Dear AMMRL:
Many thanks for the responses.
It turns out NOT many people prefer their spectrometers used by outsiders
because of liability issues.
There are a few who let outside users operate the spectrometer however,
they either know them well enough to trust them or they recommend
that they should be trustworthy!?!?! or Charlie Mayne said "We have a
release of liability form that we require all non-university people
who work in our labs to sign. We haven't had occasion to test it, so
we don't know if it really protects the University from suits."
It is also possible that any liability policy can be down to drain
if a serious injury occurs within your facility. So it might be wise to
not to rely heavily on a liability form.
One person said they charge the industry 10 times the academia so that
"the more people pay to use the instruments, the better they treat
them."!?!?!?
Generally almost everybody aggreed on the following:
" No external hands on my spectrometer!!! "
One important point that was brought by Rich Shoemaker: " What if the
outside customer submits a nasty, toxic sample and they don't tell you up
front."
A lot of things to worry about.. yet there are some outside users who go
to Wisconsin and run NMR experiments.. So I asked Craig Newman in NMRFAM
if it is possible to let me know how they deal with liability issues. I
hope Craig doesnot mind me conveying his words to you guys:
".. we don't have anything specifically in place at the level of the NMR
facility. We (the university as a whole) are covered by various state laws
and legal doctrines. We assume that a "customer" of the NMR facility is
performing duties as a normal course of their job. So if they were
injured, they would be covered by workman's comp from their home
institution. Needless to say, if there is negligence on our part, we can
be held liable. Apparently the lack of a written document is a good thing
in the University's eyes as it provides us with a bit more leeway."
I think there is a lot of wisdom in the above paragraph. If one really
needs to let the outsider use the spectrometers, it seems like the best
way to go.
Best Regards,
Nese
_________________________________________________________
Dr. Nese Sari
NMR Facility Manager
CARB, 9600 Gudelsky Drive,
Rockville, MD 20850
Phone: 301 738 6284
Fax: 301 738 6255
e-mail: nese_at_carb.nist.gov
http://www.carb.nist.gov/nmr/biomolecularnmr_at_carb.html
_________________________________________________________
Received on Mon Jun 07 2004 - 12:44:54 MST