Local News in Brief : JPL Researchers Burned
Two researchers were seriously burned when a piece of equipment broke and sprayed them with a corrosive chemical at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, officials said.
Stanley P. Sander and Valerie Lang, both chemists, were listed in serious condition Wednesday at Sherman Oaks Burn Center, said spokeswoman Johna Rogozin. The lab was evacuated and sealed after Tuesday’s accident, said lab spokesman George Alexander.
The two researchers were burned by the chemical bromine as they tried to free a stopped valve in a glass-tubing network. The valve broke and drops of the chemical splashed onto the skin of their forearms, hands and wrists, Alexander said. The two were working under a safety hood at the time of the accident in JPL’s Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory.
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