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

[Attila Dimedici]

You'll never get the conservatives to reform the welfare system, because they don't want it to exist.

You do know that it was conservatives who reformed the welfare system under Clinton, right? Clinton only signed on after it became apparent that it was popular and that he needed something like it to get re-elected.