Enhance your reporting on private companies with OSHA records

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Tony Cook of the Indianapolis Star dug into state Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports to get an up close look at a company likened to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. However, his story says, “Working at the food and beverage flavor manufacturer on Indianapolis’ Southwestside is no child fantasy.”

Tony writes employees at the plant were exposed to high levels of some chemicals that could cause life-threatening lung conditions, comas or death. He writes that the company has sued to keep “state and federal health and safety agencies to prevent them from inspecting conditions at the facility.” An appeals court decision found by a colleague led Tony to the story and to the OSHA filings.

Tony Cook

“Court records and OSHA records are two great places to find out what’s going in private business,” Tony says. “It’s a challenge for a lot of newsrooms to keep tabs on civil court filings and new OSHA citations, but it’s an important service to provide for readers to find out if there’s anything additional behind those orders.”

Reporters can find OSHA citations online, but getting the detailed narrative related to the citations requires a public records request, Tony says. In Indiana, companies can redact information before reporters get the records, he says. Readers can see the how much information the company redacted on the document excerpts posted online.

Tony had to rely on statements to OSHA to get employees’ voices into the story, he says.

“It was easy to hear what the company had to say and what OSHA had to say, but the challenging part was finding out what workers were experiencing and getting their voice into the story,” Tony says.

Another thing I learned in talking to Tony is some states have their own OSHA agencies. Citation information from these states may not be up-to-date on the federal site.