An accidental chemical spill in a third-floor laboratory of the Science and Technology Center by a chemistry graduate student caused a precautionary evacuation of the building and sent the graduate student and his classmate to the hospital Tuesday morning, said Kevin Morrow, director of Syracuse University news services.

The spill was caused when one student reached into the refrigerator and accidentally dropped a vial of brown liquid, Morrow said. He was splashed by the liquid, which immediately began to fill the room with a brown vapor. There was only one other student in the room, also a graduate student, and he inhaled some of the vapors before the two exited and sealed the lab.The Syracuse Fire Department responded to the call at 11:15 a.m. While the lab was sealed immediately and is built to cycle out the air several times an hour during normal operations, the fire department took the precautionary decision to evacuate the building, Morrow said.

‘We are confident none of the vapors escaped the lab,’ Morrow said. ‘Just by their nature, labs are well ventilated.’Both students were treated at the scene by paramedics and then taken to Crouse Hospital, he said. Their names were not released and it cannot be confirmed if they sustained any serious injuries or if they have been released from the hospital.

The building was ‘given back’ to SU by the fire department at 12:45 p.m.; the lab wing remained closed until 2:30 p.m. During that time, the Environmental Health Office, which provides training to all chemistry graduate students and responds to spills, according to its Web site, cleaned up the spill.

The lab was free of contamination and ready for use again by 2:50 p.m., approximately three hours and 45 minutes after the initial call, Morrow said.

Ten minutes before the building was officially ‘given back’ students were being allowed back into the building. ‘As long as they are not going to the affected area,’ said Cpl. Charles Fiesinger, the most visible Public Safety officer at the scene.

A combined effort between the EHO and chemistry department was underway to determine what the chemical composition of the liquid was. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday it had not yet been finalized because the label on the vial was lost in the spill, Morrow said. Morrow had not been informed if the students were wearing masks, gloves or goggles.

According to an undergraduate biochemistry student, it is a required lab procedure to wear goggles and gloves whenever handling chemicals. The student also said two chemicals that would evaporate from a liquid to a gas when exposed are chlorine and mercury, both toxic.

A hazardous materials response unit vehicle, three fire trucks, three fire department sport utility vehicles and two Public Safety units responded to the spill.Few students stopped to witness the busy scene outside the SciTech building and the firefighters and public safety officers were passively going about their business.’Just a little spill,’ said a firefighter at the scene, ‘nothing to be concerned with.’

Published on January 23, 2007 at 12:00 pm