Students, the Other Unprotected Lab Animals

theodp writes "Slate reports on the horrible — and preventable — death of a young UCLA biochemist in a t-butyl lithium incident, which led a Chemical Health and Safety columnist to the disheartening conclusion that most academic laboratories are unsafe venues for work or study. It's estimated that accidents and injuries occur hundreds of times more frequently in academic labs than in industrial ones. Why? For one thing, Slate says, occupational safety and health laws that protect workers in hazardous jobs apply only to employees, not to undergrads, grad students, or research fellows who receive stipends from outside funders."

Comments

Re:School vs Industry

[LaskoVortex]

Now maybe I don't have my name written up in some fancy shmancy "scientific journal". But even *I* know that you don't handle pyrophoric materials without a labcoat!

Give me a break. You have no idea what you are talking about. Go get your degree in organic chemistry and then do at least a Master's thesis before you continue to pretend. "Fancy Shmancy?" You are a fucking idiot. I know I'm going to pay for that, but it needs to be said.

Re:School vs Industry

[zoney_ie]

Yeah, but if there are problems with welfare - you fix them. Too many on the right use the problems as an excuse to suggest that you ditch it.

The same applies to government. Trying to make do with less governance isn't the solution to problems with government - instead what needs to be done is address the specific problems rather than running away and going "Aiiieee, government is evil".

The whole lack of regulation has brought us to this present crisis. And now there are those who forget that the lack of regulation happened for a reason - a reaction to the ill-considered regulation we had previously. Nevertheless, it should now be obvious that what we need is good regulation (and even that some element of bad regulation along with it is better than none).