Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman's slides from the Center for Health Journalism webinar, "Toxic Cities: Telling Big Stories on Hidden Risks" 6.6.19 More info: https://www.centerforhealthjournalism.org/content/what-s-stake-rural-america-loses-its-hospitals

1. Toxic City
Barbara Laker, Wendy Ruderman and Dylan Purcell
Edited by Jim Neff; photos by Jessica Griffin
Supported by grants from USC Center for Health Journalism, the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health
Journalism, and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

2. TOXIC CITY: LEAD PAINT (Oct. 2016)
Poorest big city + old housing meant more lead poisoning

3. These twin
boys, age 2,
were poisoned
by lead in their
rental home.
One boy’s
blood lead level
was 46! Their
landlord? NFL
Hall of Famer
Marvin
Harrison, a
millionaire with
80 properties.

4. Jalen’s
mom uses
flashcards
to help
Jalen with
reading.
“It feels
like your
child was
robbed.”
-- Avril
Absolum,
Jalen’s
mom

5. BEFORE AFTER
This landlord had certified his house as lead safe; a city health
inspector agreed. But was it?

7. TOXIC CITY: TAINTED SOIL (June 2017)
Jana’s
daughter
got lead
poisoning
from dirt
in her
own
backyard.
At 18
months,
she
spoke
only two
words.

9. WE DUG A LOT OF DIRT:
500 bags in all

11. More smelters than any big city

12. Breakneck
construction
unearthed a
toxic legacy,
coating
playgrounds,
yards and
front steps
with lead
dust. Simple
dust-control
measures
would have
prevented
that.

13. We spent a
day at a lab
learning how
to take
dust-wipe
samples.

14. 1,760 micrograms
of lead in dust per
square foot --
44 X higher than
residential limit
for porches.
Before
construction:
0 micrograms.
.
After: 127.4
micrograms of
lead dust
SWAB

15. TOXIC CITY: SICK SCHOOLS
MAY 2018

16. So you’re thinking of investigating environmental
hazards inside public schools?
Asthma triggers:
mold, rodents and
cockroaches
Carcinogens:
asbestos fibers and
silica dust
Toxins:
lead in water and
damaged lead paint
(and lead dust)

17. OK, how does your school district track problems
and how is that data stored?
● Maintenance logs
● Work orders
● Asbestos surveys (AHERA)
● Drinking water survey and test results
● Building-level asthma numbers (# of students with asthma, # of attacks by
month, # of times meds given)
● Paint and plaster surveys
● Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs)
● Renovation and construction contracts and budgets

18. Our best data: We used school maintenance logs to
come up the most rundown elementary schools and
guide staffers to test. (In Philly, it’s called the IEQ dashboard)
Here, JB Kelly elementary had moldy, damaged asbestos in a kindergarten room:

19. Photos can be vital. This is what a moldy pipe
at JB Kelly looked like:

20. The IEQ, or Indoor
Environmental
Quality, database
has many fields:
● School
● Room location
● Corrective
action
● Repeat
problem?
● Status. Fixed?

21. Request copies of
federally required
AHERA reports on
asbestos
This one shows damaged
asbestos found in several areas
during one school inspection:

22. Old buildings with water
damage can release
lead dust and
deteriorate asbestos
insulation.

23. Finding teachers willing to take samples for us
was like...

24. ●
●
●

26. Damaged
asbestos tiles
in a school
auditorium

28. For
instance,
regular
water
bottles
were fine
and MUCH
MORE
DISCREET

29. This mom was upset that her 10-year-old daughter, who suffers from
developmental delays and autistic spectrum disorder, regularly drank from a
water fountain at her school that tested at 44.6 ppb.

31. These are asbestos results from an
elementary school in South Philly.
Scary amounts of asbestos fibers:
● 4.5 million
● 1.89 million
● 4.1 million
● 567,000
● 2.8 million
● 3.2 million
OVER 100,000 is DANGER LIMIT

33. We got the crazy idea to test for silica. I’m
not kidding. And we did…...

36. 6-year-old Dean Pagan
landed in the hospital
with a 46 blood lead
level.
He has lost his ability to do
simple math, like adding
three plus three in his head.

38. Powerful
human stories
+
Unassailable
test results
+
Sustained time
and resources
=
RESULTS

39. JULY
2016

40. July 2018
QUESTIONS?