A recently-released study is telling the world that the relatively frequent accidents in China’s university laboratories are, for the most part, the result of human error. But for some in a Nanjing University, it’s all a little too late.
On the afternoon of 24 October last year, an explosion ripped through a lab in the Jiangning campus of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA). Two people died and at least six were injured.
去年10月24日下午，南京航空航天大学江宁校区一实验室发生爆炸。两人死亡，至少六人受伤。
As this publication reported, social media quickly became awash with videos and photos of the unfolding scene. Some showed billowing clouds of smoke from one of the campus buildings, while others depicted a man with burn marks on his skin and the emergency services clearing up in the aftermath.
据本刊报道，社交媒体很快就充斥着有关这一场景的视频和照片。一些画面显示校园一栋建筑冒出滚滚浓烟，另一些画面则描绘了一名皮肤上有烧伤痕迹的男子，以及紧急救援人员在事后清理现场的情况。
While the explosion at NUAA was just the latest lab-based accident in China that led to loss of life, it turns out the root causes of such, all across the country, have been largely the same through 2 decades of disasters.
虽然南航爆炸事件只是中国最新一起导致人员伤亡的实验室事故，但事实证明，在过去的二十年灾难中，全国各地发生此类事故的根本原因基本相同。
Indeed, Chinese chemists had been calling for improvements to lab safety at research institutions following previous incidents for some time, reported the Global Times immediately after the NUAA incident. That publication said that many chemists feel there has been a “systematic negligence of safety”.
事实上，据《环球时报》报道，南航事件发生后，中国化学家在之前的事件发生后一段时间以来一直在呼吁改善研究机构的实验室安全。该出版物称，许多化学家认为存在“系统性的安全疏忽”。
Hence comes the recently released study. Published by the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, the study looked into a total of 110 accidents in China’s university labs.
因此出现了最近发布的研究。该研究由《流程工业损失预防杂志》发表，调查了中国大学实验室总共 110 起事故。
While greater, more-open, media coverage has played a positive role in increasing the awareness of common hazards in labs, many such deficiencies remain to be addressed.
虽然更广泛、更开放的媒体报道在提高人们对实验室常见危害的认识方面发挥了积极作用，但许多此类缺陷仍有待解决。
In particular, lab-safety management appears to be particularly lax. According the study’s abstract, “It was found that human factors were the most contributing cause and the training element was a vulnerable competency in laboratory-safety management”.
特别是，实验室安全管理似乎特别松懈。根据该研究的摘要，“发现人为因素是最主要的原因，而培训因素是实验室安全管理中的一项薄弱能力”。
The study, led by researchers from China University of Petroleum’s College of Chemical Engineering in Qingdao, also suggests that top-down and bottom-up approaches may be the key for universities and authorities in their enhancing of safety in the country’s uni labs.
这项由中国石油大学青岛化学工程学院研究人员领导的研究还表明，自上而下和自下而上的方法可能是大学和当局加强国家大学实验室安全的关键。
The tragedy of course, is that for those students who lost a friend in the NUAA accident, and those of the other 10 people who died in previous accidents, this all comes a little late. But better than never.
当然，悲剧在于，对于那些在南航事故中失去朋友的学生，以及在之前的事故中丧生的其他10人来说，这一切来得有点晚了。但总比没有好。
