Dive Brief:

• A list of pre-1980 concrete buildings that University of California researchers said need careful examination because of the risk they could collapse in a strong earthquake is being turned over to Los Angeles city officials.
• There are about 1,500 buildings on the list, the researchers said, but they had not wanted to make it public for fear of legal retribution from the building owners.
• The team led by a UC Berkeley engineer has changed course, however, and will give the list to the city, perhaps beginning a process of examining each building to determine if it is in danger of collapse.

Dive Insight:

The city has said it wants to make residents safer in the event of earthquakes, an effort that has the mayor's backing. The governor says he wants the state to update maps of earthquake faults. Those are praiseworthy public goals, but the researchers' concern about getting into legal hot water for saying what's real was a very understandable concern.