Physics student dies in lab accident

[AtomicJoe]

There is a good case for not letting people with long hair in rooms with such equipment.
If you want to operate a lathe get it cut. End of story.
Also working alone is another no no, so dangerous, one mistake, one moment of forget fullness, one hair band snapping and that's it.

Also I think lathes should have perspex covers on such that they will not operate if it is not in place. And maybe also a 'dead man handle' such that if you release the machine stops, however even then they have considerable momentum.

 

[Geezer]

There is a good case for not letting people with long hair in rooms with such equipment.
If you want to operate a lathe get it cut. End of story.
Also working alone is another no no, so dangerous, one mistake, one moment of forget fullness, one hair band snapping and that's it.

I don't think long hair is the culprit; it's not tying it back or putting it up that's to blame. Same thing with baggy clothing: anything loose or hanging is dangerous in a machine room.

 

[KingNothing]

I don't think long hair is the culprit; it's not tying it back or putting it up that's to blame.

I think that's really just spinning it, though. The bottom line is that long hair + not tying back = death. They are both part of it. Its just that enforcing one rule involves more gender issues.

 

[Proton Soup]

i wouldn't even tie it back because it's still able to fall over your shoulder if you turn the wrong way. it needs to be contained in some way.

 

[Geezer]

i wouldn't even tie it back because it's still able to fall over your shoulder if you turn the wrong way. it needs to be contained in some way.

You can tie your hair back into a bun. It will sit on your head then. Nothing dangling, nothing to fall over your shoulder. At least, that's what I do.

 

[Geezer]

I think that's really just spinning it, though. The bottom line is that long hair + not tying back = death. They are both part of it. Its just that enforcing one rule involves more gender issues.

Yes, I agree about the gender issues. But excluding long hair could also come with some religious issues, too. An orthodox Jewish man may not cut his beard, and some beards can be quite long, too. And a long beard can't be readily pulled back into a bun like a person's long hair, for example. And some religious sects don't allow women to cut their hair. And, of course, what do you do about the woman who wears a headscarf or the guy with dreadlocks (dreadlocks serving a religious purpose, as sometimes they do)?

So, even if you disallowed long hair on the basis of safety--enforcing the rule across the board for both genders--you'd still have to deal with the folks who require an exclusion for religious reasons.