> >Does anyone know if this is the largest OSHA fine proposed against a lab?

Such a reasonable question, with such an inscrutable answer.

Rather than using the “largest ever” approach, perhaps a response with more context would be more valuable:
- The fine federal OSHA proposed against Dartmouth in the Wetterhahn fatality case was $13,500. OSHA and Dartmouth settled on $9000 as the final penalty.
https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=300441557

- The fine California OSHA proposed against UCLA in the Sangi fatality case was $31,875. I see reports that UCLA later appealed this fine, but I don’t see any information as to whether those fines were reduced as a result. The appeals were designed to avoid follow up liability rather than to save money.
https://www.labmanager.com/news/ucla-appeals-citations-20357

There are reports that if the UC System had been criminally convicted of the charges against it before the reached a settlement agreement, the fines could have been in the $4,500,000 range. The System's legal fees were in that range by themselves.
https://cen.acs.org/safety/lab-safety/Charges-dropped-against-UCLA-chemistry/96/web/2018/09

So the close to $1M number is very different from precedents from other lab citations, but OSHA has revised its penalty policy several times over the years to reflect inflation and increase its deterrence value, so “highest ever” compares apples to oranges.

Try fitting all that context into a headline ;).

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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