away and, as it decomposed, liberated carbon dioxide built up pressure in the bottle.

"It was a really hard situation to avoid because we work with such potentially hazardous materials," Evans says. "Part of the blame lies in the oversight of the manufacturer of the chemical, who neglected to note that the chemical needed to be stored at zero degrees Celsius. The accident resulted from a lack of understanding, both on the part of the supplier and the student."

On October 20, two weeks after the Mallinckrodt spill, another spill forced complete evacuation of Harvard Medical School's Seely G. Mudd Building. A faulty refrigerator shelf broke, causing bottles to break and chemicals to mix. The seven people in the building at the time left uninjured.

A phosphorous acid spill in the Lyman Physics Laboratories followed a week later, requiring the evacuation of the Lyman, Jefferson and Cruft laboratories. The chemical was leaking from a container in the basement machine shop of Lyman.

CFD and the hazardous waste response team, a unit of CFD, contained the spill within an hour and a half.

WHAT TO DO

Once a spill has occurred, the response spreads from the laboratory to the surrounding community.

Each Harvard laboratory is equipped with a telephone that automatically calls the Harvard control center when the receiver is lifted. The control center then alerts the fire department, the police and other relevant agencies.

Lab personnel who have come into contact with the chemicals are rushed to eyewash stations, safety showers or first aid kits positioned throughout the laboratories, and Cambridge and Boston police and fire departments arrive on the scene immediately.

According to Harvard University Police Department spokesperson Peggy A. McNamara, the fire department and building administration first determine whether evacuation is necessary. If it is, the police clear out the building and the surrounding area.

The fire department and its specialized hazardous material response unit then enter the scene to decontaminate all people who have come into contact with the chemicals.

Captain Lawrence Ferazani, head of the hazardous materials response unit of the CFD, says, "[The firefighters] have to know about tactical priorities, defensive control, scene safety, decontamination and chemical protective clothing."

Protective measures vary, depending on the nature of the chemicals involved. When responding to vapor spills, firefighters must don Level A gear, which includes self-enclosed breathing apparatuses (SEBA) and fully encapsulated suits.

For Level B accidents, liquid spills in which no real toxins have been released, the workers are almost totally encapsulated and wear SEBA masks.

Situations in which flammable chemicals may be present receive Level C attention, which involves splash protection and shields against explosives. The workers wear flash suits, aluminum suits that guard the workers against fire and heat.

"Protocol says that if you can't identify the level of danger, you should go to the highest level of protection," Ferazani says.

All equipment that has come into contact with the laboratory is disposed. Outside agencies that specialize in hazardous waste disposal then move in to carry out the actual clean-up of the chemicals.

Ferazani says that the large number of spills in recent weeks is an anomaly for Harvard since the University follows very stringent safety guidelines.

"I do the investigations after the events, and I have found no...reason for why [these accidents] occur, other than the calculated roulette wheel," he says. "No one, I can assure you, no one works harder than Harvard University and MIT in trying to control these situations, and nobody is more embarrassed when they do take place because they work so hard to stem these things from happening."

ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT CHEMICAL SPILLS

Health and Safety Officer Henry S. Littleboy, who works for the Harvard Environmental Health and Safety Department (EH&S), says, "The only person who can make you safe is you."

"So Harvard's policy, which is my policy, is to have the students become very conscious of safety and be therefore responsible for their own safety," he says.

Karen Lawley, head of biology and biochemistry laboratory safety, agrees that proper training is crucial.

"We are mandated by OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] to make sure that everyone knows what hazards are in the lab and that they are sufficiently protected against them," she says.

To this end, all chemistry students and staff are instructed in laboratory safety.

Graduate teaching fellows receive basic lectures in safety and waste handling, and they can take a one-day course in first aid and CPR if they wish. Tucci also meets with the head chemistry teaching fellows each semester to instruct them on how to teach their own staff about safety.

Students who work in laboratories must also undergo a one-day orientation of emergency equipment and procedures.

WASTE DISPOSAL

Special measures are taken to isolate hazardous waste as well.

Hazardous waste is stored in capped cylinders and segregated by types of waste under ventilated hoods. The cylinders lie in secondary containers, in case they spill. All cylinders are labeled with the chemical name, hazards and dates. Cylinders are inspected by safety officers once a week and by external companies twice a week.

The chemistry department's safety committee has set up a network of 70 to 80 satellite accumulation areas, with one in each laboratory.

Before disposal, chemicals are moved from satellite areas to main accumulation areas, which include explosion-proof lighting, knock-out windows and a specific type of flooring. The division of engineering and applied sciences' laboratories also use the accumulation area system.

Every laboratory is equipped with a computer linked to material safety data sheets. The teaching fellow types in the name of a chemical, and information regarding the hazards, first aid, storage and handling of the chemical appears.

"In any laboratory, you're going to have accidents, no matter how much you try to protect," Lawley says. "We are sufficiently protected here; few accidents occur with injury. We do learn from your accidents, too."

SAFETY VALVES

The biology, chemistry and engineering and applied sciences departments have each set up safety committees, which meet monthly.

The committee ensures that the department complies with ever-changing government regulations in laboratory safety and hazardous waste disposal.

"I think the most important function of the committee is to serve as an information source, to disseminate information on safety, hazardous waste and chemical handling, and we also use it as a learning vehicle," said chemistry safety committee chairperson Alan K. Long.

The committee recently instituted a peroxidisable materials policy, under which chemicals with particular explosive qualities are dated when they are delivered to the department. They must be used or disposed of within a set period of time, Long says.

If a dangerous incident occurs within a laboratory, the instructor fills out an incident report form and discusses the incident at the next safety committee meeting. The committee discusses how--or if--the incident could have been prevented and how it was handled.

The bulletin board outside Lenny Solomon's office in Mallinckrodt Laboratory is filled with articles on "safety news." It includes emergency phone numbers, an article titled "Contact Lenses and Chemicals: an update" and a display of different types of gloves and their uses. There are pages about compressed gas cylinders, hydrofluoric acid and hazardous waste, amid a safety report about incidents, analysis and prevention.

Solomon is the research program manager in the division of engineering and applied sciences and chairs the division's safety committee, which combined with the physics safety committee a few years ago.

"In general, Harvard has a very good record," Solomon says. "When you consider all the varied types of research that's done here and the hazards that are involved in many research labs, we have a very good safety record, an excellent safety record."

Solomon's committee functions similarly to Long's. It includes a mandatory lecture training session with Littleboy and an annual refresher training course offered via web interface. Staff and faculty can speak about any safety-related topic in the safety seminar series.

STUDENT REACTIONS

Biology concentrator Michael S. Calderwood '99 has taken about two science courses per semester during his four years at Harvard, "so I spend almost every day in the bio labs." He spent two and a half years working for Millenium Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge biotechnological firm, and has worked for the Ministry of Health in Brazil since the summer.

"Those were unfortunate events," he says of the recent Harvard laboratory spills. "But when you're working in a lab, you try to control for every event possible.

"As far as lab safety here, it's top notch," he says.

Calderwood says that in other labs, workers were reluctant to report mistakes because they thought it would reflect badly on them. However, Calderwood says this occurs less frequently at Harvard.

Okwudiri N. Onyedum '02, a student in Chemistry 5: "Introduction to Principles in Chemistry," says the chemistry department makes a big deal about laboratory safety.

"It's almost like they try to scare you about being safe, about EPA fires and everything," he says.

David S. Fergemann '98, head teaching fellow of Chemistry 30: "Organic Chemistry," says the department makes a great effort to ensure that its students remain safe.

"There's constant re-evaluation as incidents come up," he says.