Four University electrical engineering graduate students were transported to Princeton Medical Center yesterday after being exposed to chlorobenzene solution while working in an E-Quad laboratory.
According to Public Safety Sgt. James Glasson, all four students were released a few hours later.
One of the graduate students was working with the solvent under a ventilation hood in electrical engineering professor Stephen Chou's research lab when he accidentally spilled the bottle, emptying 250mL of chlorobenzene into the hood.
E-Quad building manager Paul Alling said several graduate students suffered exposure to the chemical. "Some of the solvent spilled onto the floor, and splashed up, making contact with his clothes and face," he said. "The vapors were very strong, and they traveled very fast."
Others in the lab were not as directly exposed to the solvent as the student who spilled the chemical, but they inhaled some of the vapors, according to Alling.
"After the spill, the contaminated person ran to notify others and shower himself," he said. "He called Public Safety, and that initiated the emergency response, which arrived on the scene and evaluated the spill."
University spokesman Justin Harmon '78 said chlorobenzene is a potentially hazardous chemical. "The solution can cause skin and lung irritation, but it was mostly contained under the hood ventilation system," he said.
According to Alling, after the spill occurred, students in the lab and adjacent rooms were evacuated and the affected area was ventilated for about 20 minutes. No hazardous materials team was dispatched to the scene because the spill was contained, he said.
"Had we had a larger spill or a more hazardous or toxic substance, we would have had a more aggressive response," Alling added. "This was only some noxious odors."
Chou said the incident was entirely accidental. "We took a lot of precautions," he said. "We did evacuate the lab."
The lab was evacuated because of the smell from the solvent. According to Chou, the solution posed no immediate danger to anyone else in the area. "The chemical solvent is used all the time, but it doesn't smell good," Chou said. "We aren't used to it. We're not chemists."
"The solvent is a very common solvent," Chou said. "We always take a very careful approach. Sometimes things happen."
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