From the Database library:
The Database Library has several databases available to members of IRE that may be of use in covering this story.
Mortality:
The mortality multiple cause-of-death database contains detailed information
found in U.S. standard death certificate records from the United States and
its territories. The data include information on fire-related causes, as
well as detailed information about the deceased. Some of these details
include the decedent's age, race, sex, marital status at the time of death
and much more. Specific information about the circumstances of each death is
included, such as whether it was a natural death, an accident, occurred in
the workplace, or was a suicide. This data traces locations by offering such
details as the deceased's state of birth, state of residence as well as the
state where the death occurred. Geographic information is complete for areas
with population of 100,000 or more, and includes counties, cities and MSAs.
OSHA:
Workplace safety has been written about time and again. A prime source of
information comes from the OSHA workplace safety database, available from
the IRE and NICAR Database Library. The database contains a variety of
workplace inspection and accident information, including hazardous substance
accidents as well as violations for federally inspected companies in the
U.S. and its territories. The database includes more than 3 million records
of OSHA inspections since 1972.
Consumer Product Safety Commission:
The CPSC dataset includes information about potential injuries, deaths and
investigations related to consumer products. Some of the products include
stoves, cigarettes, hair dryers and many more. The database consists of four
tables provided by the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Injury
Information Clearinghouse. CPSC maintains this data to help protect the
public by alerting people to potential hazards associated with consumer
products. Fields include age, race and gender of the victim; state and city
of the incident; product type involved and more.
FBI Uniform Crime Reports:
The arson database provides detailed information on arsons, including
summary totals by police district. Information includes types of structures
and estimated value of property damage.
To order the data, call the Database Library at 573-884-7711 or download an order form.
From the Resource Center:
The IRE Resource Center has a number of tipsheets available for download to IRE members. Included in the list below are tipsheets on covering nursing homes, fire and workplace safety. To download a pdf of tipsheets, please go to our web site: http://www.ire.org/resourcecenter/tipsheets.php
Tipsheets
To order tipsheets from the IRE Resource Center, send e-mail to rescntr@ire.org or call us at 573-882-3364.
Tipsheet #1387
Ken Ward Jr. provides a listing of websites beneficial to finding inspection/enforcement actions, records of injuries/fatalities, annual studies and government research. (2001)
Tipsheet #2062
Justin Pritchard explains where to get information about death in the workplace, how to deal with that information and how to talk to certain people with information. (2004)
Tipsheet #2113
Justin Pritchard gives tips for reporting on worker safety and lists government databases that can be used for analysis. He also gives ideas on the kind of sources that can be used for such stories. (2004)
Tipsheet #2283
Paul Parker, a reporter for The Providence Journal, takes a look at how reporters can use simulations to predict future conditions. For example, The Providence Journal used a computer model to simulate how people tried to escape the February 20, 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, RI, that killed 100 people. The simulation predicted how patrons were trapped deep inside the club at a bottleneck leading to the main exit. (2005)
Tipsheet #2349
Rick Linsk's tipsheet is a very comprehensive guide to reporting on nursing homes. It covers how to acquire and interpret everything from state inspection data to medical examiner data and worker safety data. Reporting on nursing homes is a great way to practice your CAR skills, and this tipsheet covers just about every story you can do on the topic. (2005)
Tipsheet #2350
This tipsheet by Brad Heath begins with advice on how to locate information that is essential to a story about nursing homes: death certificates, inspection summaries, hospital discharges, and the minimum data set. The tipsheet then goes on to explain how each type of data can be used to make your story better. (2005)
Tipsheet #2458
This tipsheet by Barbara Clements and Daniel Wickert is about how to do an OSHA investigation without being overwhelmed. It includes advice about analyzing the data, as well as suggestions for making the data more manageable. The tipsheet ends with a list on web resources for an OSHA project. (2005)
Tipsheet #2688
Seth Borenstein provides his PowerPoint presentation on investigating workplace safety. The presentation provides information about how the AP reported on the Sago mine disaster, along with helpful Web links to other stories on the subject. He also provides a number of lessons for reporters who are undertaking such projects. (2006)
Search for more tipsheets in IRE's Resource Center.
IRE Publications
The Investigative Reporter's Handbook: A Guide to Documents, Databases and Techniques (4th Ed.): Includes additional information on covering nursing homes, fires, fatal accidents and workplace safety. Supplementary information for the Handbook can be found online: http://www.ire.org/handbooksites/
Other Resources
| For
more information, contact: |
Jeff Porter
Database Library Director
IRE and NICAR
E-mail: jeff@ire.org
Voice: 573-882-1982
Fax: 573-882-5431 |
Beth Kopine
Research Director
IRE Resource Center
E-mail: beth@ire.org
Voice: 573-882-6668
Fax: 573-884-8151 |
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