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 "OSHA" ...
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Model Workplaces, Imperiled Workers
The Center's series exposed serious problems with an ever-expanding government program that promises results through cooperative regulation but often has failed to protect the nation's working men and women. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Programs, known as VPP, recognize "model workplaces" and offer them an exemption from regular inspections. But in many cases, this government stamp of approval was a hollow trophy, allowing companies to avoid scrutiny and to attract employees. Even after preventable tragedies at these sites, OSHA rarely cracked down.
Tags: OSHA; occupational safety and health administration voluntary protection program; model workplace
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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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"Lifesaving Drugs, Deadly Consequences"
This investigative piece looks at worker safety issues that affect "the nation's healthcare providers." Health care employees are often put in harms way by handling drugs that are meant to save the "lives of cancer patients," but can be "human carcinogens," too. This report shows that regulation on exposure to these types of drugs in the workplace is weak.
Tags: FOIA; health insurance; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; cancer; OSHA; drugs; chemotherapy
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"The Dark Side of Daries"
Rebecca Clarren takes an in-depth look at the dangerous working conditions of migrant dairy workers in the "American West." Many have been seriously injured or killed on the job, but are scared to tell their stories for fear they will be fired.
Tags: immigrant; cows; diary; farmers; milking; daries; OSHA
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The Cruelest Cuts
The investigation revealed how officials in the poultry industry have ignored and threatened injured workers as they created an illusion of safety inside their plants. The practice helped companies boost profits, but it has also jeopardized the health of thousands of poultry workers.
Tags: worker safety; Latino; poultry; OSHA; Raeford Farms; injury; factory
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The Deadly Dust
Fox Five found that in the 1990s the National Institutes of Health was not having employees wear the required safety gear, exposing them to asbestos. Using a hidden camera, they were able to confirm that even now employees were still being exposed.
Tags: asbestos; health; safety; National Institutes of Health; NIH; federal employees; OSHA; hidden camera; inspections; regulations
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Sofa Super Store Fire
"An ongoing investigation into what went wrong at the Sofa Super Store fire that killed nine Charleston firefighters on June 18, 2007. The Post and Courier's reports revealed numerous instances in which the fire department's leadership, training, equipment and tactics conflict with other area fire departments and national practices and standards. The newspaper also reported on shortcomings in the city's building inspection and water departments that contributed to the fire's rapid spread."
Tags: firefighters; city government; FOIA; 911; OSHA
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Ill Rocky Flats nuclear workers
The reporters found that the federal government was limiting compensation for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers. The story focused on workers from Rocky Flats nuclear site near Denver, where hundreds of workers were denied medical and financial compensation. The reporters also revealed the full known human cost of the nation's nuclear weapons complex: radiation sickened 36,500 and killed at least 4,000 of those who built bombs, mined uranium, and breathed test fallout.
Tags: nuclear weapons; uranium; radiation; OSHA; federal government; insurance; illness
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Accidents Rise on Campuses as Insections Decline
"The number of serious accidents on college campuses has increased by about 50 percent over the past 20 years while government enforcement of occupational safety rules has fallen sharply. These changes among colleges were larger than for all types of employers as a whole. Many public colleges and universities are exempt from any OSHA inspections and so can afford to pay less attention to work place safety without serious repercussion. In some states, inspectors lack the legal authority to fine public colleges. Colleges with the largest fines included both large and small institutions."
Tags: OSHA; accidents; safety; government regulations; inspections
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Deadly Consequences
This series investigates an explosion at an excavation site in the Northern California suburb of Walnut Creek that killed five workers. It was known that a high-pressure petroleum line was in the immediate area, but the reporters used public records and extensive reporting to find out how it was ruptured.
Tags: Freedom of Information; FOIA; worker safety; California Public Records Act; OSHA; construction; gas