Amgen Lab Explosion: Two Injured In San Francisco

In an Amgen lab explosion on Wednesday, one employee was seriously injured, and another sustained mild injuries. The explosion at the biotech firm’s South San Francisco facility is regarded as minor.

The exact details of the injuries sustained by the Amgen employees are not clear at this time. What is known is that one suffered burns to the face, and the other burns to the hands, following an explosion in the flammable liquids cabinet on the third floor of the facility.

No one knows at the moment what caused the flammable substances to explode the way they did. The cabinet where the Amgen lab explosion occurred fell over from the force of the liquids mixing, and windows on the third floor were blown out in the blast.

The surrounding buildings at the complex were evacuated as a precaution and decontamination tents were erected for any workers who felt they may have been affected by chemicals following the explosion.

Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of its kind to take place at the Amgen facility. Back in May of last year, a worker from an outside waste disposal company was burned while collecting refuse from the facility.

Peter Melton, a spokesman for the Cal-OSHA, said that Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc. and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. received very serious citations for the incident in May, including a fine of $77,400.

The Clean Harbors company offer specialist waste disposal services including emergency response and chemical packing. The worker who was injured last May was attempting to collect flammable liquids from the lab.

Amgen is one of the world’s largest drug makers and is well known in the industry as the producer of the popular osteoporosis drug Prolia, and Enbrel, which is used in the treatment of arthritis.