Texas universities bombing biosafety?

Recent biosafety breaches have occurred at three University of Texas schools, the Chronicle of Higher Education linkurl:reports;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3051/bio-mishaps-hit-2-more-university-labs-in-texas) . At UT Austin, officials failed to report 10 out of 13 incidents that took place over the last seven years. Incidents at the other two schools both took place in April: Workers at the UT Health Sciences Center in Houston were exposed to anthrax, and at UT San Antonio to tularemia. (

Alla Katsnelson

| 1 min read

Listen with Speechify

0:00

1:00

Recent biosafety breaches have occurred at three University of Texas schools, the Chronicle of Higher Education linkurl:reports;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3051/bio-mishaps-hit-2-more-university-labs-in-texas) . At UT Austin, officials failed to report 10 out of 13 incidents that took place over the last seven years. Incidents at the other two schools both took place in April: Workers at the UT Health Sciences Center in Houston were exposed to anthrax, and at UT San Antonio to tularemia. (Both those incidents were reported to the CDC as required.) The information was obtained by the Sunshine Project, a bioweapons watchdog group, which filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to UT schools that conduct biomedical research, according to a linkurl:press release;http://www.sunshine-project.org/ posted on the groups's Web site yesterday. The point, according to its director, Edward Hammond, is to underscore that accidents happen, and often go unreported. The findings come on the heels of a government report released earlier this month that sharply criticized Texas A&M University for poor record keeping and safety practices. The report, which banned the university from working with selected biosafety agents until the safety issues were resolved, led to the resignation of the university's health and safety manager.

Interested in reading more?

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member? Login Here