 "Photo: Andrea Lai")
UT responded to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security inquiry this week concerning hazardous chemicals used in campus laboratories.
Homeland Security asked several dozen universities to create policies that would protect toxic chemicals used in chemistry classes or experiments from being stolen or used by terrorists, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The requests come after the department in March started requiring universities and American chemical plants to create inventories of 322 chemicals the department considers hazardous. Institutions with a large portion of the 322 chemicals were considered high-risk institutions and were asked to conduct "vulnerability assessments," or ways in which institutions plan to protect the chemicals.
"The vulnerability assessments were really designed for chemical plants, but nothing excluded universities from the list," said Chip Rogers, assistant director of UT's Office of Environmental Health and Safety.
The University responded to the department's inquiry but does not have enough of the hazardous chemicals to be considered a potential risk, Rogers said.
For security reasons, Homeland Security refused to comment on which universities were considered high-risk institutions.
Marta Mastroianni, a lab safety officer in a molecular biology laboratory, said she had to give a detailed list of the types and location of chemicals in the laboratory.
"We had very few," Mastroianni said. "We had maybe 10 chemicals for which we had to notify the Department of Homeland Security but for which there was no limit to the amount allowed."
Alan Lambowitz, director of UT's Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, said the molecular biology department does not use many chemicals placed on the list.
"We don't have enough to make a bomb," Mastroianni said. "Some are poisonous enough to poison a person if they ingest everything."
Rogers refused to comment on which chemicals UT uses throughout its labs.
Angie Steelman, analytical and physical chemistry stockroom supervisor, said the chemicals she uses are not highly dangerous.
"Inorganic acids, sodium hydroxide - nothing sexy, if you will," Steelman said.
Chemicals used in campus labs are provided by Fisher Scientific, a corporate chemical and laboratory supply provider that operates a storage facility in the basement of Robert A. Welch Hall. The storage facility is for commonly used chemicals, and its inventory was checked as part of Homeland Security's inquiry.
Mark Bernard, the senior sales executive for Fisher Scientific, did not allow The Daily Texan to enter the chemical storage facility for reasons he would not specify.
"There is no place on campus that I'm aware of where there is a large amount of stored chemicals," Steelman said.
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