Dive Brief:

• Prosecutors have agreed to drop felony charges against a University of California, Los Angeles, chemistry professor in the case of a fatal lab fire if he pays $10,000 and performs community service.
• The professor, Patrick Harran, was charged with four counts of willfully violating state occupational health and safety standards for his role in the 2008 fire that killed Sheharbano “Sheri” Sangji, a staff research assistant.
• The Harran case is believed to be the first criminal case to arise from an academic lab accident, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Dive Insight:

In an agreement approved by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, the criminal charges against Harran will be dropped if he pays $10,000 to the Grossman Burn Center and performs 800 hours of community service. Sangji died from severe burns she suffered when a plastic syringe she was using to transfer a chemical between sealed containers came apart, exposing the chemical to air and igniting it. She was not wearing a protective lab coat, and Harran and UCLA argued that her death was an accident, not a crime.