IN THE NEWS

IRE and NICAR offer data, stories and tipsheets to help cover the latest

Covering workplace safety



Data from the IRE and NICAR Database Library Information from IRE publications
Stories available from the IRE Resource Center Tipsheets available from the IRE Resource Center
Internet Resources How to contact IRE and NICAR

Data
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. Current as of February 2005, the data includes more than 3 million records of OSHA inspections. To order the data, contact NICAR at 573-884-7711 or download an order form.

The Mine Health and Safety Administration also has data available:
MSHA's Data Retrieval System permits interested parties to retrieve mine overviews, accident histories, violation histories, inspection histories, inspector dust samplings, and operator dust samplings and employment/production data. The Mine ID # for the Upper Big Branch Mine, operated by Massey Energy subsidiary Performance Coal Company, is 4608436.

Downloadable accident/injury data: "These 'self-extracting' files are the actual information (raw data) from the accident and injury MSHA Form 7000-2 filed with MSHA by mining operators and contractors as required under" federal regulations."

Federal Campaign Contributions
The Federal Elections Commission's database consists of campaign contribution information on all candidates seeking federal office and on all federal political action committees. Search for "Massey" to find which executives of Massey Energy (parent company of the operator of Upper Big Branch Mine) made contributions to various causes in the 2010 and earlier election cycles. The database contains four tables, which include information about candidates and committees as well as individual contributor information and campaign contributions by PACs.

Tipsheets
Tipsheet #2819: Ken Ward Jr.'s tipsheet provides guidance on how to cover mines, noting that "there are more than 2,000 coal mines nationwide, but more than 12,500 metal/nonmetal mines." The tipsheet gives sources for starting out, including the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration Web site.

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.

Tipsheet #2639: Linda J. Johnson's tipsheet is a good resource for reporters covering a mining accident for the first time. The author suggests places to start the investigation, like the Mine Safety and Health Administration's website. Johnson also offers some tips to avoid common mistakes when covering mines.

Tipsheet #2629: Ken Ward Jr.'s tipsheet discusses how to use CAR to report on mining accidents. For instance, Ward lists various sources for safety records and then suggests how to analyze them. He also includes information about mine regulations and mining terminology.

Tipsheet #1387: Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette offers additional Web addresses and includes some info on workplace safety laws from Cornell University.

Tipsheet #2458: This tipsheet 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 of Web resources for an OSHA project. (2005)

Tipsheet #2113 Justin Pritchard of The Associated Press 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 #1608: From Natalya Shulyakovskaya of The Orange County Register, from the 2002 IRE Conference, including Web addresses of agencies and organizations involved in workplace safety issues, and a guide on how to report on OSHA activity.

More tipsheets can be found by searching the tipsheet database.

Stories
Story #23433 Lee Davidson of the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah) reports that "despite a long history of mine disasters, Utah coal mines still consistently and repeatedly break even the most essential of safety rules."

Story #22770: Ken Ward Jr. reports that "nearly 40 years after passage of the federal coal mine safety law, U.S. coal miners continue to die on the job because of widespread violations by coal companies and lax regulation by the government. And, while explosions and mine fires draw media and political attention, most coal miners die alone, one by one in roof falls and machinery accidents that could have been avoided if the operators they worked for complied with existing laws."

Story #17284: This 2000 series by R.G. Dunlop of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal "exposed lax state enforcement of mine-safety violations." The reporter found that the Kentucky mining board "rarely used its full authority to revoke or suspend companies' mining licenses and miners' certifications," when hearings were held on mine-safety cases. The series focused also on the failure of the board to formally review "nearly 100 cases since 1990 in which Kentucky coal companies and/or supervisors were convicted of federal mine-safety violations." The investigation exposed cases of falsified tests detecting coal-dust levels, improper handling of explosives, illegal smoking underground and falsified safety training documents.

Story #19487: About a year and a half after federal regulators were supposed to release the results of a two-year study of mountaintop removal coal mining's environmental impacts, Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette published a series detailing the study's findings — after an FOI fight to obtain the report. The report revealed that "without tougher limitations, mountaintop removal would destroy more than 230,000 acres of Appalachian forests." (2002)

Story #14933: Mining the Mountains, a series by Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette (1998), examined the growth of mountaintop removal of coal in West Virginia, including its impacts on the environment and effects on nearby communities. Major findings included: Thousands of acres of mountaintop removal mines have been permitted in violation of the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, coal companies have not made good on promises of developing land flattened by mountaintop removal mines, and environmental damage has been widespread.

Story #21352: While more than 9,500 coal mines across the country are abandoned and in need of serious cleaning, billions of dollars designated for this task are being used for other projects. This report looks into the successes and failures of the federal Abandoned Mine Land program. (2004)

Story #17834: America's coal industry is plagued by growing numbers of death and injuries linked to company negligence and safety infractions. An examination of the worst U.S. mining disaster in 17 years, which killed 13 Alabama miners on Sept. 23, 2001, found unsafe practices, poor emergency planning and lax enforcement by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. In the underground mines of the Appalachian coal cradle, the Chicago Tribune found rising unwarrantable failure to follow mine safety laws; coal mine operators who knowingly broke safety laws faced few consequences from a hamstrung federal enforcement system. (2002)

Story #5183: The Charleston Gazette reports the state Department of Energy collects only three percent of fines it assesses against coal mine operators, allows operators to abandon improperly reclaimed mines, does little to protect archaeological or historical sites, and gives "prospect permits" to companies operating full-scale mines. (1987) Story #18656: A computer-assisted investigation by the Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) in 2001 revealed that state government agencies are among the most common violators of worker safety standards, but -- unlike private entities -- they never get fined.

Story #18983: A five-part Newsday investigation in 2001 found that New York has the nation's highest rate of immigrants killed in the workplace. The series also uncovered that government agencies frequently fail to investigate deaths, provide enforcement for violations and offer timely compensation for victims and their families.

Story #12472: A computer-assisted investigation by Dateline NBC in 1995 revealed a shocking pattern of lax enforcement at the agency charged with protecting worker safety. Multiple examples show that OSHA is reducing fines 99 percent of the time, collecting only 33 cents on the dollar.

Story #13070: A Morning Call series in 1996 found that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fails to shield workers from injury and death in Pennsylvania. OSHA inspects few work sites, misses accidents that maim workers and has no way of telling which workplaces are the most hazardous.

Story #10690: WJXT-Jacksonville, Fla., revealed in 1994 that OSHA had investigated fewer than one-third of all deaths during a three year period in Florida, even though federal law requires an investigation of all deaths.

More stories can be found by searching the story database.


Web Links

For more information, contact:
Database Library
IRE and NICAR
Voice: 573-884-7711
Fax: 573-884-5544 		Beth Kopine
Research Director
IRE Resource Center
E-mail: beth@ire.org
Voice: 573-882-6668
Fax: 573-884-8151