Joe Rubin

This story was produced with support from the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s California Impact Fund.

How an agency charged with protecting public health gave talking points to the lead-battery industry.

Health officials took eight days to send letters to parents of children possibly contaminated by lead. And not everyone received a letter.

Santa Clara County has not revealed how many of the children who attended a now-shuttered gymnastics facility have been tested for lead.

An investigation revealed that lead from the gun range contaminated the inside of the gymnastics center. The county health department closed the youth facility Friday until further notice. And the process of figuring out if vulnerable children have been poisoned from lead exposure is underway.

Joe Rubin is a Sacramento-based investigative reporter and a fellow with USC Annenberg’s Center for Health Journalism. His reporting on workplace exposures to lead in California has appeared in Capital & Main.

An investigation finds that at least 80 companies continue to have workers in California who are lead-poisoned at levels high enough to cause birth defects, tremors and a variety of brain disorders.