A janitor working in a laboratory who was annoyed by an incessant beep reportedly flipped a switch that killed the noise — but also shut off a storage freezer, destroying decades of scientific work, according to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute lab in Troy.
The cleaner’s alleged carelessness cost the lab at least $1 million in damages, a lawsuit the university filed against its third-party cleaning service charges.
“People’s behavior and negligence caused all this,” Michael Ginsberg, RPI’s attorney, told the Times Union in Albany. “Unfortunately, they wiped out 25 years of research.”
The super-cold freezer the custodial worker allegedly shut down held cell cultures, samples and other elements stored at minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit, the Times Union said.
But when the worker from Daigle Cleaning Services shut off the circuit breaker Sept. 17, 2020, to silence a beeping alarm, the temperature leapt to a minus-25.6 degrees that damaged or destroyed the material, the lawsuit claimed.
The freezer alarm had been triggered by a mechanical malfunction that stopped the unit from maintaining a constant temperature, as it was supposed to. Repairs had been scheduled for Sept. 21, 2020, the Times Union reported.
A sign on the lab freezer door explains the source of the alarm, and also had instructions on how to silence it, the Times Union reported.
Full Link ( Here )
© CopyRights RawNews1st
