A cleaner at a college in New York state accidentally destroyed decades of research by turning off a freezer in order to mute “annoying alarm” sounds.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), in Troy, is suing the cleaner’s employer, alleging improper training. According to a lawsuit filed in the New York supreme court in Rensselaer county earlier this month, the university is seeking more than $1m in damages, the Times Union newspaper reported.
“People’s behavior and negligence caused all this,” Michael Ginsberg, an attorney for RPI, told the Times Union. “Unfortunately, they wiped out 25 years of research.”
The cleaner, who is not named in the lawsuit, was employed by Daigle Cleaning Systems and worked at RPI for several months in 2020, when the incident occurred.
The lab freezer contained several cultures that were part of a research project on photosynthesis headed by the biology and chemistry professor KV Lakshmi, the BBC reported. The cultures were usually stored at -112F (-80C).
On 14 September 2020, days before the freezer was unplugged, an alarm indicated that the freezer temperature was fluctuating, the lawsuit says, adding that the specimens in the freezer were still viable at that point.
Covid restrictions at the time meant repairs could not be made for a week. Lab officials took precautions to preserve the cultures and explain the alarm, posting a sign explaining where the noise was coming from and how to mute it.
Lakshmi also installed a lock box on the freezer’s outlet and socket to stop anyone unplugging it.
But on 17 September, the Daigle Cleaning Systems employee turned off the circuit breaker, causing the temperature of the freezer to rise. The next day, lab officials discovered the samples were unsalvageable.
“[A] majority of specimens were compromised, destroyed and rendered unsalvageable demolishing more than 20 years of research,” the lawsuit says.
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In an interview with university officials, the cleaner said he thought he was turning the circuit breaker on after hearing the alarms.
“At the end of the interview, he still did not appear to believe he had done anything wrong but was just trying to help,” the lawsuit says, saying the cleaner made an “error” when reading the panel.