Laboratory safety and emergency preparedness: The lessons of an

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m f e t y in the chemkol loboratory

edited by M. RENFREW MALCOLM University of ldaho MOSCOW, ldaho 83843

Laboratory Safety and Emergency Preparedness The Lessons of an Earthquake Stanley H. Pine California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032 I t was 7 4 1 a.m. onThursday, Octoher lst, that the northeastern portion of Los Angeles Countv was shaken bv a severe earthquakr For m y 4 and thousnnds of others Ilwng In Southern Cnhforn~n,that tremor and its many aftershocks began a sequence of events that will continue far into the future. At this time much of the activity involves pickup and repair. But preparations for future earthquakes and other emergencies are already under way. There are lessons to be learned by all of us from this experience. For those of you who have not experienced a n earthquake, it is rather terrifying. The ground, buildings, trees-everythingshakes violently. The noise of things shaking and breaking and even of the ground moving is intense. And, of course, the shaking does not simply end with the major tremor. Aftershocks of varying intensities continue far days. In this case, a strong aftershock occurred on Sunday morningthree days after the initial quake-causing additional serious damage. And the negative psychological effect of this Sunday shock was tremendous on most people who had already done considerable cleanup thinking that the worst was oast. (.'sl~fmnlaStme Uniseriity, Lcs ~ I ~ Q rCSLLA1 19 located abut 3 milrs east of dwntown Luu hngelrs and about 10 rnilrs west of the earthquake epicenter. the rommunity 1,f Whittier. C3ULA :sa major canluui of the ('alifimia State Univrrritv SYS;em with a student body of about 21,000. The campus was the most severely damaged of any large facility in the area with estimates of at least $25 million. Damage to the campus was extensive enough that i t was Stanley Plne is Professor of Chemishy and University Chemical Safety Officer at California State University, Los Angeles. He earned a PhD at UCLA and spent a po~tdo~toral year at Haward beforejoining the Cal State faculty in 1964. He has spent research sabbaliCB1s at CalTech and at the University of Strasbourg. France, where he wasaFulbright Visiting Professor. Pine isa University Outstanding Prolessor and is a 1983 recipient of the Governor's Safety Award. He is chairman of the American Chemical Smiety Camminee on Chemical Safety and a member of the Task Force on RCRA and of the Society Committee on Education.

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Journal

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decided (before the Sunday morning quake) to remain closed for an entire week. The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry occupies floors five through eight of an eight-story Physical Sciences building completed in 1972. Chemistry and Biochemistry was the single most damaged department of the University with losses in damaged and destroyed equipment and supplies of over $1 million. The building was designed under California earthouake stand& in effect in the late 1966's so that structural damage was minimal. At about 11 am., three hours after the major shock, it was decided that the huilding could be entered to assess the damage. What did I see as I entered the building with a fresh air backpack, a flashlight (and a similarly equipped partner)? I t was eerie in the quietness and darkness (the emergency corridor lighting system failed to activate, and all utilities were off). As we approached the eighth floor, the sound of water dripping from the eighth to the seventh to the sixth floors was evident. We knew that a fire that had hroken out in an eighth-floor inorganic chemistry laboratory had been effectively extinguished by the Las Angeles Fire Department. The fire apparently began when a Q s container of solvent in a fume hood glass hroke and the spilled solvent was ignited by the sodium metal used to dry solvents (a ketyl). An explosion occurred within two minutes of the quake, blowing out the laboratory windows. Much of the laboratory equipment and supplies were destroyed, and the utilities in the ceiling utility area were damaged by the severe heat. Since the solvent containers were constrained in the hood, i t is hard to decide how we could have prevented this spill. But we learned a lesson about lahamtory doors. The four heavy wooden doorswere closed and prevented the fire from spreading to adjacent laboratories audoffices. Our doors have no windows with the exception of a small 18- X 111-in.!wirernforcrd window in the rvrridor duorr. Aswc inspected lahcmtory after laboratory, we were overwhelmed by the obvious force of the quake. Essentially every balance was down, and over one-half were on the floor. Most will be useful only as spare parts. Soectroohotometers. and .eas . ~ chromatographs with their a r w n lines dangling, were >n thr tlwr Parts i>f the triple-bram halnncrs were spread amund the uraaniz chrmistry laboratories as if thrown hy an angry person. Ovens in the analytical laboratories ~

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were suspended between the benches, and a new HPLC with its computer data system was precariously dangling a t the edge of its table. Broken glass was everywhere. Books from faculty offices were piled on the floors, and many bookcases fell, even some that were "secured" by screws into the walls. (The large University library is an unusable mess with hooks piled on the floors and shelvine bent.) It is clear that we must mount ur tether equipment to tlenchas and wn.15. Intrrestingly, amtheft ierurlty de. v m s an dl nrw balancer we purcha5e will solve much of this problem. Many of the large pieces of equipment such as NMR, EPR, and MS magnets moved 6 to 12 in. when they were not bolted to the floor. The probes in our two smaller NMR instruments seem t o have sustained some damage frum the shaking. SurprisingIy, our 400.MHz superconducting N h l H magnet drd nut wen loose its firld and ua, back in operation the next week. As we made ourway through the laboratories we worried about the potential for hroken gas cylinders and chemical spills. The security of compressed gas cylinders has always been a concern. Therefore all of our cylinders are secured by wall-mounted chains or hench-mounted belts. Most (though not all) of the chain mounts held, hut about one-quarter of the bench mounts failed. The helts did not break, hut the total clamphelt-cylinder pulled away from the benches! We were aware of this possibility from the emerience a few mars a"m when an earthquake str~nuslydnmnged thr Chrmijt r y Deysrtmtnt at the Uni\,ersityofCaliiornia a t Santa Barbara. Although we did put a n extra effort into tightening the clamps, it is clear that cylinder restraints must be securely bolted to a firm mount. Luckily no cylinders ruptured, though some fell on or draeeed with them. . .. other eauioment . Our most satisfying s a f ~ t yeffort was evi~ minimal numhrr of bn.ken dent by t h very ~hemrcal butrles. W e a r r e particularly pleased on entering the main storeroom to see only a few bottles on the floor and no evidence of mixing of incompatible materials. All reagent and most glassware storage shelves have earthquake restraint wires to keep things from falling out, and these rather simple devices worked admirably. By contrast our colleagues in the adjacent bioscience building, who have not uniformly protected their shelving, had some ehemicals and considerable glassware fall. ~~

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The most serious chemical spill resulted whenalow-temperature refrigerator (with a

magnetic door latch) opened and about 10 bottles fellout and broke. The mess was still fuming when we came into the laboratory, but no serious problem developed. In a few of the laboratories, under-hood cabinet doors opened, and chemicals fell out. Because of the doors, the shelves were not protected with earthquake restraint wires. But many of the doors, after 13 years of usr, no longer clwed srcurrly Cnhmet door larches thnmchout the bu~ld~np. uill bechecked and reset For security. ~ e c & s eof the extent of the overall mess in the science departments, the University immediately contracted with an outside firm to clean up and remove all chemical spills. The problems associated with the loss of all building utilities became evident that first day. since no emergency power was available, it was difficult to assess clearly the extent of damage or to begin some initial cleanup operations. Further we were concerned about materials stored in low-temperature refrigerators and projects requiring temperature control. (Animals were immediately moved into quarters where the temperature and atmosphere could he more carefully monitored.) Electrical power was restored to much of the building late that afternoon, but not until a group of faculty volunteers had unplugged essentially all electrical equipment to insure that the quake damage would not result in electrical shorts and possible fires or personal injury. Water service was not restored until the next day because of some broken pipes. The Los Angeles Fire Department was very anxious about fire safety with no water in a laboratory building of still-unknown conditions. The major utilities on the huilding roof were severely damaged. That included the building air-handling system, hood fans, distilled-water system, and the cooling tower for the cold rooms. In addition the total campus natural gas supply was turned off. We immediately recognized the merits of having utility shutoffs for each building as well as for individual floors or other units within buildings. Though i t may not be practical to have each laboratory individually controlled, some degree of isolation ability is desirable. And all such coutrols must be easily accessible and their locations readily known to emergency workers. Recognizing the extent of damage t o the eampus, the University administration in conjunction with t h e State University Chancellor's office retained a large engineering-construction firm t o oversee the major repairs. They were in operation by the neat morning. As work began it became clear that the damage to the Physical Sciences building and the campus in general was much greater than had been snticipated. Even with the many subcontractors hard a t work all over campus, and heroic efforts by our own maintenance department, the Physical Sciences building had no air circulation for almost two weeks (most windows still do not open), hoods and cold rooms did not restart for about two and one-half weeks. and reoairs t o natural eas lines leading m the huldmg were nc,t complct~dtor tUur weekr. Even at the timeof this writing tfiee weeks puitquake, the nicrticl of hroring and air conditioning have not been re-

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stored. And we do not really know how long i t will take for the State of California to allocate funds to put us back into prequake operations. One additional problem surfaced as a resultof the quake. Some of the campus buildines (inchdine Phvsical Sciences) have asbestos-contai&e fibrous materials snraved . . onto the structural mrmbrrs. Air sampling nithin each building began immediately nfter the qudkc to insurr that their armor. pheres were safe for entry. Most were found to be safe, but the possibility of loosening fibers during some of the necessary major repairs has required same specific abatement activities. The combination of structural damaee and asbestos nroblems mav require demolition of one major classroom building. The quake generated an emergency situation on campus. In many respects i t was a rather special emergency, for telephone service was essentially uninterrupted, road access in and out of eampus was not hindered, and utilities were generally available except in certain damaeed huildines. Furthermore. the resources e v n ~ l n h lin~ the greater L o b Angplpi area were nor merk~dlydi.irupted. W e were nhk t u get suppliei, equipment. and workers t o begin eampus emergency repairsalmost immediately. Even the Las And e s Fire Department, who apologized as they were required to leave fa; other calls immediately after extinguishing our labaratory fire, were able to return later that afternoon to provide some help. Yet this earthquake provided a unique opportunity to test our emergency plan. Yes, we did have a plan, and within an hour an Emergency Operations Center was functioning. About 15 telephones were in service for both on and off campus, and people were movine about csmous with two-wav radios reporting status. Mort importantly, the emergency plan estnbli*hed a chain of command so that there mas no queition of who was t o do what. And the emergency activities really had to extend heyond the immediate campus problems. The plan included a spokesperson to communicate with the media. That person was responsible for being as open as possible while avoiding estimates and generalities that might be distorted. Telephone calls proved to be beyond our ability to handle as students, staff, faculty, and friends called to ask ifthere really were problems, could they help, were classes still on, etc. Many conscientious students even called to ask where they should turn in assignments that were due that week. A recorded telephone answering system was set up to take care of most of these questions, and department chairs and staff supervisors tried to keep their co-workers informed. Those of us in the CSULA community wish that thisevent hadnever occurred. But like so much of our safety concerns, wishing does not make them go away. We were very fortunate that onlv one oersan was killed

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were already on eampus a t the time of the quake. Over the next weeks and months we will be reviewing and modifying our procedures for future emergencies, be they earthquakes or other events. We hope that we have learned some valuable lessons and that our experience may help others in their plans. Volume 65

Number 4

April 1988

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