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The health of scientists across France is being put at risk by exposure to asbestos and other biohazards, senior researchers and union representatives said this week. The issue of workplace safety looks likely to add fuel to the ongoing disputes between scientists and the government.
The matter came to a head last week, when Jean Kister, joint secretary general of the National Union of Scientific Research Workers, accused the management of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) of needlessly exposing researchers in a Paris research center to dangerously high levels of asbestos.
"The management plans to cynically raise the threshold at which staff are evacuated from laboratories when asbestos leaks into the air rather than investing enough money in removing the asbestos in a way that is safe," Kister told The Scientist.
Employees at the INSERM laboratory of Necker University Hospital Center (CHU Necker) have been evacuated several times since October 2004 when work on removing asbestos from research laboratories began, Kister said.
Since then, staff have been exposed to up six times the French legal limit of asbestos of five fibers per liter, with levels of up to 31 fibers per liter recorded.
Unions say the management of the laboratories CHU Necker now wants to raise the limit for evacuation in case of asbestos leaks in order to stop "useless evacuations" of the laboratories.
"The first thing to think about is the health of people. First, the asbestos has to be removed from the building, then scientists can work. Some people do not care about the health of the workers, but only about science," said Kister, who has written an open letter to the government inspector of health and safety calling for an investigation.
"By cynically raising the limit, the management say they are complying with regulations when they are in fact just adding to the dangers people face," Kister told The Scientist.
Gerard Chaouat, director of research at Clamart French National Center for Scientific Research, said that asbestos and biohazards posed a risk to scientists across France.
The Scientist contacted CHU Necker several times about the claims, but the university did not respond by deadline.
Chaouat told The Scientist that many of the laboratories were located in obsolete and overcrowded buildings. He also said scientists and students were regularly exposed to dangers, such as radioactive sources and biohazards.
"On paper, the regulations for safety in French laboratories are strict, but in practice, there is not enough money to implement them," Chaouat told The Scientist. "Measures to protect scientists and students against carcinogenic and radioactive [risks], excess chlorine, and biohazards in particular are not efficient."
Also, Chaouat said that fire protection measures were inadequate even in laboratories with highly inflammable substances and chemicals. "I have never seen instructions about what to do in case of fire on the wall of any laboratory in France," he said.
Chaouat called on the government to spend more money on making sure scientists worked in safe conditions. "The authorities are very cynical in setting strict standards on paper but not giving any money to actually implement them, and this needs to change," he said.
For French scientists, these health and safety concerns only add to existing gripes about remuneration levels and the direction the government is taking research funding. Thousands of French scientists stopped work last month, joining millions of other civil servants in France who were protesting over salaries and job cuts in the public sector.
French unions have called for scientists across the country to down tools and join in a march of protest on March 9 against government plans to reform the science system.
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