Students and faculty were potentially exposed to hazardous chemicals because of broken fume hoods in the Science Building between 2015 and October 2016, before they were repaired last week.<\/p>\n
This comes seven months after students and chemistry staff discovered, by chance, a broken hood during a lab experiment back in October 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no communication from the administration at all regarding those stickers having changed status,” Chemistry professor Dr.\u00a0Iyun\u00a0Lazik said of the hoods that were broken. The said stickers indicated the hoods were \u201cnot certified\u201d meaning they failed inspection.<\/p>\n
Lazik\u00a0said after discovering numerous hoods were broken in October 2016,\u00a0the chemistry department held an emergency meeting and wrote a letter to administration to let them know they had not been informed and\u00a0to ask\u00a0what the status was for getting the hoods fixed.<\/p>\n
Fume hoods protect users\u00a0from breathing in hazardous fumes\u00a0produced by chemicals by drawing\u00a0the\u00a0air up into the vent and exhausting them outside the building.\u00a0 The flow rate of air is adjusted in conjunction to the pressure to maintain a safe parameter of airflow. Toxic chemicals breathed in during when released could cause immediate to long-term health problems.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cIt turns out that some of the hoods were broken since 2015 and they had failed inspection then.\u201d Lazik said. \u201cAdministration was aware of that because\u00a0they had sent out a spreadsheet denoting which ones were inspected and which ones had failed. We had to request it\u00a0(the spreadsheet),” Lazik said.<\/p>\n
Lazik said\u00a0maintenance disconnected the fume hood alarms sometime between the 2015-2016 academic\u00a0years\u00a0because one of the fume hood alarms was going off constantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s\u00a0when we knew the alarm was\u00a0off. So we stopped using that hood. But for all the remaining ones the alarms did not go off even though they failed OSHA inspection,”\u00a0Lazik\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
The problem is that the alarms are supposed to go off when the flow rate is low so we don\u2019t have to rely on the stickers, but none of the alarms went off,\u00a0Lazik\u00a0added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work with toxic fumes. Especially in organic chemistry there are potential\u00a0carcinogenic compounds that we breathe,\u201d\u00a0Lazik\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cWe were under the assumption that we were being protected and if the flow rates\u00a0were\u00a0as low as they were it means we were breathing all of those toxic chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSafety is at the forefront and student’s well-being is a top College interest.\u201d Jorge Escobar, Vice President of Student Services wrote in an email in response to concerns about potential exposure to harmful chemicals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that the overall\u00a0ventilation system was working at a capacity that would have not exposed students, faculty or staff to harmful chemicals,\u201d Escobar said.<\/p>\n
Pre-med student\u00a0Karyna\u00a0Brandariz\u00a0said\u00a0she felt it was dangerous during the first lab experiment of the semester\u00a0where in her chemistry lab only two of the four fume hoods were working.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first lab we were all huddled together and\u00a0took\u00a0turns using them\u00a0(fume hoods).\u00a0We were really close to one another. We were worried things were going to spill over,\u201d\u00a0Brandariz\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth is a priority.\u00a0It\u2019s worrisome when we have to open the doors. That\u2019s the\u00a0only ventilation that we have,”\u00a0Brandariz\u00a0said. \u201cWe\u2019re inhaling all this stuff and its spilled on me before and its pretty strong stuff because\u00a0I have gotten chemical burns without\u00a0realizing\u00a0what\u00a0has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supervisor for the district maintenance department\u00a0Anthony\u00a0Jakubowski said\u00a0that the exhaust connected to all the fume hoods in the building has always been\u00a0working\u00a0despite\u00a0the\u00a0hoods\u00a0labeled “not\u00a0certified.”<\/p>\n
The fume hoods are complex,\u00a0Jakubowski\u00a0explained. They are connected to multiple other units that feed information. Calibration can get off and that\u2019s when the hoods fail\u00a0inspection. But they still suck up\u00a0air because of the exhaust.<\/p>\n
Maintenance jumped on the issue as soon as they got the Technical Safety Services\u00a0report\u00a0regarding the broken hoods,\u00a0Jakubowski\u00a0said. He did not specify\u00a0when the report was issued.<\/p>\n
Aside from the health issues, providing students with adequate space and equipment for their curriculum\u00a0was\u00a0another\u00a0concern\u00a0Lazik\u00a0addressed\u00a0to a group of faculty members during an Academic Senate meeting on April 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is we continue to have maximum capacity (of students) and yet we don\u2019t have the facilities to sustain that,\u201d\u00a0Lazik\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
When there is a lack of equipment or facilities, student class size is supposed to be reduced and reflected in the registration system when students register for classes. However, spring 2017 semester the class sizes were not reduced nor reflected in the registrar prior to the beginning of the semester, Lazik said during the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like having the vents are important so that we can get what we need to get done so we can learn the material,”\u00a0chemistry\u00a0student\u00a0Brandariz\u00a0said. \u201cIf they expect us to get these labs done we should have the equipment and the tools to get them done safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other students shared\u00a0Lazik\u2019s\u00a0and\u00a0Brandariz\u2019s\u00a0frustrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main concern is time wise,” said neuroscience major Madison Kite. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s hard especially because we\u2019ve been using the hot plates under the fumes so trying to get everyone\u2019s experiments there\u2019s only so many you can fit in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
During this same meeting, Owen Letcher, director of Facilities and Bond Programs Management for the\u00a0San Jose Evergreen College District also discussed the\u00a0status of the fume hood repairs and answered questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo\u00a0of the hoods do not comply with the face velocity testing that is required. Three\u00a0have other issues with the alarm control system,\u201d Letcher said\u00a0at the April 18 Senate meeting.<\/p>\n
Action was taken in October 2016 by the district to fix the broken fume hoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cAugust 2016 when the report came out again those were distributed and that began this cycle,\u201d Letcher said at the meeting. \u201cWe had discussions on how to correct this and what can be done to not put anyone at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district, however,\u00a0did not address the issue of the broken fume hoods dating back\u00a0to 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to clarify\u00a0on\u00a0the timelines\u00a0of October 2016 because that is not true since the hoods failed ahead of\u00a0that\u00a0time,”\u00a0Lazik\u00a0interjected at the meeting.\u00a0\u201cThe only reason\u00a0you are able to say October 2016 is when the chemistry department sent out the letter.\u00a0In fact the hoods failed, some of them since 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would really like the district to address that problem because there was no notification done and we were all working under hazardous conditions,\u201d\u00a0Lazik\u00a0said at the meeting.<\/p>\n
Letcher said he could not answer the question because he did not become a district employee until November 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will ensure folks are informed of any future situations with the hoods to avoid having a similar situation.\u201d\u00a0Escobar said in an email regarding the notification issues.<\/p>\n
Letcher stated\u00a0that\u00a0the district is moving forward with a project to replace the valve actuator and control systems throughout all the hoods in the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current system is only serviced by one outside vendor and the original equipment manufacturer has changed design,\u201d Letcher wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
Due to limited availability of parts the hoods were unable to be repaired in as timely a manner as faculty would have liked Letcher wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with this one vendor has been a challenge\u00a0for us,”\u00a0Letcher had said during the senate meeting.<\/p>\n
A plan is already in motion to begin replacing the fume hood systems to ensure more timely repairs and access to parts.\u00a0Letcher said we will have a more robust response plan to testing protocol. It\u00a0will be implemented in phases to avoid shutting the science building down for a long period of time and to reduce impact on student learning.<\/p>\n
The extent of the potential health risks involved from exposure to the broken hoods is unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarcinogenics has long-term effects. The longer you\u2019re exposed to it the more accumulation you have and then you have problems,\u201d Lazik said. \u201cIf you look at the material safety data sheet of all the chemicals we worked with we\u2019re talking about central nervous system damage, liver damage, and lung damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s unknown how long we\u2019ve been exposed, even though we do know the chemicals we were being exposed to, it\u2019s hard to address and assess how harmful that was,\u201d Lazik said.<\/p>\n
Another chemistry faculty member was contacted for comments but she referred the Times reporter to Lazik.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a joke earlier that I have been sick the entire semester,\u201d\u00a0Lazik\u00a0said after coughing, \u201cthat it could be because we were exposed to all of those chemicals\u00a0and no one knows for sure.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students and faculty were potentially exposed to hazardous chemicals because of broken fume hoods in the Science Building between 2015 and October 2016, before they were repaired last week. This comes seven months after students and chemistry staff discovered, by chance, a broken hood during a lab experiment back in October 2016. \u201cThere was no…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,379],"tags":[],"staff_name":[686],"class_list":["post-11444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-showcase","staff_name-lauren-quilty"],"yoast_head":"\n