The University of Granada has closed its Anthropology Laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine, considered an international benchmark, on the grounds of space and health and safety.
The department, which contains one of the largest collections of children’s bones, some 5,000 in total, was founded 41 years ago by Miguel Botella. The laboratory is used on a daily basis by 35 graduate students, by 70 post-graduate students each year and is visited by scientists from all over the world.
The department has a €100,000 budget to undertake a series of urgent works and to alleviate the major problems of health and safety in the facility but this is apparently ‘blocked’ through a failure to reach an agreement.
The University itself has issued safety reports showing non-compliance relating to lighting, ventilation and water discharge.