Lab safety – case studies

Lab accidents do happen. Fortunately they’re rare because of safety measures. Unfortunately, this also makes people lazy about following safety guidelines.

Earlier, Labrigger covered the danger of retinal burns with lasers.

Cautionary tales are perhaps effective against the safety negligence that sets in when accidents are rare. Here are some more quick examples of bad lab accidents that may have been avoided with closer adherance to safety standards:

– In 2010, a student lost three fingers, sustained burns to his hands and face, and injury to his left eye after a lab explosion. There were several safety issues, including exceeding safe quantities.

– In 2008, Sheri Sangji, a 23-year-old lab tech, was burned in a chemistry lab accident at UCLA, and died 18 days later. CalOSHA determined that safety negligence was an issue. There have been fines and felony charges.

Lethal accidents happen in biology labs as well.
– In 2009, Malcom Casadaban, a professor at U Chicago, died from an infection by an attenuated strain of a BSL-2 bacteria, Yersinia pestis (yeah, that one). He was known to not use gloves when handling cultures and dermal exposure may have been the preventable route of entry.

Please be safe.