Alison Young Investigates

Hillman Prize event in NYC honors 'Ghost Factories'

Hillman Foundation

A photo from the recent Hillman Prize ceremony in New York. I'm joined onstage with USA TODAY colleagues Stan Wilson Jr., Kristin DeRamus and Peter Eisler. Many more photos are posted by the Hillman Foundation on their website.

'Ghost Factories' wins Hillman Prize, National Headliner

Our "Ghost Factories" investigation today received a prestigious Hillman Prize, which honors investigative reporting in service to the common good. On Friday, the series was honored with a second-place for Journalistic Innovation in the National Headliner Awards.

Here's what the Sidney Hillman Foundation said about our series: 

More than a decade ago, the Environmental Protection Agency was warned that soil in hundreds of U.S. neighborhoods might be dangerously contaminated with lead from factories that closed long ago. Yet USA TODAY reporter Alison Young, with additional reporting by Peter Eisler, found state and federal regulators left thousands of families and children in harm’s way, doing little to check out the sites or warn residents of the danger.

Lead from old smelters settles into the topsoil, where children can easily be exposed to it. It is a potent neurotoxin. Minute amounts of lead can cause decreased IQ, delayed puberty, and other irreversible damage to children, who are the most susceptible to its effects. According to EPA standards, lead levels in children’s play areas should not exceed 400 ppm, but the reporters found lead levels in excess 2,000 ppm in several neighborhoods and lead levels over 3,400 ppm in Cleveland, OH, Portland, Ore., and Carteret, NJ.

The series has resulted in the EPA reexamining risks at 464 sites nationwide, following calls for action by seven U.S. senators. More than a dozen state agencies also have been conducting investigations and several sites are already targeted for cleanups.

“Ghost Factories” stood out in the Web Journalism category because the investigation was reported and written as a digital-first project, harnessing the storytelling power of the newspaper’s online platforms. These journalists made effective use of a wide range of innovative reporting and storytelling techniques — combining the research of archival maps, photographs and dusty old records with the use of state-of-the-art scientific instruments and digital publishing technology.

Young and Eisler were trained to test soil with $41,000 hand-held X-ray devices in 21 smelter neighborhoods in 13 states and their work was verified by a laboratory at Tulane University. They also obtained medical records from children living in contaminated areas, proving that the youngsters had accumulated excess lead in their bodies.

In an effort to further reach out to people living in several of the smelter neighborhoods where reporters did soil testing, USA TODAY distributed more than 1,000 free copies of the print newspaper, explaining how to find information about every local site online.

“Ghost Factories” combines journalistic rigor, technical innovation, a humane sensibility, and an implacable drive for accountability.

 

 

 

 

Inspections lax at labs working with bioterror germs

Government inspections often failed to detect important safety and security lapses at laboratories working with dangeorus germs and toxins that can be used as bioterror weapons, a recent audit found. Meanwhile, a new GAO report says the United States is at increased risk of accidents at these high-containment labs because there continue to be no national standards for their design, construction and maintenance. 

Read my full story in USA TODAY: Reports warn of lax inspections, bioterror lab risks

Smelter series gets nods from Scripps Howard, Oakes awards

USA TODAY's "Ghost Factories" series was recently a finalist in two categories of the Scripps Howard Awards. It was a finalist for the Roy W. Howard Award for Public Service reporting, and also a finalist for the Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize for Investigative Reporting. (Full press release.)

The series also received an honorable mention in the competition for the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism. (Full press release.)

EPA: No current plans to revise lead hazard levels for soil, dust

Last May, because of current science showing children are harmed by even low-level exposures to lead, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut by half the amount of the toxin in a child's blood that should trigger public health actions.

Contaminated house dust and soil are among the key ways children are exposed to lead. Yet the Environmental Protection Agency says it has no current plans to revise its 2001 standards for how much lead is considered hazardous in dust and soil.

The EPA has been studying whether its house dust standard is protective enough since it received a formal petition in 2009 from a group of environmental and children's advocates. But the soil standard wasn't part of that petition and the EPA told USA TODAY last week it believes it is effective.

Read the full story: EPA fails to revise key lead-poisoning hazard standards

More homes get cleanups because of USA TODAY series

At least five more homes near a forgotten lead factory site in Portland, Ore., will have lead-contaminated soil removed from their yards by the Environmental Protection Agency. The planned cleanups, which are in addition to 20 tons of lead- and arsenic-tainted soil already removed from one home in the neighborhood, are a result of USA TODAY's "Ghost Factories" investigation. 

Read the full story: EPA to clean up more yards near lead-factory site

USA TODAY's soil tests in the Portland neighborhood around the former site of Multnomah Metals found potentially hazardous levels of lead contamination.

 

C-SPAN discusses CDC bioterror lab security issues

I appeared this morning on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" to talk about my recent USA TODAY report on the CDC's lab security issues.

 

 

'It’s impossible to find the limits to the depth of the reporting'

The Society for News Design, in awarding USA TODAY's "Ghost Factories" project a silver medal, offered these words of praise:

"If you keep drilling down into the story, it’s impossible to find the limits to the depth of the reporting.”

“The presentation is so smart; it begs you to engage with it.”

 

CDC bioterror labs cited in audits for repeated security failures

Labs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "compromised" their ability to safeguard potential bioterror agents against loss or theft with repeated failures to follow security procedures, according to "restricted" inspector general reports USA TODAY obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The three reports issued during 2010, 2009 and 2008 provide a rare outside assessment of CDC's safety and security performance in its work with dangerous "select agents" such as anthrax. CDC, which until recently inspected its own labs, has refused to release its inspection reports. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee says he'll be looking into the problems cited by the HHS IG.

The inspector general reports predate problems I reported on last summer with other problems at CDC's high-containment labs in Atlanta. Those included repeated issues with airflow systems designed to help contain dangerous pathogens and repeated problems with security doors left unlocked.

Read the full story and access links to copies of the IG reports at: CDC bioterror labs cited for security flaws in audits

'Ghost Factories' wins awards from AHCJ, SABEW

USA TODAY's "Ghost Factories" investigation of hazards posed by forgotten lead factories received top honors this week from national health and business journalism associations.

The Association of Health Care Journalists awarded the series first place in investigative reporting among large news organizations.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers saluted "Ghost Factories" multimedia presentation with its new innovation award. The judges said: "USA Today clearly felt the poisons lurking in America’s collapsing industrial infrastructure was a story worthy of its best innovative effort. Excellent design, deep reporting and a solid, yet understated, user-experience combine to offer this year’s definitive perspective of the dangers of industrial toxins. Judges were especially impressed by reporters trained to measure for industrial impurities on their own, bringing a new meaning to the term 'investigative journalism.' "