Health & Safety in Academic Labs

[ChemGal]

Thoughts on this result?
http://www.nature.com/news/chemist-reaches-agreement-with-prosecutors-over-lab-death-1.15444

The subforum is Health & Aging, and while this is more Health & Safety, the attitude in many labs is aging.
In the past, doctors didn't wash hands between patients, the blood was a badge of honour. Lab accidents seem to be similar in academic labs even today.

OHS doesn't really help IMO, they are so out of touch with what goes on in a lab that their recommendations and rules are often ridiculous and not practical. Ie - You have too many chemicals in your lab. But we're a chemistry lab.

Industry seems to manage better, they aren't perfect, but decades ahead.

 

[ChemGal]

Bump

 

[Smote]

I wish I had something insightful to add but I can say that having started working at a hospital for the first time I was pleased to see that they take workplace safety very seriously. I've had mandatory training on infection control, working with hazardous materials, dealing with various emergency codes (including air contamination), mask fitting, and (unrelated to your post) diversity training and de-escalation for disturbed patients or co-workers. And I'm not even a clinician or researcher. Which says to me that bad things have happened in the past, probably very bad things, and they have realized that they need to establish clear policies and ensure compliance. Given what you said above, though, I really hope their vigilance (at the hospital level, at least) doesn't extend to unrealistic expectations of what a lab should have.