http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/87/8731sci1.html

First, I have worked in the same building as the fatally injured worker. I am very (…actually too) familiar with the building, the people in the chemistry department. Some of the folks here in the chemistry department are good.

Second, we were told to reuse the disposbale syringes in an effort to save money. The foreign postdocs told us to do that, so their salaries would be insured. The syringes are cheap–about 25 cents to 1 dollar each. Everytime you reuse syringes the plunger becomes very loose and they easily pop out. I am proud to say that I disobeyed the PI’s and postdocs orders to err on side of caution and safety. It is clear that the postdocs at UCLA have ulterior motives.

Third, the postdocs–who in effect run the laboratories–don’t know about safety. On several occasions, I saved the postdocs from injuring or killing themselves. They didn’t even know what was happening. A few notables…condensation of liquid oxygen, mixing hydrogen peroxide and acetone, heating peroxides with a heat gun, mixing DMSO and acetyl chloride, cleaning vacuum pumps with pentane while the pumps are running…

In my work at UCLA, I found that many of the undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs really do not have an understanding of safe practices. This is an institutional problem.

Yes, I have done a lot of work at UCLA with very dangerous materials. I always had contingency plans and I always was prepared. Yes, I did have several fires and several explosions in the course of my work. I was never injured because I anticipated these problems and I planned for them. That is how chemistry is to be done…..

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-ucla-burn30-2009jun30,0,4258810.story

Too bad this PI didn’t take teaching/mentoring seriously and too bad UCLA chemistry can’t recruit high calibrator researchers to replace the half-dozen top researchers who high tailed it out of UCLA.