The OSHA workplace safety data lists inspection results, history of violations and fines and records of workplace injury/accidents. One table in this relational database details accidents involving hazardous materials.

The EPA's Toxics Release Inventory contains reports from facilities, both public and private, to file annual reports on the hazardous materials produced, stored, or disposed of by the site. Some of the industries required to file reports include manufacturing, metal mining, coal mining, coal and oil burning electrical utilities, hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities, chemical distributors, petroleum bulk plants terminals, and solvent recycling operations The reporting requirements cover more than 650 substances. The IRE and NICAR database library's TRI collection covers 1987-2004. Note that you can search this data online or download the raw files data for free off the EPA's Web site, NICAR data analysts have done a significant amount of cleaning to makeTRI raw data easier to use immediately. Fields containing standard date formats and mappable latitude and longitude have been added.

• Tipsheet #1133: “Investigations in health, environment and safety,” This tipsheet is broken down into a selection of environmental issues, with detailed information on how to cover each. It includes story ideas and Internet resources.
• Tipsheet #1195: “Environmental data at the state level,”This tipsheet provides a list of information, such as topics, sub-topics and helpful internet sites to search for environmental databases.
• Tipsheet #1290: “Transportation: Commuting, fatalities and 40 miles of bad railroad,” Fallik lists Web sites for researching transportation including crash and accident data, trucking, hazardous materials, airlines, railroads, school bus safety and FAA.
• Tipsheet #1369: “Environmental CAR: 10 great sources of data,” Ward lists and discusses ten sources of data that may be helpful to reporters investigating water and air quality, pollution, energy usage, and other environmental issues.
• Tipsheet #1537: “Investigations into Transportation and Infrastructure: Air Safety, Bridges, Dams and Hazardous Materials,” Jennifer LaFleur offers tips for covering transportation, including tips on where to find good data and good web sites.
• Tipsheet #1839: “Story tip: Biosafety labs” In the United States, there is a limited number of biosafety labs. These labs are capable of dealing with the most dangerous chemicaland biological threats. In this tipsheet, Pasternak discusses the development of more biosafety labs and the implications involved. He includes sources and places to find data on the subject.
• Tipsheet #2516: “The Savvy Reporter: Tips for Covering the Environment, ” This tipsheet goes over some of the basics of environmental reporting. It discusses using databases and cultivating sources, as well as getting alone with your editor.
• Tipsheet #2765: “Doing CAR for broadcast: Success stories,” Ellis provides a list of must-have data for broadcast reporters who do computer-assisted reporters. The data list spans many beats, from government to the environment to courts.

Search for additional tipsheets on our website.

Story No. 11052: “Spills Chill Regulators” The Plain Dealer reports that of the 5,589 toxic chemical spills that occurred in Ohio in 1990, 121 threatened lives and property. The chemical accidents occurred when trucks hauling toxic chemicals wrecked on highways, above ground chemical tanks exploded, warehouses and plants caught fire, and workers made critical mistakes. The analysis also found that most companies involved did not report the accidents to the county emergency response team or the state Environmental Protection Agency. Residents living near plants did a better job reporting chemical emergencies than most companies at fault. (Cleveland Plain Dealer; Dave Davis, Tom Breckenridge)

Story No. 14265: “State, local and county officials were unprepared for a major chemical spill” Following a devastating fire that destroyed a downtown warehouse, a toxic plume of smoke and millions of gallons of pesticide-laced water spread through Alabama's largest city. Fire, public health and environmental officials were ill-prepared to contain, measure or react to the pollution. (The ( Birmingham, Ala.) News; John Archibald, Jeff Hansen, Dave Parks)

Search for additional stories on our website.

IRE Publications
“Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter’s Guide”

Tap into resources you can use for local investigations into environmental pollution.

This guide seeks to be immediately useful to investigative journalists. Although it offers extensive resources for in-depth and time-intensive investigations, its main focus is to show you how you can get to the heart of an investigation quickly and without waiting months for Freedom of Information Act requests to be fulfilled.

Much of the information in this guide focuses on how to use Web-based, federal database searches to get the data you need to both find and drive environmental investigations, but you'll also find numerous tips from veteran reporters about how to handle other aspects of investigative environmental journalism, including interviews and writing.

WEB RESOURCES

• The Society of Environmental Journalists
• North Carolina Division of Emergency Management
• Local/county government emergency management related sites
• U.S Fire Administration: Hazardous Materials