double *sigh*

maybe people should just avoid the U Cal system for a while:

UC Regents strike plea deal in chemistry lab death at UCLA

Felony charges against the University of California Regents stemming from the 2009 death of UCLA research assistant Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji were dropped Friday in return for a pledge of comprehensive safety measures and the endowment of a $500,000 scholarship in her name.

“The Regents acknowledge and accept responsibility for the conditions under which the laboratory operated on December 29, 2008,” the agreement read in part, referring to the date that Sangji, 23, suffered fatal burns.

She was transferring about 1.8 ounces of t-butyl lithium from one sealed container to another when a plastic syringe came apart in her hands, spewing a chemical compound that ignites when exposed to air. The synthetic sweater she wore caught fire and melted onto her skin. She died 18 days later.

From the outset, UCLA and chemistry professor Patrick Harran, who is still charged in the case, have cast her death as a tragic accident and said she was a seasoned chemist who was trained in the experiment and chose not to wear a protective lab coat.

i was really hoping this one would turn into a test case to firmly bring academic labs under (Cal)-OSHA, but no such luck.

as to harran's defense, if sangji chose not to dress appropriately for lab work, he should have not chosen to allow her into his lab. out here in the real world, supervisors are generally held responsible for seeing that their subordinates have and are using the proper PPE (personal protective equipment). i'm not sure what the proper PPE is for lithium alkyls, but i'm pretty sure it starts with "lab coat", and it may end with "nomex suit and full face shield". i also wonder why she wasn't using a glove box/bag full of nitrogen for handling such an air-sensitive compound. they're a bit hot to work in, but they're a lot cooler than an explosion or fire.


2 UC Davis Surgeons Banned From Conducting Human Research

Two University of California at Davis surgeons have been banned from doing human research after they injected bacteria into the head wounds of consenting terminally ill patients without university authorization, according to a letter sent from the school to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The university ordered Drs. J. Paul Muizelaar and Rudolph J. Schrot to immediately "cease and desist" doing the procedure last fall, according to the letter, dated Oct. 17, 2011, obtained by the Sacramento Bee.

well, they killed only two patients, so they weren't as bad as the tuskegee experiment, right? IMVAO, drs. muizelarr and schrot should be stripped of their medical licenses if they've failed to understand why they need to be blessed by their institutional review board before conducting human experimentation, "informed" consent or not. (hint: among the things an IRB does is verify that the consent form actually informs the patients of the risks and possible benefits of the study.)