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Volume LXXXIX. Number 12
University of Southern California
Wednesday. October 1, 1980
Inefficient safety controls found in med campus labs
By Holly Houston
Assistant City Editor
The Los Angeles Fire Department found several incidents of inefficient safety controls in the laboratories on the Health Sciences campus at the USC/County Medical Center during a recent routine checkup. The department discovered
Expert to be hired to prevent later problems
“Picric acid is stronger than TNT," the inspector said. "Both picric acid and ether can react violently once they have crystalized (showing age) if thev are even picked up. They
The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. There is no control. It’s scary.’
have a shelf life of six months to one war “Once the substances have crystalized and are exposed to air, combined with photosynthesis, any type of frictio'i can cause an explosion equal to three or four sticks of dynamite."
Many of the chemicals found at the medical campus were dated 1974, 1976 and six half-
50 pounds of potentially explosive ether and picric acid.
The university, in conjunction with the medical campus, is taking steps to solve the problems.
One such problem is that people working in the labs do not realize how potentially dangerous chemicals can be when they get old, said a Fire department inspector.
pint containers of ether were 18 years old, the inspector said. "Some of the ether was so old the container was bulging due to vapor pressure," he said.
“When an old researcher leaves the lab he usually does not dispose of the chemicals he has been using for his research," the inspector said. "Then a new researcher moves into the lab and the old chemicals are stored or overlooked. Much of the material isn't even dated."
A researcher should be in charge of each lab, the inspector said. "Some of the students don't even know what chemicals the other students are using in their experiments," the inspector said. "The right hand
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Staff photo by I
SPRAYING PLASTER — A construction worker sprays plaster onto one of the new buildings by Watt Industries for low income families Billy G. Mills Manor will house 102 families.
HOOVER REVITALIZATION
Area project nears completion
By Craig Gima
Assistant City Editor
The Hoover Redevelopment Project, the contro-versial effort at revitalizing the university and surrounding community, is quietly winding down to completion.
Construction will have begun on the last two parcels of the 166-acre redevelopment project by the end of 1981, and current construction on three parcels of redevelopment land will have been completed.
The quiet end to the project is in sharp contrast to its beginnings. The protests rang loud and strong during the late 60's and early 70's when the project was in its heyday.
The project began in the era when urban renewal consisted of bulldozing existing homes and building new structures on the vacant land. Approximately 800 structures were tom down to make room for the project, displacing hundreds of residents.
Critics of the project called if a university land grab. Because of the project, the university extended its boundaries from Hoover Street to Vermont Avenue and from McClintock Avenue to Jefferson Boulevard.
The University Village shopping center, Webb Tower, Cardinal Gardens, the post office on Vermont Avenue, the University Hilton, along with
university and community housing were also built on Hoover Project land. The project's boundaries were Vermont Avenue, Figueroa Street, Exposition Boulevard and 32nd Street.
Watt Industries is building on two parcels of Hoover land. The company is the contractor for the university on a $4.4 million addition to Trov Hall.
A building permit for the Troy Hall addition was delayed for about one month while the Community Redevelopment Agency deliberated whether the project would meet parking requirements set forth in an earlier agreement. The city had granted a demolition and foundation permit and construction had begun before the building permit was held up.
Despite the delay Anthony Lazzarro, vice president of business affairs, is hopeful that the Troy Hall addition will be completed and readv in the fall of 1981.
Watt Industries is both the developer and contractor for a low-income housing project on Vermont Avenue which will be ready for occupancy' in December. The S4.2 million project will provide 102 one and two-bedroom apartments. The three-story apartment building is named after former citv councilman Billy G. Mills
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didn't know what the left hand was doing. There is no control. It's scary. Many of the lab work is with carcinogenics and le-gionaire cultures."
The fire department makes routine checks of institutions twice a year. However, on the medical campus there are so many labs that the inspectors cannot inspect all of them, the inspector said.
"Fire department inspectors are not chemists," he added. ®Manv of the inspectors could not recognize crystallized chemicals. If the medical campus had someone in charge who could tell us where the old materials are, it would make our job a lot easier."
The inspector cited another
problem with the storing of the materials. Although some of the labs had open containers of ether and hydrochloric acid under vented hoods — which is a safety precaution — the hoods were closed.
To prevent similar incidents in the future, the university has taken steps to make funds available for a technical specialist to work with professors or lab heads at the medical school. "The specialist would develop programs with the lab head which would include dating and labeling materials," said Frank Orrell, special assistant to the dean of the School of Medicine.
"He would be in charge of taking inventory and steps to dispose of materials at proper times." Orrell said the medical school had already discussed
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Government cuts one third of training funds
By John Lamb and Tanya Simpson
The federal government has cut approximately one-third of the funding for a university vocational training program due to "non-compliance of contract."
The program, funded bv the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, is run by the Job Development Division of the university's Office of Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action.
The office made a contract with the federal government to repair 10 South Central Los Angeles area homes a month, but as it turned out, could handle only four or five homes a month, said Angelo Basco, program director.
"The senior citizens who owned the houses liked the work our people did so much that they asked us to fix other things not listed on the original contract," Basco said. "Needless to say, we could only work on four or five houses a month.”
Since the program did not fulfill its end of the contract, the federal funding was cut from S3.1 to SI.8 million a year, Basco said.
"I had no idea the Department of Labor would de-fund us for what we did," he said. Fortunately, nobody got hurt in the cutback . . . except, of course, our program.
"Our purpose, however, is not to worn' about losing administrative help, but to help the people in our program find job opportunities."
Basco said they have applied for county CETA funding in order to help supplement the money lost from the federal government.
"We applied for funding Monday and should hear from the county in about 30 days," Basco said, “and I feel confident we will receive this additional monev."
The cut in funds means the number of participants in the vocational training program had to be cut today from 150 to 80. Of the 70 who have been dropped from the program, 30 worked as home improvement workers, 30 as office assistants, five as data proces-
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Security investigates 15 thefts totaling $3,000
University Security officers investigated 15 cases of theft on or near the campus during the period from 11p.m. Sunday to 11p.m. Monday. The estimated total loss was about $3,000.
The reports included five cases of burglary from motor vehicles which were locked, forcing the thief to use tools to gain entrv. Two students had stereos, valued at more than $500 each, stolen in this manner—one from Parking Structure B and the other from a location off campus.
"Lieutenant (Gary) Rus has been working with manufacturers to come up with better car alarms," said Lt. George Farina.
"You would have to have a security officer at every car to really solve the problem.
"USC is like a supermarket for this part of Los Angeles. People just come and pick and choose."
Security officers also investigated tour burglaries from university housing complexes. Two incidents occured in on-campus residence halls, and the other two, resulting in the loss of $675 worth of personal possessions, occured in off-campus housing.