Lessons Learned

Reports on incidents that involve injury, exposure (real or potential), or significant damage property. Lessons Learned detail what happened and how similar incidents can be avoided in the future.

Oleylamine Chemical Burn

December 31, 2008
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What happened? A laboratory researcher suffered a delayed chemical burn after only a few drops of a highly corrosive organic chemical splattered on his unprotected left forearm. The burns first appeared hours after exposure, got worse overnight, and eventually required treatment at a hospital.

forearm with spotted chemical burns

The researcher's forearm

...

Pressurized Dewar Cap is Blown Off and Causes Minor Injury

February 28, 2009
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What happened?

In July 2008, a guest scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory sustained a minor injury when the cap of a 50-Liter liquid nitrogen Dewar burst off and hit his forehead. The scientist needed to fill the Dewar - which hadn't been used for several months - and assumed it was depressurized because of its lack of use.

Without wearing safety goggles or a face shield, the scientist attempted to verify the Dewar was depressurized by pulling a pressure relief plug. The relief plug was not designed to be manually operated (it did not have a pull ring), and it is...

Ladder Fall Results in $19,125 Fine and Serious Injury

August 31, 2009
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety

In 2008 and 2009 UC Berkeley experienced two serious injuries resulting from falls from ladders.

2009 Incident

During the summer a campus employee was disassembling equipment attached to a wall. He was using a wooden step ladder that had been left on-site by a contractor. He did not open the ladder and the ladder was lacking anti-skid material on its feet. The height of his stance on the ladder was approximately three to four feet from the concrete floor. The ladder, which was leaning against the wall, slipped and he fell to the floor and sustained a serious injury to his right arm/...

Ethanol Fire Burns Researcher

July 31, 2011
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

A researcher was plating bacteria onto a petri dish using ethanol and a Bunsen burner as part of a standard sterile transfer on a lab bench. The metal spreader was dipped in a jar of ethanol and burned off in the burner. Somehow, the jar of ethanol spilled on the lab bench and onto the researcher's bare arms and t-shirt, and caught fire. The flames were reported to be up to two feet high. The researcher immediately went to the safety shower, pulled the handle which activated the emergency shower and got in. The shower water quickly put out the fire and cooled...

Severe Finger Injury from Wedding Ring

July 31, 2013
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What happened?

An employee was working in the bed of a large pickup truck. The truck was equipped with a Tommy Gate lift and hinged gate doors that opened outward. The employee was attempting to get down from the truck, so he placed his left hand on the door hinge and jumped down. His wedding ring caught on the grease fitting and caused an avulsion* injury of the finger, also referred to as “degloving.”

*Avulsion means the removal of the skin and soft tissue, usually leaving the underlying bone and tendons, however fractured or damaged. Avulsions require significant...

Exploding Cylinder in Garbage

July 31, 2007
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

On April 11, 2007, an employee of Campus Recycling and Refuse Services was alarmed when a suspected compressed gas cylinder ruptured in the rear hopper of a garbage truck. The employee was standing at the rear of the truck and had activated the blade that sweeps the garbage from the hopper into the body of the truck for further compaction. The pressurized gas cylinder was believed to be concealed inside a plastic trash bag. The sweeping action of the blade ruptured the cylinder and the residual contents sprayed into the employee’s face.

A cylinder in a garbage truck...

Improperly Vented Experiment Causes Explosion and Burns

June 30, 2008
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

A graduate student working in a UC Berkeley laboratory was performing a series of evaporation procedures outside of a fume hood using a general-purpose electric pump and a roto-evaporator that had no exhaust equipment. In an effort to make the solvent recovery more efficient, the student applied a vacuum to the condenser tower but quickly turned the pump off because the vacuum was too strong. By that time, the pump exhaust had already formed an explosive mixture of the acetone and ether vapors which ignited when the power shut-off switch was activated, resulting in...

Superconducting Magnet Explosion

July 31, 2008
Office of Environment, Health, and Safety
What Happened?

A 9.4 Tesla superconducting magnet, used for mass spectroscopy in a campus laboratory recently suffered a catastrophic failure. The incident was apparently caused by over-pressurization and failure of the liquid helium (LHe) chamber. Although there were no injuries because the incident occurred during off-hours, the potential for significant injury due to the venting of LHe into the facility was present. There was also significant damage to equipment associated with the magnet.

A magnet achieves superconductivity (zero resistance to electrical current) when it is...