To whom it may concern: I am not a perfect
person either but I never held any supervisory position. Dr.
Harran got off lightly. He was irresponsible to some extent. I
hope this settlement wakes up the Academic community to their
significant responsibilities in teaching safe practices to all of
their students. More importantly any new or remodelled facilities
should meet the highest safety standards. My personal experiences
lead me to the conclusion that senior chemists should always be
observant of new students, employees, etc to confirm that all
laboratory workers are well prepared for what they are doing. No
one in a supervisory capacity should make any assumptions about
the safety practices of any collegue.
Going far beyond the above it is the responsibility the chief
executive officer of any organization to set a personal example to
everyone that directly or indirectly reports to him/ her
understands their personal responsibility. If an injury accident
occurs that supervisor will be terminated summarily. This simple
rule is about the only way I know of to get full organizational
compliance with all safety measures. I will never forget the
interview I was offered when I arrived the person I was to talk
with told me someone who reported directly had died that morning
in a very unfortunate accident. He told me that my interview
would not occur. My interviewer looked extremely upset, ashen,
and I left shortly thereafter. In this particular incident the
coworker turned the wrong value in a production facility killing
him immediately. This occurred at a major chemical company in New
Jersey in the early 1970's, I would have held some unknown
chemical engineer personally responsible and that was not my
potential interviewer. In some instances, after a thorough
investigation someone or someones should have been indicted for
manslaughter. It is my understanding that there are some
circumstances in law where this can happen.
On 6/21/2014 5:29 AM, Secretary, ACS
Division of Chemical Health and Safety wrote:
The C&EN SafetyZone blog has a timeline of the process and a list of media reports on the settlement announced yesterday.
http://cenblog.org/the-safety-zone/2014/06/patrick-harran-and-district-attorney-reach-deal-in-sherisangji-case/
In addition, there is a complete story in the C&EN news section at
http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/06/Patrick-Harran-L-District-Attorney.html
The article provides details about the community service and other activities Harran will complete in order avoid going to trial on the charges. There are 5 years of activities required in addition to the $10,000 contribution to the Grossman Burn Center.
The family's response is that the deal is inadequate punishment.
--
Walter Brooks
29814 11th Ave.SW
Federal Way, WA 98023
skoorb62**At_Symbol_Here**comcast.net
253-941-3854 please leave a message if you call
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