Originally published on the Employer's Law Blog
Over the past several years, there have been a number of
high-profile accidents in U.S. laboratories. For example, a
scientist in Menlo Park, California was recently killed when he
mixed chemicals that caused an explosion. More recently, a student
at Yale University, working in a laboratory, died when her hair got
caught in a wood lathe machine.
On October 13, 2011, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration ("OSHA") released new guidance materials
on laboratory safety. The materials are intended to assist
laboratory managers with the protection of their workers from
exposure to chemical, biological and physical hazards. OSHA's
new materials provide guidance on a wide variety of safety issues,
including the use of dangerous laboratory equipment, the labeling
and transferring of chemicals and working with animals. The new
materials can be found at:
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/laboratories/index.html.
