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HONOLULU (AP) — The Latest on the Honolulu Fire Department's report on a lab explosion at the University of Hawaii last month (all times local):
4:20 p.m.
University of Hawaii spokesman Dan Meisenzahl says more details about last month's laboratory explosion that seriously injured a visiting researcher will become known when the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety finishes its investigation into the blast.
He says the report should be completed by the end of the month.
A Honolulu Fire Department report released Monday said compressed hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen detonated inside an air tank in the laboratory. The report says the explosion occurred after the researcher turned off a digital pressure gauge.
Fire investigators say the body of the gauge is missing. But Meisenzahl says the school knows the make and model of the gauge. He says it's not a question of whether this particular gauge was faulty but whether the gauge was being appropriately used.
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1:45 p.m.
The Honolulu Fire Department says a University of Hawaii laboratory explosion that cost a visiting researcher an arm was an accident.
A report released Monday said compressed hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen detonated inside an air tank in the laboratory. The report says the explosion occurred after the researcher turned off a digital pressure gauge she was using to check the pressure in the tank.
The researcher told investigators she didn't hear gas leaking before the explosion. The report says the researcher lost an arm in the blast.
The university has said the explosion occurred when the researcher was growing cells by feeding them a mixture of low-pressure hydrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen.
The school has hired the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety to investigate the blast.
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