A cleaner allegedly destroyed decades of “groundbreaking” research by turning off a laboratory freezer containing important samples over to an “annoying” alarm sound, according to US lawyers.
A sign instructed people on how to turn off the beep, but a breaker is said to have been turned off due to a reading error.
Attorneys claimed that samples kept at -80C (-112F) were rendered “unsalvageable,” resulting in $1 million in losses.
The cleaner’s employer is being sued by the lab’s school for providing inadequate training.
In 2020, the year of the alleged incident, the company had a $1.4m (£1.1m) cleaning contract with Troy, New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
According to a lawyer for the institute, work being done on photosynthesis under the direction of Prof. KV Lakshmi could advance the development of solar panels in “ground-breaking” ways.
An alarm sounded to warn of a 3C temperature rise a few days before the freezer was turned off. Despite the possibility of a catastrophic fluctuation, Prof. Lakshmi “determined that the cell cultures, samples, and research were not being harmed,” according to the legal case.
It would take a week before any repairs could begin because of limitations imposed at the time by Covid.
The freezer’s door had a notice on it that said: “This freezer is beeping as it is under repair. Please do not move or unplug it. No cleaning required in this area.”
“You can press the alarm/test mute button for 5-10 seconds if you would like to mute the sound.”
But the cleaner shut off the circuit breaker powering the freezer days after the alarm began to sound.
The majority of the specimen that were supposed to be kept at -80C were “compromised, destroyed and rendered unsalvageable, demolishing more than 20 years of research,” according to the legal case.
The cleaner believed they were flipping the breaker on when they actually turned it off, according to a report made by public safety staff at the institute
By the time scientists realized the error, the temperature had reportedly risen by 50 degrees, to about -30C.
According to attorney Michael Ginsberg, the cleaning staff member heard “annoying alarms,” and according to lawyers who spoke with him, “he still did not appear to believe he had done anything wrong but was just trying to help.”
The institute’s legal team said, the cleaner’s employer did not provide sufficient training for their employee. The company is yet to respond.
Source-BBC
