Proposal Would Require Clinics to Lock Lab Boxes

Following an incident this week in which four children broke into laboratory boxes in Burbank and played with vials of blood and other specimens, a Los Angeles city councilman on Friday called for an ordinance requiring all medical facilities that collect such materials to lock the containers in which they are stored.

Councilman Joel Wachs made the motion, which was referred to the City Council’s Arts, Health and Humanities committee. Although the law requires that laboratories be provided with containers and keys for storing medical specimens, it does not mandate they be locked, Wachs said.

“A case left unlocked becomes an attractive nuisance to children,” he said. “The situation is absolutely looking for trouble.”

Wachs said a city ordinance may also set the example for a similar state law.

On Tuesday, four boys opened boxes filled with at least 50 samples, including blood, urine, pap smears and biopsies, which were left behind Lakeside Medical Associates in Burbank. The boys, ages 7 to 13, broke vials on the sidewalk and some of them spilled the contents on their hands. The specimens were awaiting pickup to a laboratory in Los Angeles.