New York janitor’s costly mishap erases 2 decades of research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Emma Pitts
·2 min read
A janitor turned off a freezer in a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute laboratory, causing the loss of decades of research samples.
A janitor turned off a freezer in a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute laboratory, causing the loss of decades of research samples. | Adobe Stock

Panic ensued for a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute when 20 years of her research was found compromised and mostly unsalvageable.

All by the flip of a switch.

The institute has filed a lawsuit against Daigle Cleaning Services after one of its janitors turned off a freezer containing research involving cell cultures and samples that scientists were hoping would benefit solar panel development.

The janitor responsible said that he turned it off after he had been listening to “annoying alarms” coming from the freezer while cleaning that evening.

According to the lawsuit that the Times Union reported, the janitor shut down the freezer even though there was a sign explaining how to mute the alarm without turning off the freezer completely. The sign was printed in capital bold print letters: “THIS FREEZER IS BEEPING AS IT IS UNDER REPAIR. PLEASE DO NOT MOVE OR UNPLUG IT. NO CLEANING REQUIRED IN THIS AREA. YOU CAN PRESS THE ALARM/TEST MUTE BUTTON FOR 5-10 SECONDS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MUTE THE SOUND.”

Any change in the temperature could be fatal to the “high-level research” that was being conducted by professor K.V. Lakshmi. Lakshmi’s research was stored at negative 112 degrees Fahrenheit, and alarms were set to go off if the temperature changed as little as four degrees above or below the set temperature.

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The janitor, Joseph Herrington, said that he became concerned that the alarms were due to an “important breaker” being turned off. But the lawsuit says that instead of turning them on, Herrington turned them off.

The university is not blaming the janitor for the incident; instead, it blames the cleaning company for not properly training and supervising the janitor. The institute’s lawsuit claims at least $1 million worth of research was lost.

“We don’t believe there was any nefarious conduct (on the) part of the cleaning company,” Michael Ginsberg, attorney for the university, said. “This was a result of human error. The core of the case, however, is that the cleaning company failed to adequately train their personnel. A cleaner should be trained to not attempt to remedy an electrical issue,” per CNN.