Texas Tech Report on Lab Explosion
The internal peer review was triggered by a serious January 2010 accident in a campus chemistry laboratory which critically injured a student researcher. The report cites need to improve lab safety and elevate its importance. Its recommendations include:
1. using lab safety and training when making faculty tenure and promotion decisions;
2. prioritize ES&H oversight by
* the level of hazardous materials labs handle or
* their past history of safety compliance;
3. clarification of safety oversight responsibility and safety & health office authority to close a lab; and
4. ensuring that all researchers take campus safety training courses.