NIH is cleaning house to improve lab safety. Are you?

Sally Rockey, Francis Collins, Lawrence Tabak, and Amy Patterson writing for Rock Talk, NIH’s Office of Extramural Research blog:

As you may know from recent news reports, there have been lapses in safety practices at federal laboratories involving potentially lethal microbes such as avian flu (H5N1) and anthrax, including an incident involving discovery of 60-year old smallpox vials in an FDA laboratory building located on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, MD. Such lapses, which undermine public confidence in biomedical research and could put people’s health at risk, remind us of the need for constant attention to biosafety standards.

Read the full article at nih.gov