Electrical Shock During Phone Assisted Troubleshooting of Laboratory Equipment

Researchers have the potential to be exposed to a wide variety of hazards inherent to the equipment they use and maintain. When equipment does not function as expected, researchers sometimes reach out to their vendors for assistance. Early diagnostic or troubleshooting interactions between researche...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS Chemical Health & Safety. 2023-07, Vol.30 (4), p.173-178
Main Authors: Wright, Emily D., Rodriguez, Mark A., Clark, Blythe G., Fernandez, Matthew, Chavez, William, Peters, Vanessa, Mulcahy, Mary Beth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
capacitor
diagnostics
electrical exposure
lessons learned
OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
troubleshooting
vendor assistance
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Summary:Researchers have the potential to be exposed to a wide variety of hazards inherent to the equipment they use and maintain. When equipment does not function as expected, researchers sometimes reach out to their vendors for assistance. Early diagnostic or troubleshooting interactions between researcher and vendor are often conducted over the telephone and can lead to researchers performing work outside of their area of expertise and exposure to unknown hazards. This type of interaction significantly contributed to an incident where during diagnostic activities a researcher accidentally contacted, and discharged, a capacitor in an X-ray diffraction instrument. While this incident did not produce a serious injury, if the capacitor discharge path had occurred hand-to-hand across the heart, a serious injury may have been possible.
ISSN:1871-5532
1878-0504
DOI:10.1021/acs.chas.3c00025