Ardolf faces maintenance issues, complaints

In late September, The Record was made aware of a potential safety issue regarding chemical storeroom 111 in Ardolf Science Building. The room acts as a long-term chemical library, storing a variety of cataloged chemicals used for research and in-class lab activities.

In recent years, stockroom staff have voiced concerns about a lack of ventilation in the storeroom to administration. Only a few individuals are authorized to be in the space, including a handful of trained student workers.

“Every person that has ever been down there as a student worker has complained about it in the time I’ve been here,” said Sonja Hoversten, former stockroom worker and CSB senior. “We’ve complained to professors and the people we work for, and they told us that they have been begging the school to get this done.”

Student workers cite headaches, migraines, dizziness and feeling faint after spending extended periods of time in the storeroom.

“We all get different reactions. It’s however you handle that kind of intense odor and the fact that you can’t really breathe as heavily,” said Caroline Tuck, stockroom worker and CSB sophomore. “I’ve personally experienced headaches, a little bit of lightheadedness and faintness.”

A small air vent renovation was added to the chemical storeroom over the summer.

“They added ventilation to the chemical storage room, which professors have been pushing for a long time. It just felt like we were all pushing for it and spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. Finally, it came in,” Tuck said. “It still smells like chemicals, but it is getting better. It’s going in the right direction at least.”

According to Ganard Orionzi, the director of environmental health and safety, the chemical storeroom meets the minimum ventilation requirements set by regulators. In his role, Orionzi ensures that CSB+SJU departments and facilities meet necessary regulatory requirements and manages critical safety training programs.

“I really appreciate the student’s concern. If you went into that space, you would have the same concern,” Orionzi said. “But sometimes we miss out on the perceived interpretation—‘because I smell it, it must be bad’—but that’s not always true. We really want the place to be a little bit more ventilated, but we are meeting the minimum requirement from the international database.”

CSB+SJU administration has been made aware of concerns about the safety of the chemical storeroom in the last month and sent engineers to assess the situation on Oct. 2.

“We brought in engineers that day that tested the air quality, and those tests came back that the air quality is completely safe, and we also verified the current airflow, and the exhaust is the same measurement that it has to be for the air to be safe,” said Kara Kolomitz, the institutions’ chief operating officer.

Kolomitz said that these engineers are continuing to monitor the situation and make recommendations as needed to ensure the room will meet the needs and comfort levels of the staff who work in it.

Chemical storage follows a set of strict rules set out by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and OSHA—for example, chemicals that are alike must be stored next to each other and some must be stored in secondary containers. The school also follows the Flinn method, which is a widely used set of standards for storage and disposal of chemicals for safety.

Hoversten and Tuck both noted that the storage of the chemicals itself has never been a problem.

“This is what any chemical storage room looks like, no matter where you go,” Hoversten said. “There really aren’t issues with the way the chemicals are stored. We store everything according to OSHA guidelines with secondary containers, proper labeling and all of that.”

The storeroom is classified as non-continuous occupancy, meaning that staff members are not allowed to spend prolonged periods inside.

“Even when I go in there, the chemical fumes will hit you. There’s no denying that. In risk terms, we judge things based on distance and time—how long you are in there and how far you are away from it,” Orionzi said. “If you go in, you go out quick.”

Last semester, Tuck spent longer periods of time, up to three hours, in the storeroom performing inventory and reorganizing. Typically, workers spend 15 minutes to half an hour fulfilling chemical requests.

“We plan out our visits,” Hoversten said. “We are told to spend 15-minute bursts in there to go out and get fresh air to limit chemical exposure.”

To minimize the concentration of chemical effects, stockroom workers have left the door to the storeroom propped open in the past.

“We were never told by any of the professors or faculty that that’s something we should do,” Tuck said. “It’s certainly not ideal, but it is the compromise that we all had to make in order to actually do our job.”

Orionzi instructed workers not to prop the door, citing the fact that the special directional air flow that is present in storerooms and labs would be disturbed by leaving the door open and allow chemical fumes to enter the hallway.

Hoversten said that while this explanation makes sense, it’s still frustrating for the workers who need to be in the storeroom and are affected by the chemical fumes regardless of whether the door is open or closed.

“It’s kind of a slap in the face to the student workers when we are told we can’t have the door propped open because all the chemical fumes are going to get outside, but instead we have to breathe them in,” Hoversten said.

Despite the renovation over the summer, concerns are still present.

“It might not be visible from the outside, but it does seem like the problem lies in the college itself not being willing to allocate the money towards this issue despite knowing about it,” Tuck said. “It’s been on their list of things to do for two years at least. I don’t know why it wasn’t higher towards the top.”

In his time at the university, Orionzi has seen multiple teams of engineers and proposals investigate how to improve the ventilation of the storeroom with little success. Orionzi said that the institutions are looking at bringing on engineers for another round of analysis.

“Because of the current condition of the space at the time, we are saying to the administrators, ‘if resources allow, we need some improvement there,’” Orionzi said. “This will be my third time of having engineers here. Depending on the specifications that come from the engineers, I think that will determine whether it can be done or not.”

The lack of communication has been a primary concern for students. The issue was first flagged by a stockroom fellow during the 2021-2022 academic year.

“It would be nice if they would at least acknowledge that these problems have been a thing and say what they are doing to fix it rather than just saying that it is on their list of things to do,” Tuck said. “We’ve been trying to push it up, and it just doesn’t feel like they’re sending anything back down to us.”

Orionzi assured that despite the concerns about the conditions in the storeroom, the faculty and staff in Ardolf are equipped to handle any situations that may arise.

“It’s not as bad as people think. I can understand that people without a chemical science background, hearing this can be a little scary,” Orionzi said. “But we are also fortunate that the people who operate in that building understand the risks. They know what to do if something goes wrong.”