Sheri was an experienced chemist and published researcher who exuded confidence and had performed this experiment before in my lab. Sheri had previous experience handling pyrophorics, chemicals that burn upon exposure to air, even before she arrived at UCLA. Her most recent position prior to joining the group involved "scale-up process safety." However, it seems evident, based on mistakes investigators tell us were made that day, I underestimated her understanding of the care necessary when working with such materials.I cannot read this portion of the statement as anything other than 1) casting doubt on the public assertions and impressions that Ms. Sangji was inexperienced and 2) by doing so, attempting to affect the pool of potential jurors for any ensuing legal actions.
I say this because I am surprised at the assertion that Ms. Sangji was previously working in "scale-up process safety"; if so, this casts a different light on her level of experience.
I also believe that it is aimed towards affecting potential jury members for this reason: this is Harran's first (to my knowledge) public statement. Why not issue a three sentence statement? "I am sorry for Ms. Sangji's death. As it happened in my lab, it was my responsibility -- there is no excuse. I will do my utmost to avoid the situation in the future." His actual statement, in my opinion, will do nothing to make Professor Harran look better and will only intensify the criticism aimed at him from different quarters.
UPDATED: Emphasized that Ms. Sangji was previously working in process.
13 comments:
It is probably time Harran gets a lawyer and keeps his mouth shut.
Clearly, CAL OSHA believes UCLA was at fault. Harran's comments show his cowardice and are particularly hurtful to the friends and family who lost Sheri and are still deeply devastated 4 months later.
Call me heartless, but I agree with Professor Harran's statements.
OSHA can find a wrong in every single labs that they inspected. Your personal safety is your responsibility.
It's not about being heartless, just mis-informed. Fortunately the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 disagrees with you: worker safety is the sole legal responsibility of the employer.
There is the crux...A lab can only proactively hedge against accidents. That's why they call them accidents. There can be no absolute guarantee of safety. A well-trained student in a ideally-equipped lab can still make their own ill-advised choices. Occasionally those choices may contribute to a tragic consequence. How does one draw a 100% "hard line" on assigning responsibility to either the lab, or the student? The world is hardly ever that black & white.
I believe Dr. Harran's statement "I underestimated her understanding of the care necessary when working with such materials" was totally self serving. I spent much of my early years in chemistry labs and it is my experience that professors of Dr. Harran's stature would never even think about a person's safety traning. In fact, it would not surprise me that it was only after this horrible accident that Dr. Harran even looked into what safety training Sheri Sangji had.
Well, I've never read anything on this thus far that suggested that Sheri received training on the use of the safety shower. In fact, one of the first articles I read on this was from outside UCLA as an account provided by the fire department. She supposedly caught on fire and then ran in the opposite direction of the safety shower. Also, she never went into the safety shower until the fire department people came to the scene and put her in it. The person who dowsed the fire on her and put out the fire in the lab never put her in the shower either. Why not? Poor training? Poor decisions on personal privacy? Would a lab coat have helped (maybe, but this stuff catches on fire quick)? Goggles would have been a good idea instead of safety glasses. Maybe it was poor training and poor personal choices?
Either way, it is a tragic death that should wake us up to two things:
1) Proper personal protective equipment should be used during any chemistry experiment along with time spent prior to the experiment to identify the location of additional safetey equipment such as showers, eye washes, and fire extinguishers. Let's face it, Sheri didn't go in the shower and the person who helped her, also a lab worker, didn't put her in one either. Maybe she would be alive today if this was done.
2) Proper training is a must. Shame on the PI that, if that traning was not done correctly or at all! You should NEVER underestimate the understanding of another when dealing with such chemicals. Be boring and explain every detail. Be repetitive. Save that part of the experiment for when there are a lot of experienced folks around not the break time.
That is Patrick's style to work with people. Being interesting just in final results he was always kind of a "slave driver". People under constant pressure and deep stress always make mistakes because of rush. Unfortunately, this is common practice for US professors.
What does "practice for US professors" mean? "US" as in you are a professor yourself, or does "US" mean something else? This part of your post is not clear.
US = United States you dumbass.
I personally know Harran. He is a person of low scruples and a general ass to people though brilliant! A dangerous mix to say the least, and I don't mean lab chemicals here.
As an industrial chemist and chemical hygiene officer, I have to say that even with proper training, a person will lose composure when he or she is the one who is involved in a chemical accident. We have to rely on our labmates to help us. The other labworkers comcern me more than Sheri, ainc neither got her to the safety shower. I have never seen a person on fire, and I fervently hope I could keep my cool in order to help.
This shouldn't even be an issue of discussion. She was hired as a research assistant in the first place, not an undergraduate or even a grad student. She was hired as a research speacialists and was expected to handle adverse situations ( which in this case escalated by her own neglect of safety and COMMON SENSE). There are a few hydrphorics out there that all chemists know require a great deal of attention. tBuLi is obviously one of them. God rest her soul but she could ahve prevented this in soo many ways.
Dr. Harran should be in the clear
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