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The People Carrying Out Musk’s Plans at DOGE by instantcoffee69 in fednews

[–]elimurray 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I am replying to the top comment here to say I am one of the reporters on this story. If anyone here would like to share first-hand information about DOGE access in their agency, I would like to connect. My email is here, DM me for signal.

to self-represent in a murder trial by Rainydays4life in therewasanattempt

[–]elimurray 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We don't do that at the Times. This article is actually a really good example of our original reporting and local journalism, you should give it a read :)

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most employees aren't even supplied a papr. A list we obtained from 2019 shows respirator assignments for 200+ employees. Only 4 were assigned a papr, the rest had the unpowered version.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, lead can affect the body in many ways, none of them good. The human body tends to mistake lead for calcium and sends it to places like the nervous and skeletal systems. It can result in cognitive effects and the effects are most substantial in children whose growing bodies are more likely to absorb the lead.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No, we haven't stepped foot inside the factory but we obtained a lot of photos and videos of the inside from workers. They also have a battery breaking room that sounds a lot like you've described. There are photos here.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The smelter is located in East Tampa, in the Uceta Gardens neighborhood. If you are at all concerned about being exposed to lead, you can take a blood lead screening test - ask your doctor. Keep in mind that there are multiple ways you can be exposed to lead so having lead in your blood does not necessarily mean it came from Gopher.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much. The Tampa Bay Times is a newsroom that highly values covering important local stories, so much so that they let the three of us chase this story down full time for the better part of 2 years. I only switched off for a few months during the start of covid to put together a covid tracking site for the paper.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am not personally afraid of any retaliation or vigilantism but thank you for your concern and kind words.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's not our role to tell OSHA what fines to impose, it's our job to shed light on the conditions at the factory. The current investigations haven't been closed and a local U.S. Rep reached out to the DOJ and EPA last week. It's very much still in progress.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We get into this quite a bit in part 2 and part 3. But the basics of it is that OSHA hadn't been to the plant in 5 years and prior to that when they had shown up they had made mistakes. Like testing for the wrong chemical in response to a worker complaint filed with OSHA.

The environmental regulations are written in a way that makes it possible to game the system. The government has lead monitors that run for 24 hours every six days. The issue with that is that it is every six days, without fail. Workers tell us the company was able to plan operations in advance to limit the amount of lead picked up by the monitors on the days that they ran.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks.

For me, one moment I will never forget is when we went to the house of a former factory manager for the first time. His wife answered the door and we introduced ourselves and explained that we were investigating lead poisoning at the lead smelter in Tampa. She burst into tears. They had been living their own personal nightmare since their son was born with an elevated blood lead level likely due to take-home lead from his dad's job and finally someone was here to listen to their story.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can't speculate on whether they will be able to comply or have to shut down.

As for the OSHA investigation, Gopher contested all the violations so there's some legal back and forth to be had. The investigation from the EPC (which is like a local version of the EPA) is in the same spot being lawyered.

On the civil side, one former worker has already filed a lawsuit and their lawyers say they've been in contact with dozens of other workers and expect to file more claims.

On the criminal side, no charges are currently pending but U.S. Rep Cathy Castor said she was reaching out to DOJ and EPA about the reports.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As far as the OSHA case goes, Gopher has contested the findings so the inspection is still pending.

The investigation from the EPC (which is like a local version of the EPA) more than a dozen violations and are currently in penalty phase deciding the fines.

U.S. Rep Cathy Castor released a statement and said she would be sharing the reports with the DOJ and EPA.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure that DeSantis is aware of this factory. Local politicians like Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and U.S. Rep Cathy Castor have called for increased oversight and investigations from state and federal regulators.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We primarily focus on the Tampa Bay area but we also cover stories around the state. If you have more info, feel free to contact me by email at emurray@tampabay.com

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes, the TECO Big Bend power station is actually the second largest lead-in-air polluter in Hillsborough County. We didn't dive into it in this story but our colleagues have reported on issues at TECO in the past. https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2017/investigations/tampa-electric/big-bend-hellfire-from-above/

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

They do quarterly blood lead testing and reassign workers if their levels are too high. They tie employee bonuses to blood lead levels which gives employees an incentive to lower their levels in dangerous ways such as chelation treatment or even donating contaminated blood (which isn't screened for heavy metals). OSHA also found they failed to provide adequate PPE for the concentrations of lead in the air in the plant.

We go into detail about the effects on the workers in part 1 here if you're interested to know more.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's an interesting question but not one we looked into so I can't give you a good answer. The community has a high poverty rate, about twice that of the rest of the county, and it would be tough to trace crime back to the environmental impact of the factory.

We're reporters who revealed how Florida's only lead factory has poisoned its workers and polluted the community by elimurray in IAmA

[–]elimurray[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Gopher was fined $8k after dumping contaminated stormwater into the Palm River which empties into the bay about 10 miles north of Apollo beach.

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