From Chemical and Engineering News.

Feed: The Safety Zone È Jyllian Kemsley
Posted on: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 12:08 PM
Author: Jyllian Kemsley
Subject: Yale student killed in machine shop accident

A Yale University senior, Michele Dufault, was killed last night in an accident in the chemistry department machine shop. Although the university says only that it was "a terrible accident involving a piece of equipment," the New Haven Register reports that DufaultÕs hair was caught in a spinning lathe and was dead when emergency responders arrived.

Dufault was an astronomy and physics major who helped organize the Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics in January.

An AP story says that "The university told the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that Dufault was operating the machinery for a senior project when she was killed." A commenter to a Yale Daily News story says that "Michele was very competently trained. She took two semesters of shop training and knew her way around the machines."

C&EN has its annual staff meeting over the rest of the week, so IÕll try to keep tabs on this but will largely be otherwise occupied. As more information comes out, feel free to post it in the comments.

And remember this basic safety rule that applies to the lab as much as machine shops: Tie back long hair.

Other blogosphere discussion so far: CENtral ScienceÕs own Transition States, Chemistry Blog

Related Posts:

  *   Battle of the videos: Handling pyrophoric reagents
  *   ÔWhat is needed is to equip people to thinkÕ
  *   Friday round-up
  *   Friday round-up
  *   Safe science garb: Lab coats

View article...

Previous post   |  Top of Page   |   Next post