With more students than ever, service dogs are becoming a fairly common site in labs.  The lab teaching community including WSU is still trying to figure out what the best practices to help all students and animal helpers stay safe in lab.  Check out this article from this months TheScientist on the subject.

An investigation after a lab explosion in March which injured one post-doc found 15 violations surrounding the use of a 50L hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture tank including improper grounding and led to $115,500 in fines.  Along with technical issues the report emphasized a lack of efforts to enforce safety training, and supervisor’s understanding of their responsibility specifically with enforcement of a Principal Investigator reviewed Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP). Earlier this month the fine was reduced to just over $69,000 with the university promising to enforce 38 pages of recommendations.