We speak with Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Corey Johnson discusses Poisoned, a Tampa Bay Times’ series that exposed how Gopher Resource, Florida’s only lead smelter, endangered hundreds of workers and polluted the surrounding low-income community.
On this edition of Your Call, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Corey Johnson discusses Poisoned, a Tampa Bay Times’ series that exposed how Gopher Resource, Florida’s only lead smelter, endangered hundreds of workers and polluted the surrounding low-income community.
The company extracted lead from used car batteries, melted it down and turned it into blocks of metal to resell. The 18-month investigation found that between 2014 and 2018, eight out of 10 workers had enough lead in their blood to put them at risk of increased blood pressure, kidney dysfunction or cardiovascular disease. How have politicians and government regulators responded to this investigation?