The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "environmental health and safety" ...
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EPA Fails to Inform Public About Weed-Killer in Drinking Water
The Environmental Protection Agency kept secret the high level of the herbicide atrazine found in the water supply of communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas. Residents were not alerted and were actually given false water readings from state and local authorities.
Tags: atrazine; environmental protection agency; watershed; water; herbicide; weed-killer; Huffington Post Investigative Fund; drinking; safety; public; health;
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Perils of the New Pesticides
An analysis of EPA data by the Center of Public Integrity shows that the number of reported human health problems, including severe reactions, attributed to pyrethrins and pyrethroids increased by about 300 percent over the past decade. These pesticides are marketed as the safe alternative to older pesticides, but researchers, epidemiologists, and doctors are starting to question the safety of these products. The investigation also found that the EPA received 25,000 reports of pet pesticide reactions of every sort -- fatal, major, moderate and minor -- to over-the-counter pyrethroid spot on products.
Tags: Environmental Protection Agency; pesticide; environmental health and safety; pyrethrins; pyrethroids; human reaction to pesticide; pet reaction to pesticide
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Toxic Offender: Disastrous Sewage Plant Threatens Health
This series documents Twarowski's investigation into complaints of dangerous and unhealthy conditions inside the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant in Wantaugh, NY. Employees clandestinely videotaped horrendous conditions inside the plant and Twarowski later verified their findings in person. Each visit to the vast plant turned up more safety hazards.
Tags: Environment; pollution; waste treatment; sewage; hepatitis; viruses; public health; OSHA; Public Employee Safety and Health; Department of Environmental Conservation
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EPA regulation of oil refineries
The paper's three-month investigation found clean-air enforcement actions at oil refineries were being scaled back and the country's worst air polluters were continuing to operate without repercussions. And though the Environmental Protection Agency made claims about efforts to make air cleaner, it let oil refineries miss court-ordered deadlines. Meanwhile, residents living nearby suffer the consequences.
Tags: oil; refinery; EPA; Environmental Protection Agency; pollution; air; petroleum; inspection; violation; Petroleum Refinery Initiative; pollutant; health; safety; chemical; environment
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Radioactive Water Flowed to Thousands of Homes
This series detailed how high levels of radium 226/228, known human carcinogens linked to bone and nasal cancers, contaminated public drinking water wells that provided water to thousands of people in Northwest Florida between 1996-2000. The public utility responsible for water safety resisted state efforts to clean the radioactive material and inform the public, because it cost too much money. The Utilities Authority conducted tapwater samples that measured high concentrations of radium coming out of fountains at an elementary school, regional airport, government offices, and the tourist welcome center, but the results of these samples were never made public.
Tags: radium; human carcinogens; bone cancer; nasal cancer; contaminated drinking water wells; radioactive material; Escambia County Utilities Authority; drinking water; Agrico Chemical Co. Superfund hazardous waste; U.S. Florida Department of Environmental protection; radium-tainted water; Escambia County Health Department; Pensacola Regional Airport; Santa Rosa Island Authority; Cordova Park Elementary School; Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water; American Agricultural Chemical Co.; U.S. Geological Survey; maximum contamination level; MCL; Northwest Florida Management District; water cleanup; Environmental Protection Agency; "limited action" cleanup DuPont; ConocoPhillips; Conoco Inc.; The Williams Co.; Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
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Hidden threat of junkyards
The Times Union investigates junkyards and the possible health and safety hazards they hold due to gaps in regulations.
Tags: junkyards; environment; EPA; vehicle junkyards; regulations; fires; Department of Environmental Conservation; DMV
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Playing with poison
WISH-TV set out to discover whether or not Indiana's children were being slowly poisoned by the playgrounds they play on every day. Most decks and playgrounds are treated with copper, chrome and arsenic to protect against weather and insects. The state says that 3.9 parts per million is a safe level of arsenic, but WISH-TV found playgrounds with levels of 56, 33.2 and a picnic table with a level of 3480. The EPA and other state health and environmental agencies have been aware of the problem for some time, but have failed to alert parents to the potential problem.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; health; safety; children; playgrounds; EPA
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Death in a small town
NBC investigates a deadly mining operation near Libby, Montana, where more than 100 former workers and their relatives have died of asbestos-related illnesses. Although the mine closed in 1990, the dying continues, NBC reports. The story reveals that W.R. Grace, the company that operated the mine, was aware of the health risks years before warning the miners about the asbestos danger. "The program supplied a fresh alert to thousands around the country who may have products such as home insulation made from Libby's vermiculite ore in their homes."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); doctors; public health; occupational safety; FOIA; mining; workplace safety; asbestosis; tremolite; Superfund; deaths; injuries; zonolite attic insulation
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"Reservations"
In an extensive investigative project, Fred Vallance-Jones discovered that the system that was meant to protect the public's heath through food inspection and restaurant safety had failed in Hamilton, Ontario. After analyzing the restaurant inspection database, reporters from the Spectator found that several restaurants had been violating health conditions for years without punishment from the environmental health department, while city inspectors repeatedly failed to inspect certain restaurants. Because of the series that ran in the Spectator the city of Hamilton hired two full-time premise inspectors, ordered a full report on city inspections, and formation of a system to make food handler training mandatory.
Tags: Health; restaurants; food; inspections
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Death in the air: Asbestos Exposure
An American-Statesman investigation discovers that most asbestos removal projects in major Texas cities are "violating state and federal safety laws without getting caught, thereby exposing thousands of construction workers to dangerous levels of the health-damaging fibers." As most building owners and construction contractors are leery to get their buildings inspected for asbestos before starting renovation or demolition, construction workers get repeated long-term exposure that is likely to cause asbestos diseases, the newspaper reports. The unprotected employees have been "mostly Hispanic day laborers hired to do the dirtiest jobs." After the series was published, the state enforced new laws that prohibit "city building officials from issuing permits for renovations or demolitions unless the building owner shows they have had the building surveyed for asbestos by a licensed inspector."
Tags: health; occupational safety; federal FOIA requests; Texas Open Records law; building permits; immigrants; Latinos; cancer; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); asbestosis; lobbying; politics