A corrosive chemical spilled in a third floor chemistry lab at Life Sciences Complex Friday, sending one student to the hospital and shutting down the building for most of the afternoon.
The female student, whose name has not been released, was putting away a corrosive liquid when the container broke and spilled on the floor of the lab, Deputy Syracuse Police Chief Mark Zoanetti said in a statement to the press.
"She recieved a laceration to her hand," Zoanetti said. "And she did receive some exposure to the liquid."
The other students in the lab immediately placed her under an emergency shower, and she was later taken to the hospital.
The building was then evactuated and the Syracuse Fire Department's Haz-Mat Response Team was called to the scene to perform air monitoring and other testing to determine whether the complex was safe to re-enter, Zoanetti said.
Pre-med senior Alesha Levenson was in the building at the time working in a third floor biology lab and had no idea that the spill had occurred.
"I was in the lab for two hours and no one evactuated me," she said. "No one said anything to me, I just saw the ambulances."
She said that when she did eventually leave the building, she could smell chemicals in the hallway.
Zoanetti said Life Sceiences Complex will likely re-open to students and faculty early Friday evening.
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