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" ...
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"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;
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School Poison: Lead in Drinking Water
WBNS-TV exposed the unhealthy levels of lead in the drinking water at several public schools and revealed the breakdowns in the state government system that is supposed to monitor the water's quality.
Tags: Natural Resources; water main; East Clinton High School; East Clinton Middle School; EPA; Environment;
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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
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Contaminated Water
The country's second largest school district knowingly exposed many of its students to drinking water that contained an unsafe amount of lead. It was uncovered that the Los Angeles Unified School District knew decades ago that the water was tainted.
Tags: LAUSD; department of health; EPA; water fountains; poison; contaminant;
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Playing with Poison
KHOU-TV conducted its own extensive testing of toys in the Houston area to check their lead content. They tested items from national chains, to local mom-and-pop stores. Throughout the process they consulted with experts to make sure they had the accurate testing and interpreted the data correctly. They found that 9 toys, which were sold on a national level, had "excessive and dangerous levels of lead."
Tags: safety; toys; consumer; lead; lab testing; scientists; toy stores; retailers; lead content; health
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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
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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
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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;
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Lead Astray
The Doe Run Co. is one of the largest lead producers in the world, owning smelters in Herculaneum, MO and evwn one in La Oroya, Peru.The smelter in Peru has not been cleaned up as promised, and the emissions from the smelter are endangering the lives of nearby families. Nearly half of the children near the smelter have mental defiencies, 10 percent of kids under the age of 7 have enough lead in their blood to need medical treatment.
Tags: St. Louis; Lead; Peru; Environment; Pollution; poison; EPA; cancer
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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