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 inspectors" ...
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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
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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
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Atalissa
For three decades a dozen mentally disabled men have been living together. Their living conditions were nowhere near ideal; they lived in a run-down bunkhouse and worked full-time in a turkey processing plant. They normally made about “$65 a month”, but sometimes received as “little as 40 cents an hour”. The series revealed possible “human trafficking, abuse and neglect, and financial exploitation of the mentally disabled”.
Tags: Henry's Turkey Service; US Department of Labor; health inspectors; mistreatment; West Liberty Foods; Muscatine County
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Toxic Showdown
Rita Smith's husband Steve won his court case with his former employer Searles Valley Minerals regarding the toxins that killed thousands of migratory birds in a nearby lake.
Tags: department of fish and game; health problems; substances; poison; inspector; brine;
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Inhumanity Has a Price
This story examined the human and financial costs of jail conditions in the fourth largest U.S. country. It quantified the costs of those conditions by comparing statistical data about the jail to statistics from similar-sized jails in the country. The story found that the custodian of this jail has been sued thousands of times more than the custodian of larger jails, that the combined cost to defend, settle and insure against these lawsuits was $41.4 million, that the country has not implemented changes recommended by national experts, and that the county's Environmental Services inspectors have documented environmental health concerns in the jails.
Tags: jail costs; county jail; corruption; justice system; health concerns; prison conditions
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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
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Mine Dangers/Mine Safety
This series on mine safety by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette uncovered several problems: with training, mine seals, ventilation, airpacks and fire suppression systems. Reporters Roddy and Twedt found out that the Mine Safety and Health Administration "narrowed its definition of work-related deaths, making its annual death tally artificially low and allowing them to declare that mining was safer than ever."
Tags: mine safety; mining tragedies; Mine Safety and Health Administration; MSHA; coal miners; mine ventilation; Department of Labor's Inspector General's Office; FOI; Assistant Secretary of Labor David Dye; Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler
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FEMA; A Legacy of Waste
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel "exposed waste in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's crisis counseling grants, meant to help people overcome disaster-related mental health problems." In Florida, the $23 million counseling program paid for "puppet shows, Hurricane Bingo and yoga on the beach." Only one fourth of the program supervisors were qualified. Also, the Sun-Sentinel found that "other states had used FEMA grants totaling more than $445 million on activities such as gardening workshops, martial arts classes and "Beat Stress with Crafts." As a result of these stories, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General and the state of Florida each launched an investigation, and a bill was introduced in Congress to "prohibit spending the grants on puppet shows and similar activities."
Tags: FEMA; Federal Emergency Management Agency; Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General; misuse of federal funds; disaster-related mental problems
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Abandoning Our Mentally Ill
A year-long investigation of living conditions of the most severely mentally ill patients in the Milwaukee area discovered that those conditions were far from ideal, sometimes filthy and dangerous. Among the discoveries were patients housed in illegal group homes which city building inspectors did not discover or report. In addition, caseworkers were still placing patients in homes despite knowledge of their poor and filthy conditions. At the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, a 33-year-old woman died from dehydration and starvation after doctors allowed her to go nearly four weeks without food or water. Social service and government agencies had also passed up opportunities to accept federal money for construction of better facilities, $3.3 million in the past seven years.
Tags: Mental illness; Department of Housing and Urban Development; Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex
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Gasping for Help
Over a hundred workers at the TRW brake plant have suffered from lung ailments because of the airborne metalworking fluid. The employees will become ill and be out of work for nearly five years later because of the toxic fluids. Warnings to the TRW were disregarded as the state inspectors reported the levels of metalworking fluid in the air exceeded safe levels.
Tags: ailment; mist; toxicity; health; Mount Vernon; Craig Chadwick; machine; atmoshpere