{
  "id": "1998-february-highlights-from-the-database-library",
  "slug": "1998-february-highlights-from-the-database-library",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-february-highlights-from-the-database-library.html",
  "year": 1998,
  "month": "February",
  "monthNum": 2,
  "headline": "Highlights from the Database Library",
  "kicker": "OSHA",
  "author_name": "Justin Mayo",
  "author_title": "Database Administrator",
  "affiliation": "NICAR",
  "summary": "NICAR has released an updated OSHA database spanning 1974-1997 containing workplace safety information organized into four relatable tables, with experienced computer-assisted reporters sharing practical tips for analyzing the data to uncover workplace safety violations and fatalities.",
  "keywords": [
    "database",
    "workplace",
    "safety"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Data & Databases",
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Public Safety"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "CD-ROM"
  ],
  "full_text": "Computer-assisted reporters unite! Now available is a database that NICAR recently updated and that the federal agency overseeing worker well-being maintains.\n\nThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration database is cumulative from 1974 through November 1997. NICAR will slice off information from your state or you can order the entire U.S. database on 4 CDs.\n\nThe OSHA database includes 4 tables that may be analyzed separately or joined using the activity number field appearing in each one. Here are the tables and some of the information they contain:\n\nOSHA: The main table which gives company sites, previous violations, the number of workers employed at the site in the previous 12 months and other OSHA activity at the sites, such as inspections or complaints.\n\nAccidents: Names those injured, identifies the task that was being performed when the accident occurred, indicates whether a hazardous substance contributed to the accident, lists which body parts were injured, and indicates the degree of the injury - for example, whether it was fatal.\n\nHazardous Substances: Describes accidents that involve hazardous substances but that do not involve people.\n\nViolations: Details penalties, types of violations - willful, repeat, serious, the number of employees exposed to the danger.\n\nAlthough this relational database structure can be tricky, it should not scare off CAR neophytes. St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, Virginia Baldwin Hick, first used OSHA data in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch series that examined local workplace falls that resulted in fatalities.\n\n\"I cut my teeth in computer-assisted reporting by using OSHA data,\" Hick says. \"OSHA had just put into place new regulations on fall protection. I featured how these regulations were supposed to save lives.\"\n\nHere are some tips Hick, former Post-Dispatch reporter Natalya Shulyakovskaya and reporter Russell Carollo, who used OSHA at the Dayton Daily News, offer for handling the data.\n\nUse ZIP codes. \"Some companies had many, many locations,\" Carollo says. \"If you used company names, like General Motors, you'd end up with a zillion hits. We used ZIP codes to identify locations.\"\n\nLook for deaths. \"One of the more interesting queries is to look for citations that result from fatalities,\" Carollo says. \"Once you've got those, you can get all the paperwork on it because somebody's dead. Then rank those in order of monetary fines.\"\n\nFind the survivors. \"Look through the data field of fatalities, find the names and look up the survivors early,\" Hick says. \"It helped me focus my story and focus my interviews. We're not talking about meaningless data; we're talking about lives. If you zero in on that story, you see how other things fit.\"\n\nExamine penalty fields carefully. \"There are actually three different amounts of penalties that you will see for each inspection,\" Shulyakovskaya says. First comes from the OSHA table; it's called 'total current penalties' and represents the initially assessed fine. Second is the 'current penalty reflecting changes and modifications', which indicates the fine negotiated between the company and OSHA. It appears in the violations table. Third is the 'total penalty dollars remitted for the inspection, which what was actually paid. This appears in the OSHA table.\n\nTake advantage of SIC codes. \"We didn't get into looking at OSHA for dangerous occupations because the occupation field is rarely filled in,\" Hick says, \"but standard industrial codes (SIC) are listed. These are standard codes used throughout federal government. SIC codes indicate how the industry is classified in the federal bureaucracy. You can find out which types of industries have the most fatalities.\"\n\nJustin Mayo is Database Administrator at NICAR. He can be reached at (573) 884-7711 or by e-mail at justin@nicar.org",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
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  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-february-highlights-from-the-database-library.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1998-february-highlights-from-the-database-library.json"
}