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 "lead-poisoning" ...
-
"Childhood Lead Poisoning Rates in Chicago"
In this three-part series, Matthew Hendrickson examines the factors that contribute to lead poisoning in Chicago children. He finds that most children who are affected come from low-income families and that many are at risk for health problems down the road. In Chicago, children are not required to have a blood test until they start school, so early detection of lead poisoning is rare.
Tags: Public Health Department; Chicago; childhood lead-poisoning protection program; Tony Amato;
-
Lead in Dental Work
"WBNS-TV spent the past year probing into the presence of toxic lead in dental work such as crown, bridges and dentures. The team discovered a lack of state and federal regulation in the dental laboratory industry, an industry largely overlooked and unknown to the consumer until WBNS-TV broke the story in February 2008. An increasing number of laboratories outsource dental work to other companies. The FDA doesn't track the materials in foreign or domestic dental work. The lack of oversight results in patient risk.
Tags: lead poisoning; dental work; dentistry; regulations; infection; foreign production
-
CR Investigates New Worries Over Lead
This investigation tested dozens of products and found that many, especially those for children, contained unsafe levels of lead. Many of the toys tested had never been recalled before; the findings reported in this investigation exposed big gaps in federal guidelines, which allowed all of these dangerous products to stay on the shelf.
Tags: consumer safety; child health; lead; poisoning; federal goverment
-
Lead's dangerous legacy
In March 2006 the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Cincinnati Department of Health make public its records on landlords who hadn't removed poisonous lead paint from their properties. The records showed that 300 homes and apartments were tainted. Since 2002, at least 570 kids had been poisoned and yet the health department had done "little to make landlords clean up the properties."
Tags: lead; lead paint; Department of Health; Ohio Supreme Court; homes; apartments; lead poisoning; landlord neglect
-
Assignment Peru: Poison in La Oroya
American mining company Doe Run bought a metalurgical plant in La Oroya, Peru, promising to clean it up after tests showed 99 percent of children born after the take-over had incredibly high level of lead contamination. Ten years later, the company has asked for extensions on the deadlines.
Tags: lead poisoning; air pollution; Doe Run; Hunter Farrell; SEC filings; La Oroya; Peru;
-
Get the Lead Out
In March of 2006, 4-year-old Jarnell Brown died after swallowing an item of lead jewelry made for children. Two years after its initial investigations into the dangers of lead in children's jewelry, the WMAR-TV team mobilized once again, its new reports on the harmful effects of lead poisoning in young children compelled both the city and federal governments to take action. In the wake of these investigations, Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Barack Obama (D-IL) are planning to introduce legislation to ban lead in children's products.
Tags: Lead; lead poisoning; children; jewelry; harnful
-
La Oroya
KMOV reporters investigated a smelter in La Oroya, Peru, run by a St. Louis-based Doe Run Company. La Oroya has been heavily contaminated by the smelter and almost every child in the small community has tested positive for lead poisoning.
Tags: Environment; pollution; lead poisoning; Peru; Doe Run Company; metal smelter; Andes
-
Lead Jewelry
When a one-year-old baby was diagnosed with lead-poisoning, enough to cause brain damage, WMAR investigators started to test costume jewelry kids love. Results showed that all of the tested jewelry contained lead, and some contained enough to cause illness. This investigation lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission to announce a voluntary recall of more than 150 million pieces of jewelry sold out of gumball machines. This was the single largest voluntary recall of a children's product in the history of the agency.
Tags: children; jewelry; lead-poisoning; health; poisoning; brain damage
-
State of the Child - Health, Asthma and Lead
The city of Chicago has some major problems when it comes to the health of children. Chicago leads the nation with the highest number of lead poisoned children, and the resources it has to combat the problem are not enough. The Chicago area is "the nation's epicenter for the asthma epidemic." Yet, there are no comprehensive asthma awareness programs in the city, and officials have no way to find or monitor affected children until they end up in a hospital. African-American and Hispanic children are the most affected by the lead and asthma problems facing Chicago.
Tags: health; Center for Disease Control; medicine; doctors; Environmental Protection Agency. Illinois Department of Public Health
-
Poisoning of a Town
The town of Herculaneum, Missouri was built around the Doe Run plant, now the nation's largest lead smelter. Though officials say they have taken measures to limit pollution and contamination from the plant, the area still shows much higher levels of lead than normal. It affect the soil, the air, and especially the several children who live near the plant and now have too-high levels of lead inside of them. The article examines not only the legal issues, but also the conflicting feelings town residents have about their ties to the plant versus their safety.
Tags: lead poisoning; environment; health; pollution; contamination; Department of Natural Resources