UCI lab’s foul odor sends 3 workers to the hospital

Three workers at UC Irvine were sent to a hospital as a precaution after becoming ill from a foul odor early Friday in a campus laboratory.

The odor surfaced on the third floor of a biochemistry building at 517 Biological Court, according to Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi.

Shortly after midnight, two UCI students were conducting separate research in the lab, Concialdi said.

“The two students were working, like [research students] commonly do late at night,” he said. “In there, they began to smell the fumes and they themselves became nauseous.”

The students left the building and called campus facility maintenance, and a five-member crew arrived to examine the laboratory. Three workers then became dizzy and short of breath and called 911. The two other workers left before firefighters arrived, Concialdi said.

The two students recovered quickly once they were outside the building, he said.

Twenty-five firefighters from the Newport Beach Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority responded, along with 10 hazardous-materials specialists.

At 1:45 a.m., hazmat personnel determined that the odor was released from a “chemical containment box that was put in self-cleaning mode,” Concialdi said.

During the process, a stuck valve “allowed a buildup of a smelly vapor,” according to UCI officials.

The three workers who had been treated at the hospital were released at 2:30 a.m. and are “doing fine,” Concialdi said.

UCI officials said hazmat specialists found no trace of toxic fumes in their sweep of the building.