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5 of the lab instructors in a period of 10 years have apparently gotten cancer before the age of 35 So not great!
...how do you have this happen and not investigate this from the university's side? Like, hello, you should care the most about the workplace being safe???
How often do you have to go to this lab area?
Used to be every day! I haven't been down there for a couple of months, but we're looking at having to go there at least twice a week next month, so that sucks.
The faculty were informed by the environmental medicine department at the local hospital in 2019.
Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen.
Okay, so they absolutely don't give a shit. Maybe a lawsuit will get them off their asses, but for that, you'd need to get a bunch of people on board.
Did the report explain what was so hazardous? Maybe you can wear additional protection? Or simply say you refuse to go there for health reasons?
There's been no formal investigation, but the assumption is that it's formaldehyde exposure that's the main culprit, which makes sense given that the entire hallway near the labs smells of the stuff.
I think I'd need to wear a respirator to be totally safe, which I don't think is realistic. I'm gonna have to send a mail to my classmates and my instructor
Yeah, as useful as formaldehyde may be for conservation, it is also pretty fucking dangerous for the living. Has the report mentioned any type of cancer in particular?
You could go for masks (with your classmates and instructor together) but otherwise, maybe just try to get the class to some other area.
It's kind of all over the place, which is why they are able to dismiss it as not their fault. Official guidelines is that formaldehyde exposure can only give you cancer in the nose, throat and mouth, and the cancers here are hodgkins lymphoma, lung cancer (I think it was) and colorectal cancer. QED not their fault and a total coincidence.
Right, because the human body isn't an interconnected system of multiple sub-systems that all affect each other reciprocally.
I'm so sorry you have to enter that building and had to enter it before. This is so fucked up, and your classmates as well as your instructors deserve better