The Centers for Disease Control has somedubious competitionin the mishandling pestilent pathogens business . Ainvestigation by theGuardianreveals dozens of serious refuge lapses in UK labs . In one case , a politics lab shipped out live anthrax because someone had snap up the wrong tubes .
TheGuardianfound 70 incidents in the past five years at UK regime , university , and infirmary labs treat pestilent pathogens that were serious enough to warrant an probe from the Health and Safety Executive ( HSE ) , roughly equivalent to the U.S. ’s OSHA . In many case , the screw - ups were so bad , the lab had to be temporarily shut down .
The live anthrax intermixture - up is the worst out of the whole crew . In May 2012 , scientists at an Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency ( AHVLA ) lab send anthrax out to at least three other labs . Somehow , the thermionic vacuum tube got mixed , so live anthrax were ship out instead of inactivated example . unremarkably , scientists only open up springy anthrax samples inside aspecially ventilated hoodand while wearing protective equipment . Thinking the splenic fever was inactivated , one recipient open up the tubes decently there on an open research lab workbench . Two mass were exposed . fortunately , they had at least been vaccinate , so they did not become ill .
The anthrax sequence was serious enough to warrant an straightaway shutdown of the AHVLA laboratory . But the incident was buried inside a HSE report , and the details have only come to lighter with the Guardian ’s probe . In all , the dozens of incident break a scary pattern of poor guard culture in science lab wield the deadliest pathogen .
After witness the disk of mistakes at animal disease research laboratory peculiarly , one biosafety expert who review the incident for the Guardian shout , “ Does British Agriculture Department have a expiry wish ? ” We sure do n’t . Goddammit scientists , be more deliberate . [ The Guardian ]
Top persona : Anthrax bacterium . CDC
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