‘Serious’ Deficiencies Uncovered : School Labs: A Question of Safety

The science labs in most secondary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District have “serious” safety deficiencies, according to recently completed inspections mandated by the City Council, school officials said Thursday.

The inspections uncovered a widespread lack of protective eye goggles, broken exhaust fans, the absence of eye-wash stations for emergencies, improper storage facilities for acids and other dangerous chemicals, and many other unsafe conditions.

The worst offenders, according to the inspection reports, were Fairfax, Garfield, Ramona, and Johnson high schools.

But, according to Susie Wong, the school district’s principal safety officer, “the majority (of labs) need upgrading.”

To correct such problems, the Los Angeles school board last week approved $1.75 million, although individual schools will be asked to purchase some of the needed equipment with their own funds, according to Wong.

The survey was conducted as part of a broader effort to identify and remove dangerous substances and to properly label and index those that remain, said Jack Waldron, chief safety officer for the school district. The project began last March, after the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance requiring schools to provide the Fire Department with a list of all hazardous substances at each school.

In the first phase of the project, completed last month, inspectors visited science laboratories at all 150 junior and senior high schools in the district, taking an inventory of chemicals and removing any dangerous substances.

It was then that questions about safety deficiencies arose, Wong said.

She said more than half the fume hoods in Los Angeles high schools are broken. Another troubling finding, Wong said, pertained to improper storage. In many cases, chemicals were stored in alphabetical order rather than by type--flammables in one place, acids in another, for example. Most of the city-allocated funds for upgrading laboratories will go toward the purchase of storage facilities, she said.

At many high schools, inspectors also found food stored in laboratory refrigerators that were meant to hold only biological specimens and chemicals.

The only safety item on the inspectors’ list that every high school laboratory does have is a fire extinguisher--the only item required by city fire codes, Wong said.