{"id":11337,"date":"2013-04-30T08:52:29","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T12:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/news\/article.php?ArticleID=11337"},"modified":"2013-04-30T08:52:29","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T12:52:29","slug":"11337_ucla-professor-charged-in-connection-to-student-s-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/2013\/04\/30\/11337_ucla-professor-charged-in-connection-to-student-s-death\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA: Professor Charged in Connection to Student’s Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 29, 2008, a 23 year old research assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, named Sheharbano \u201cSheri\u201d Sangji was badly burned in what, at the time, was perceived to be a freak laboratory accident.  <\/span>During the course of her research, she was transferring t-butyl lithium by means of a syringe, when the syringe broke.  <\/span>The chemical, which readily reacts and catches fire when exposed to air, spilt down the front of Sangji and caused severe burns that, ultimately, killed her eighteen days later.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The professor for whom Sangji was performing the experiment, Patrick Harran, a professor of organic chemistry at UCLA, has been ordered to stand trial for several charges, including failing to correct unsafe work practices in a timely manner, failing to require appropriate clothing for the work being performed, and failing to provide proper chemical safety training.  <\/span>If convicted, he could face up to four and a half years of imprisonment.  <\/span><\/p>\n

This incident highlights the importance of proper laboratory safety standards and procedures.  <\/span>In the wake of this incident, laboratory safety training was reexamined at Montclair State University, soon after this incident occurred.  <\/span>\u201cWe have been following this incident very closely,\u201d said Amy Ferdinand, Director of Environmental Health, Safety, and Sustainability at Montclair State University.  <\/span>According to Ferdinand, \u201c\u2026all of our [College of Science and Mathematics] laboratory safety training and inspections are based on the case at UCLA.\u201d  <\/span>Best practices, with a special consideration for lessons learned in the past, have been incorporated into the safety training provided to the students and faculty at Montclair State University.  <\/span> <\/span>This training has been made possible by the College of Science and Mathematics faculty, who have embraced the establishment of safe work practices at Montclair State University.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it is important that our students follow the procedures that they have been taught.  <\/span>Personal protective equipment has little benefit to a student or to an employee if it is left sitting on a shelf or hanging on a coatrack.  <\/span>Whether Professor Harran was negligent or Sangji was complacent, the courts will decide; but, at a certain point one, must consider that an individual is responsible for following safety procedures just as the faculty is responsible for ensuring that those safety procedures are being followed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 29, 2008, a 23 year old research assistant at the University of California, Los Angeles, named Sheharbano \u201cSheri\u201d Sangji was badly burned in what, at the time, was perceived to be a freak laboratory accident.  During the course of her research, she was transferring t-butyl lithium by means of a syringe, when the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-194_fire-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/facilities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}