The 2013 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism goes to an outstanding investigative team from the Chicago Tribune for “Playing With Fire,” an expose of the machinations of the chemical industry and Big Tobacco to put ineffective and potentially hazardous flame-retardant chemicals in mattresses, couch cushions, and other soft furnishings. The dogged reporting of Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe, and Michael Hawthorne revealed falsified fire tests, a successful bid to infiltrate the ranks of state fire marshalls, and much more. 

A building that housed several garment factories has collapsed in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, killing at least 70 people, injuring about 600, and leaving others trapped in the wreckage:. 

NEW DELHI – An eight-story building in Bangladesh that housed several garment factories collapsed on Wednesday morning, killing at least 70 people, injuring hundreds of others, and leaving an unknown number of people trapped in the rubble, according to Bangladeshi officials and media outlets.

The building collapse occurred in Savar, a suburb of the national capital of Dhaka, and is the latest tragic accident to afflict Bangladesh’s garment industry. Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading garment exporter, trailing only China, but the industry has been beleaguered with safety concerns, angry protests over rock-bottom wages and other problems.

This latest fatal accident, coming five months after a fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory killed at least 112 garment workers, is likely to again raise questions about work conditions in Bangladesh: workers told Bangladeshi news outlets that supervisors had ordered them to attend work on Wednesday, even though cracks were discovered in the building on Tuesday. 

Brian Williams and his investigative team won the 2013 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for their coverage of appalling safety conditions in the Bangladeshi garment industry. Thy found that leading U.S. firms including Walmart, Tommy Hilfiger, Gap, Sears and even ABC’s own parent company, Disney, manufacture clothing in Bangladesh, home of the world’s lowest minimum wage, just $37 a month.

These low wages come at a high price. As a result of grossly substandard safety practices, lax government enforcement, and ineffectual “audits” by industry groups that purport to self-police working conditions, more than 500 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in fires and building collapses in the last few years.

This week’s building collapse underscores the urgency of the Bangladeshi garment workers’ fight for decent working conditions. The Hillman Foundation presents its Officers’ Award for Public Service to these workers, in memory of Aminul Islam, a garment worker activist who fought tirelessly for better working conditions until he was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered, likely for his activism. 

It’s part of the American Dream: You work hard so your kids can have a home with a back yard to play in. What if you found out that your home is sitting on the remains of an old lead smelter, decomissioned in the 1930s, but never properly cleaned up? What if you found out that the dust in the yard where your children play is slowly poisoning them with a neurotoxin that can stunt their growing brains and bodies for life? What if you found the Environmental Protection Agency knew about your tainted lot for a decade and never even warned you?

USA Today’s “Ghost Factories” sounded the alarm for thousands of families with young children living under the silent threat of lead contamination. Today, the Sidney Hillman Foundation proudly announced that reporters Alison Young and Peter Eisler have won the 2013 Hillman Prize for Web Journalism for exposing the threat of lead-contaminated soil from hundreds of abandoned smelters nationwide. Since their story broke, the EPA has investigated 464 potentially contaminated sites across the country and U.S. Senators have called for action on the issue.

Packed with videos, rare maps, and other special features, “Ghost Factories” is a masterpiece of investigative journalism and digital storytelling. Click to learn more about Young and Eisler’s award-winning expose. 

Last Wednesday, a fertilizer plant in Texas exploded, killing at least 14 people and leaving as many as 60 people missing. No one knows why the plant blew up. All eyes are on the U.S. Chemical Safety Board for answers, but answers may be a long time in coming. The CSB, a watchdog agency modelled on the Transportation Safety Board, is supposed to investigate chemical accidents and offer recommendations on how to prevent similar mishaps. However, according to the Center for Public Integrity, the board is still slogging through the investigations of much smaller disasters that happened years ago:

The number of board accident reports, case studies and safety bulletins has fallen precipitously since 2006, an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found. Thirteen board investigations — one more than five years old — are incomplete.

As members of Congress raise questions, the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is auditing the board’s investigative process.

The CSB pledged to send “a large investigative team” immediately after the Texas fertilizer explosion. While their prompt response is comendable, the board is notorious for pulling investigators off one probe and sending them to another before they’ve had a chance to finish their original inquiry. Prompt action on the disaster du jour may be pushing other investigations further behind. 

The CSB has been underfunded and understaffed since its launch in 1988. 

[Photo credit: Dead Air, Creative Commons.]