Penn State student hurt in laboratory explosion

    Penn State’s department of environmental health and safety has been investigating a small explosion at a campus laboratory that burned a student.

    School officials aren’t identifying the student who was doing a tissue culture in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Building when the explosion occurred in an exhaust hood about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

    Svend Peterson, the assistant safety officer of the Alpha Fire Company in State College, says investigators are trying to determine if alcohol being used for sterilization could have caused the blast.

    University officials say there didn’t appear to be damage to the building, though they were still attempting to determine whether any lab equipment was damaged.

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    The student was taken to Mount Nittany Medical Center, where information about the student’s condition was not immediately available Thursday.

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