Poisoned: Tampa’s Lead Problem

UPDATE: “Poisoned,” the investigative series supported by FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative that is the subject of this podcast episode, won a George Polk Award and a Pulitzer Prize in 2022.

For years, hundreds of workers at the Gopher Resource lead smelting plant in Florida were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in the air. “Poisoned,” a new investigative series from the Tampa Bay Times, in collaboration with FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, uncovers the consequences of what happened.

Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray gained access to thousands of pages of regulatory reports, company documents and employee medical records. Johnson joins FRONTLINE’s executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, on The FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss the project and what the reporters found after months of investigating.