{"id":44980,"date":"2016-04-18T12:30:55","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T22:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=44980"},"modified":"2019-01-29T17:05:59","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T03:05:59","slug":"investigation-continues-into-lab-explosion-at-uh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/04\/18\/investigation-continues-into-lab-explosion-at-uh\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation continues into lab explosion at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QaxnYqBmW9I?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.honolulu.gov\/hfd.html\">Honolulu Fire Department<\/a> (<abbr>HFD<\/abbr>) today released a report on its investigation into the March 16, 2016 explosion in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hnei.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Natural Energy Institute<\/a> biofuels research laboratory in the <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa<\/a> Pacific Ocean Science and Technology building. The report identifies equipment as the probable cause and recommends further investigation.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We want to thank fire department for its outstanding work and professionalism for its investigation and the response the night of the accident,&ldquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa Vice Chancellor <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/ovcr\/bio-bruno.html\">Michael Bruno<\/a>. The <abbr>HFD<\/abbr> report has been sent to the <a href=\"http:\/\/cls.ucla.edu\/\">University of California Center for Laboratory Safety<\/a>, which has been retained to conduct an independent investigation and is considered a national leader in laboratory safety.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"University of California\">UC<\/abbr> Center for Laboratory Safety report will be extensive and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the accident, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/ehso\/\">Environmental Health and Safety Office<\/a> surveyed the 500-plus labs on the M&#257;noa campus and determined that no similar experiments like the one involved in the accident were taking place. Other steps are being taken.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A new safety committee at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa is in the process of being convened that will be called the Chemical and Physical Safety Committee,&rdquo; said Bruno. &ldquo;It will have representatives from all of the schools and colleges that have research and teaching laboratories and will work with other safety-related committees already in existence to\u00a0identify and\u00a0implement\u00a0protocols and processes to further strengthen the safety of our laboratories.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><abbr>UH<\/abbr> leadership is committed to a culture of safety in each and every research and teaching laboratory on our campus.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I want to reemphasize\u00a0the importance of\u00a0ensuring that laboratory safety protocols\u00a0and training\u00a0are up-to-date, including ensuring that all equipment is suitable and meets relevant requirements\u00a0and that emergency access to all laboratories is readily available,&rdquo; said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa Chancellor <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/chancellor\/about.html\">Robert Bley-Vroman<\/a> in an April 4 message to the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa community.<\/p>\n<p>For questions regarding laboratory safety, email or call the\u00a0Environmental Health and Safety Office at <a href=\"mailto:labsafe@hawaii.edu\">labsafe@hawaii.edu<\/a> or  808-956-8660.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_44007\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44007\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/manoa-post-building.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44007\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/manoa-post-building.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/manoa-post-building-260x146.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44007\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Honolulu Fire Department report on investigation into the March 16 explosion in the M&#257;noa <abbr title=\"Pacific Ocean Science and Technology\">POST<\/abbr> building released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1193,28,12],"tags":[1033,294,92,9,56],"class_list":["post-44980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-administrative","category-governance","category-video","tag-environmental-health-and-safety-office","tag-hawaii-natural-energy-institute","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44980"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86090,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44980\/revisions\/86090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}