Comment by avs733

Your extrapolation provides clear context about how this can harm people, which is within an irb purview and likely their ability to understand.

I’m not saying it is okay, I’m simply saying how this could happen.

It requires understanding the connection between inanimate object and personal harm, which in this case is 1)non obvious and 2)not even something I necessarily accept within a common rule definition of harm.

Annoyance or inconvenience is not a meaningful human harm within the irb framework

But, fundamentally, the irb did not see this as human research. You and I and the commenters see how that is wrong. That is where their evaluation ended...they did not see human involvement right or wrong.

And irb is part of the discussion of research ethics, it is not the beginning nor the end of doing ethical research.