Center environmental investigations honored nationally

Introduction

Three Center for Public Integrity investigations examining environmental and health hazards have been honored in recent weeks with four national reporting prizes.

The investigative reports ranged from a year-long examination into clean air hazards in the U.S. to an exploration of how a rare kidney disease is killing laborers and confounding scientists across continents.

The work honored:

• Poisoned Places, a 2011 series describing how communities continue to encounter Clean Air Act hazards decades after Congress promised sweeping reforms, won 1^st Place in the 2012 Science in Society Journalism Awards. Honored were Center journalists Jim Morris, Chris Hamby, Ronnie Greene, Elizabeth Lucas and Emma Schwartz, along with a National Public Radio team that produced companion reports. Separately, Poisoned Places this week received the Heywood Broun Award of Distinction.
• Mystery in the Fields, a 3-part series published last month describing how a rare kidney disease is killing laborers from Central American to Sri Lanka, won the Sidney Hillman Foundation Sidney Award for October. Honored were writer Sasha Chavkin, photojournalist Anna Maria Barry-Jester and editor Ronnie Greene.
• Fueling Fears, a series exploring worker and environmental hazards at America’s aging oil refineries, won the National Press Foundation’s Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing. The Foundation recognized the work of Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Kimberly Leonard.