BOOK REVIEW OF "REGULATING THE USE OF BIOLOGICAL HAZARDOUS MATERIALS IN UNIVERSITIES: COMPLYING WITH THE NEW FEDERAL GUIDELINES"

Book Review of "Regulating the Use of Biological Hazardous Materials in Universities: Complying With the New Federal Guidelines"

By Keith Haley
Tiffin University

Copyrighted. All rights pertain.

There are things that we should know and don't and our ignorance has very little consequence in our life one way or the other. On the other hand, some things we ought to know because they have real potential for altering the way we live. In Nick Valcik's book Regulating the Use of Biological Hazardous Materials in Universities: Complying With the New Federal Guidelines we find out that perhaps not all is well in many of the nation's finest research university laboratories and he clearly makes the point that this could have dire consequences.

At a time when the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services have stopped work at a dozen or more university biological and radiological labs, Dr. Nicolas Valcik delivers for us the story of one such distinguished (name absent) research university and its problems in complying with new health and safety standards issued by the federal government.

The book is a good story of how dedicated and exceptionally talented scientists get immersed in their work and the safety and security standards do not get the attention required. The author is sympathetic to the scientists who deliver for us research findings we need to remain prominent in the health, medical, and security fields. They are scientists first and the regulations, no doubt needed, get compromised, apparently a lot more than we imagine.

In the book's report of trying to comply with new federal biological and radiological protection guidelines at one distinguished research university we begin to see what could be a much larger problem throughout the nation. We are even treated in this book to pictures of regulation and security violations that were overlooked by the scientific staff.

If you want to take one book that is well researched and documented which will give you an inside glimpse of what may be a serious problem at our research universities and in their communities, read Dr. Valcik's treatise that unfolds like a story and gives you enjoyably what you need to know about this critical area in scientific research.