Posted on behalf of Richard van Noorden.

US federal safety investigators have criticized safety standards at a machine lab in Yale University where 22-year-old undergraduate Michele Dufault died in April (see ‘A death in the lab’). But Yale disputes the finding, saying that it contains “significant inaccuracies”.

Dufault, a physics and astronomy student close to graduation, died when her hair was pulled into a lathe, at which she was working late at night and probably alone. In a letter obtained by the Associated Press under Freedom of Information, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) told Yale that the lathe did not have physical guards to protect its operator, and didn’t have an emergency shut-off switch; and that rules for using the equipment weren’t posted up. (AP story).

But Yale counters that the machine met US national standards which cover both training and protective equipment. (Reuters). The OSHA letter had “significant inaccuracies”, spokesman Tom Conroy tells Bloomberg.

OSHA hasn’t fined Yale as it only has jurisdiction over workplace incidents involving paid employees: and students are not considered to be employees. The university had already said after Dufault’s death that it would assess its safety policies, and it has begun revamping policies and practices – not the least of which includes making sure that a monitor is always present when undergraduates are working in machine labs.

Image: Michele Dufault / Facebook