Lab’s Lack of Proper Herpes B Safety Procedures Occurs 3 Years After Herpes B Death of Elizabeth Griffin at Yerkes Primate Center

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WASHINGTON – The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined the reeling New Mexico-based Coulston Foundation (TCF) for over a dozen “serious” violations of worker safety laws, In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today. According to OSHA, “serious” violations are those that can result in serious injuries to workers. The citations followed a formal complaint filed by IDA with the agency last October, and correspond with many of IDA’s allegations.

The fines relate to Coulston’s lack of proper personal protective equipment; lack of equipment and funds to comply with proper workplace safety procedures; deficient work practices and engineering controls dealing with the use of syringes (including multiple instances where workers were stuck with HIV- and hepatitis-infected needles); lack of proper chemical safety protocols; failure to provide Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS); lack of workplace safety training; and lack of proper warning for workers of potential health hazards (see http://www.idausa.org/osha for OSHA citation letter).

“The National Institutes of Health. The U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Food and Drug Administration. The Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC). The Environmental Protection Agency. Now OSHA. Is there any federal agency or accrediting body that this lab has not thumbed its nose at?” asked IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman, noting that all of these bodies have found multiple violations of federal law at TCF over the past four years. “Is there any federal law regarding the proper conduct of research that this lab has not violated?”

Kleiman also noted that the PHS Policy for the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals requires a proper occupational safety and health program that “must be consistent with federal, state, and local regulations and should focus on maintaining a safe and healthy workplace.” Compliance with this Policy is required for the receipt of federal funds. “OSHA has now joined the USDA, AAALAC and even the NIH in providing yet more evidence that this lab has egregiously and repeatedly violated the PHS Policy that the NIH is supposed to enforce – yet the NIH continues to flout the law and illegally funnel millions of taxpayer dollars into this chimpanzee, and potentially human, deathtrap.”

Among the most serious citations is the finding that TCF failed to ensure that its employees wore protective eyewear and received proper training in the use of respirators to protect them from exposure to viruses, including the deadly Herpes B. This finding came three years after a worker at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta died from a Herpes B virus infection contracted after being splashed in the eye with bodily fluids from a macaque monkey.
The worker, Elizabeth Griffin, was not wearing protective eyewear that is supposed to be required for anybody working with macaque monkeys, in whom Herpes B infection is common. Although the virus does not make the monkeys sick, it is almost always deadly to humans if not treated immediately. Ms. Griffin’s tragic death made national news, and resulted in OSHA’s fining Yerkes over $60,000 for failure to provide proper training and safety equipment to protect workers from Herpes B infection.

Moreover, in February 1998 – just two months after Ms. Griffin’s tragic death – AAALAC found, in an announced site visit requested by Coulston, that the lab was not following proper Herpes B safety procedures. AAALAC also found fundamental deficiencies in Coulston’s entire safety program, noting that “There was no unifying management or oversight of the entire occupational health and safety program. This resulted in numerous deficiencies which could adversely affect human health and safety....Numerous safety deficiencies were observed.”

“It is incredible that three years after a worker died from Herpes B after getting splashed in the eye, The Coulston Foundation is still not requiring its employees to wear proper eye protection and provide training in respirator use when dealing with macaque monkeys,” Kleiman said. “It is also incredible that OSHA fined Coulston less than $1,500 for these potentially fatal violations, despite the fact that Coulston has been cited twice since Ms. Griffin’s highly publicized death for failure to provide proper Herpes B safety procedures.”

“Coulston’s callous disregard for the well-being of its chimpanzees and monkeys is well-known,” Kleiman continued. “Now it is apparent that TCF has as little regard for the safety of its workers as it does for the welfare of its animals.”

Other violations identified by OSHA include TCF’s failure to properly train workers and require them to wear proper protective gear when working with Zep-A-Lume, a cocktail of toxic chemicals used to clean cages. OSHA reported that the chemicals frequently soaked through the employees coveralls into their clothing and skin. The chemicals can cause burns, calcium loss, nerve damage, corneal damage and/or blindness. Workers told OSHA inspectors that they experienced shortness of breath, wheeziness and headaches after cleaning the cages.

TCF also failed to properly train workers in the proper use of respirators used as protection when handling chimpanzees and monkeys infected with HIV, Hepatitis and/or Herpes B.

OSHA also noted two instances where TCF personnel were stuck by contaminated needles. On April 3, 1998, an animal technician received a contaminated needle stick when assisting a co-worker drawing blood from a Hepatitis C-infected chimpanzee. And, on July 7, 1999, a clinical veterinarian received a contaminated needle stick while attempting to resuscitate an HIV/SIV-positive chimpanzee. OSHA noted that self-sheathing syringes which minimize the possibility of needle sticks were not made available to employees by TCF management.

“Will it take a human death, in addition to the all of the negligent chimpanzee deaths, before the NIH will cease its illegal funding of The Coulston Foundation?” concluded Kleiman. “We call on Congress to put an end to the NIH’s continued malfeasance, and for the USDA to take over the lab and permanently retire the chimpanzees – for the chimpanzees’ sake as well as the workers whose lives are also at risk because of TCF management’s continued failure to comply with federal law.”