Imperial College fined over scientist suffocation

One of London’s top universities has been fined £70,000 after a scientist suffocated six years ago while working in a hospital lab. Damian Bowen, 32, died in October 2011 when he was carrying out HIV blood sample experiments for Imperial College in a room containing liquid nitrogen. The chemical is used in research to freeze samples, and displaces oxygen when it becomes a gas, causing rapid asphyxiation. An inquest in 2016 found that the ventilation system in the lab had…