October 19, 2007

After Accidents, Laboratory Safety Is Questioned

By KELLY FIELD

In May a laboratory worker at the University of Kentucky was exposed to the bacterium that causes bubonic plague when an autoclave bag leaked.

Two months later, a researcher at the University of Chicago was stuck with a syringe containing the bacterium that causes anthrax.

Then, in August, a researcher at Saint Louis University was stuck with a needle containing the monkeypox virus.

The accidents, which are under investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and