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 "health inspection" ...
-
Model Workplaces, Imperiled Workers
The Center's series exposed serious problems with an ever-expanding government program that promises results through cooperative regulation but often has failed to protect the nation's working men and women. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Programs, known as VPP, recognize "model workplaces" and offer them an exemption from regular inspections. But in many cases, this government stamp of approval was a hollow trophy, allowing companies to avoid scrutiny and to attract employees. Even after preventable tragedies at these sites, OSHA rarely cracked down.
Tags: OSHA; occupational safety and health administration voluntary protection program; model workplace
-
Champaign Pest Inspection
The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District conducts about 1,300 inspections of restaurants and other food-service facilities next year. But, unlike many other health departments in the area and across the U.S., the district does nothing to publicize the results of these inspections.
-
Renegade Refinery
Just weeks after the Deepwater Horizon disaster began, an analysis of inspection data obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that two oil refineries owned by BP accounted for a staggering 97 of the most flagrant violations found by OSHA inspectors. Most of these citation's were categorized as "egregiously willful."
Tags: Deepwater Horizon; BP; oil spill; OSHA; Gulf of Mexico
-
ESPN Outside the Lines:What's Lurking in Your Stadium Food
Health department inspection reports for food and beverage outlets at stadiums and arenas home to Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League, and National Baseball Association teams showed that more than half of them had been cited for a "critical" or "major" health inspection.
Tags: sports; stadium; arena; stadium food; health; safety; food preparation
-
Drowning in Neglect
KHOU-TV discovers 1300 public swimming pools in Houston were getting a free pass for not meeting safety standards. City health inspectors failed to give violations for substandard drain covers, missing life preservers and emergency phones, and even a lack of chlorine. Health experts claim the condition of many of these pools invites the spread of disease and should warrant closure of the pool.
Tags: pools; safety; health inspection; chlorine; swimming
-
What's in your burger?
This story revealed how a number of restaurants aren’t following health code guidelines. These violations include not using gloves, not cooking at correct temperatures, no mouth guards at buffets, no sanitizer in rag buckets, dirty restrooms, no dates on food in the refrigerator, and storing food where it is subject to contamination.
Tags: health inspection; records; Cedar City; food; sickness; food protection code; Public Health Department; home-owned; chains; privately owned
-
Compromised Care
Illinois is an outlier among states in its reliance on nursing homes to house younger adults with mental illness, including thousands of felons whose disabilities qualify them for Medicaid-funded nursing care. The reporters documented numerous recent cases in which elderly and disabled residents were assaulted, raped and even murdered in the facilities.
Tags: nursing home; mental illness; Medicaid; criminals; Illinois; police records; health department inspection data; complaint investigations; criminal records;
-
The Deadly Dust
Fox Five found that in the 1990s the National Institutes of Health was not having employees wear the required safety gear, exposing them to asbestos. Using a hidden camera, they were able to confirm that even now employees were still being exposed.
Tags: asbestos; health; safety; National Institutes of Health; NIH; federal employees; OSHA; hidden camera; inspections; regulations
-
Chicken Wings
WCAU-TV "exposed an illegal, unlicensed and unsanitary chicken wing processing business in Philadelphia rowhome garage." Using hidden cameras they found which restaurants were serving the chicken wings and confronted them. They also found that these restaurants also had poor health inspection reports. As a result of the investigation the chicken wing processing business was closed.
Tags: food; safety; health; restaurants; consumer; chicken; illegal business; health inspection; health code; hidden camera
-
Food Safety
This investigation delved into the safety of imported and domestically-produced food and deciciencies in federal oversight of food industry. Reporters found that the FDA inspects only 1% of the imported food it regulates. And during the previous five years, food imports hve risen 50%, btu the number of FDA food inspectors has dropped 20%. The investigation focused in particular of food impoted from China.
Tags: food; imports; FDA; regulation; federal government; consumer health