Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Photo: Disclosure
According to The Sun, New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is facing a lawsuit against a cleaning company after an employee destroyed a 25yearold questionnaire. A janitor, annoyed by the sound of laboratory equipment, would have turned off the freezer used to store cell cultures and other samples for study.
The freezer was operated at a constant temperature of minus 45 °C. When switched off, the temperature dropped to minus 4 °C, destroying all the material that had been stored for years and resulting in a loss of just over R$ 6 million.
Rensselaer, founded in 1824 and believed to be the first technical research university in the United States, is suing the company that outsourced the cleaning power.
According to The Sun, there was a sign in the freezer explaining how to turn off the beeper without affecting the unit, but it was ignored.
“At the end of the interrogation, he (the cleaner) still didn’t seem to believe he had done anything wrong, he was just trying to help,” institute attorney Michael Ginsburg told the website.
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