The U.K. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined the University of Northumbria for an experiment that quickly went south, putting the lives of two students in danger.
As part of a laboratory experiment, students at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle learned about the effects of caffeine and what effect it would have during sports. The experiment included a practical exercise whereby volunteer students would guinea pig test the impact of caffeine intake.
Adverse effect of the overdose
It’s reported that two of the guinea pig students, Alex Rossetta and Luke Parkin, drank a solution which exceeded the limit of the experiment by 100 times. The immediate impact of taking such quantities included dizziness, blurred vision, vomiting, shaking, and rapid heartbeat. Both students were instantly admitted to intensive care and doctors considered their conditions as life-threatening.
Dialysis was required to remove the excess caffeine in their bodies. Dialysis is a procedure to remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood. The procedure is only considered as an urgent option where the kidneys aren’t working properly i.e. where the kidneys aren’t able to clean the blood properly. Without the procedure, Mr Rossetta and Mr Parkin could’ve died from the excess levels of caffeine in their blood streams.
Rooky error
Following the incident, the HSE undertook an inquiry. Their findings aren’t at all surprising when they found that protocols for the experiment weren’t followed. Had protocols been adhered to, the students wouldn’t have been given alternatives to ingredients that weren’t available to them.
Initially, the instructions were to use 200mg tablets, as they were unavailable, students were given 30g of powdered caffeine as a substitute, instead of 0.3g. The amateur situation caused the students to miscalculate the powder that was required for the experiment, which resulted in the overdose Mr Rossetta and Mr Parkin.
Breach of the Health and Safety Legislation
University of Northumbria pleaded guilty in Newcastle Crown Court to breaching Health and Safety legislation. The argument is that the university was negligent by allowing their students to undertake experiments that didn’t follow protocol and was likely to cause harm to their health and/or safety.
When it comes to what is reasonably practicable, the University of Northumbria should’ve taken into account the likelihood of the harm occurring as well as the degree of the harm. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to highlight that, by not following the procedures and allowing the students to substitute 200mg tablets with powdered caffeine, a high risk of harm would’ve occurred as the students were estimating the powdered caffeine as opposed to ascertaining a set amount. This is substantiated by the fact that the calculation was done on a mobile phone and the decimal point was in the wrong place. It’s believed that professors at the university allowed the students to use the substitute even when they were not competent enough and had never done it on their own before.
Newcastle Crown Court fined the university £400,000 and ordered them to pay costs of £26,468.22. The university were remorseful and said they were, “deeply, genuinely sorry” after prosecutor Adam Farrer told the courts that the overdose “could easily have been fatal”.
Both Mr Rossetta and Mr Parkin had a lucky escape. According to the prosecutor, deaths had previously been reported after consumption of just 18g.
Importance of procedure
HSE inspector Cain Mitchell highlights the importance of organisations having the correct protocols and risk assessments in place:
“…all organisations who engage in experiments where people are given chemical substances should ensure that the risks are fully identified and strict procedures are devised and followed to ensure that the experiments can be undertaken safely.”
