Project

American Imports, Chinese Deaths

Reporter Loretta Tofani gets inside America's factory, China, where the lack of health and safety precautions has Chinese workers dying.

In interviews with dozens of dying workers and through review of their medical records, she documents how Chinese workers routinely lose limbs from old machinery or develop fatal diseases from exposure to toxins while making products for export to the U.S. market.

Analysis of U.S. import records traces the goods those workers make to U.S. businesses and consumers. A century ago death and disease were the norm for American workers too, on unregulated factory floors. Those risks have shifted now to China. But America is still at the heart of the story, a result of its reliance on Chinese workers to make cheap consumer goods. Tofani's reporting shows how Chinese workers are paying the real price of Americans' cheap goods, with their health and their lives.

They Pay the Cost for China's Cheap Labor

Globalization has intensified competition international trade. While U.S. companies outsource manufacturing to China to increase their profit margins, Chinese labors are paying for the difference.

Loretta Tofani Awarded "Special Citation" as Daniel Pearl Award Finalist

Loretta Tofani was awarded $2,000 by a five judge panel at the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting for her "American Imports, Chinese Deaths" reporting project. Formerly called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Award, the honor was renamed this year after Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered in 2002 by Pakistani militants. Two teams of journalists were awarded $10,000 each and the title of the 2008 Daniel Pearl Award.

Loretta Tofani Named Daniel Pearl Award Finalist

Loretta Tofani was awarded $2,000 by a five judge panel at the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting for her "American Imports, Chinese Deaths" reporting project. Formerly called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Award, the honor was renamed this year after Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered in 2002 by Pakistani militants. Two teams of journalists were awarded $10,000 each and the title of the 2008 Daniel Pearl Award.

Loretta Tofani Wins Michael Kelly Award

Loretta Tofani has won the 2008 Michael Kelly Award for her series "American Imports, Chinese Deaths."

The $25,000 award "honors a writer or editor whose work exemplifies a quality that animated Michael Kelly's career: the fearless pursuit and expression of truth." (Michael Kelly Award Press Release) Tofani was chosen from over 50 journalists for 2007 work published in U.S. newspapers and magazines.

Loretta Tofani Wins Sigma Delta Chi Award for Investigative Reporting

Loretta Tofani won the 2007 Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism for "American Imports, Chinese Deaths" published in The Salt Lake Tribune.

She won in the category of investigative reporting (circulation of 100,000 or greater). This year's winners were chosen by the Society of Professional Journalists from more than 1,000 entries of work published in 2007 in 48 categories including print, radio, television and online. The awards will be presented July 11 during the annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards banquet at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.