Cal State’s hazardous-materials protections criticized

Despite state laws and repeated warnings from its own staff, California State University has done a poor job of protecting half a million students and employees from hazardous materials used in labs and classrooms, the state auditor said in a report released Tuesday.

A Santa Rosa lawmaker requested the audit after CSU employees alerted him last year to allegations of an asbestos cover-up at Sonoma State and a botched handling of chemicals at Sacramento State in which students’ feet and legs were soaked with a hazardous material.

“My request was driven by some extremely concerning events reported to me that involved worker exposure to hazardous and unsafe conditions,” Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, said in a statement Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the audit results validated my concerns.”

The state auditor studied four CSU campuses — Sonoma and Sacramento State universities and two others — and found ongoing problems:

⏩ Chemical safety plans have languished for years without reviews for effectiveness, although state law requires yearly reviews and an officer to implement the plan.

⏩ Not all students and employees receive state-mandated safety trainings for handling hazardous materials.

⏩ Three of the campuses — Sonoma, Sacramento, and San Diego State — fail to ensure that fire extinguishers, emergency eye washes, and showers for mitigating hazardous exposure are inspected regularly and work properly. Only California State University Channel Islands properly inspected its equipment.

⏩ Sacramento State and San Diego State fail to warn employees about asbestos, as required by state law.

The audit noted that two of the campuses, Channel Islands and San Diego, each incurred state penalties in the five digits for safety violations between 2012 and 2017. In 2012, the state’s Occupational Safety and Health agency fined Channel Islands $18,300 for a series of problems, including a failure to relieve pressure in a hot water pipe that caused severe burns on an employee who was sprayed.

The San Diego County Pollution Control District fined San Diego State $17,600 over five years for eight violations, including leaving 50 containers of paint with volatile compounds open to dry.

In the same period, Sacramento State paid $6,610 in fines, and Sonoma State paid $4,640.

The audit also said the CSU chancellor’s office, which oversees all 23 campuses, has ignored repeated safety recommendations from its own auditor. It said CSU also lacks policies for protecting people working with hazardous materials and has no systemwide safety committee.

“Without resolving these issues, campuses cannot ensure they are effectively protecting students and employees against injuries and illnesses,” California’s auditor, Elaine Howell, told Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers in a letter included in the 87-page report.

Among Howell’s recommendations were that the chancellor’s office develop a system by November for campuses to submit required health and safety reports that have been missing for years. By June, the four campuses should also show which employees have not received training, and begin correcting that problem, the auditor said.

“We recognize that improvements need to be made and have already begun taking steps to address many of the recommendations,” Chancellor Timothy White said in a written response included in the report.

Judy Sakaki, president of Sonoma State, said, “We take these recommendations seriously and are working expeditiously to respond to each one.”

But White and Howell disagree on one recommendation, which is that campuses must create safety committees. White said they aren’t required, while the auditor said a 2012 labor agreement mandates them. Howell said the committees would help make campuses safer.

It was the CSU Employees Union that asked Wood, who sits on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, to request the audit because of incidents on the two campuses.

At Sacramento State, the auditor cited reports showing that in 2016, harmful chemicals spilled from a rickety shelf in a university laboratory and splashed across two students’ feet and the legs of one of them. Several employees who helped with the cleanup later said they suffered health problems as a result, the audit said.

At Sonoma State, an employee sued the school, saying he experienced retaliation for reporting asbestos problems, the audit said. A jury awarded him $388,000 last year. CSU has appealed.