- 44 minutes ago
The most painful workplace disasters are often the ones that should never have happened at all. This narrated true-crime-style history traces a devastating chain of industrial accidents, police tragedies, and medical scandals, from Rana Plaza and Deepwater Horizon to factory fires, mine deaths, and toxic corporate negligence.
Across the episode, the stories move from unsafe buildings and ignored warnings to locked exits, unguarded machinery, suffocation hazards, and deadly exposure to radiation, chemicals, and drugs. It also follows individual cases of officers and workers whose lives were cut short in shocking, cruel, or suspicious ways, showing how pressure, poor safety culture, and corporate indifference can turn ordinary jobs into fatal ones.
This is a dark workplace disaster documentary, told in a fast-paced narrated format for listeners who enjoy industrial safety stories, occupational hazard history, labor disasters, and cautionary true stories. It is also a strong fit for fans of long-form history narration, investigative storytelling, and grim real-world case studies.
Created for searchers looking for workplace disaster stories, industrial accidents, factory fire history, mining disasters, oil rig blowouts, true stories of safety failures, and narrated documentary-style history. It also suits background listening for viewers interested in labor history, corporate negligence, and shocking real-life disaster cases.
Across the episode, the stories move from unsafe buildings and ignored warnings to locked exits, unguarded machinery, suffocation hazards, and deadly exposure to radiation, chemicals, and drugs. It also follows individual cases of officers and workers whose lives were cut short in shocking, cruel, or suspicious ways, showing how pressure, poor safety culture, and corporate indifference can turn ordinary jobs into fatal ones.
This is a dark workplace disaster documentary, told in a fast-paced narrated format for listeners who enjoy industrial safety stories, occupational hazard history, labor disasters, and cautionary true stories. It is also a strong fit for fans of long-form history narration, investigative storytelling, and grim real-world case studies.
Created for searchers looking for workplace disaster stories, industrial accidents, factory fire history, mining disasters, oil rig blowouts, true stories of safety failures, and narrated documentary-style history. It also suits background listening for viewers interested in labor history, corporate negligence, and shocking real-life disaster cases.
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LearningTranscript
00:00One Month's Pay
00:01On the 24th of April, 2013, more than 3,000 garment workers filed into Rana Plaza, an
00:08eight-story block in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, to sew clothes for Western brands.
00:15The day before, large cracks had split the walls and columns.
00:19An engineer inspected the building, declared it unsafe, and it was evacuated and closed.
00:25The shops and the bank inside stayed shut the next morning.
00:28Only the factories reopened.
00:30The owner, Sohel Rana, announced the building was safe and pressed the factories to resume.
00:36Workers were reportedly pressured or reassured to return despite the visible cracks, and
00:41they went back to their machines.
00:43Around 9 a.m. the power cut, the generators kicked on, and the vibrations tore through the already
00:49failing structure.
00:50The whole building pancaked in under 90 seconds.
00:53The dead were crushed under floors and machinery.
00:561,000, 134 people were killed.
01:01Most of them, young women, leaving an estimated 800 children orphaned.
01:07Rana and 37 others were charged with murder for a disaster investigators called entirely
01:12preventable.
01:13Call to pass.
01:14On the evening of the 20th of April, 2010, 11 men were working to finish and seal the
01:20Macondo well on the Deepwater Horizon rig, about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf
01:25of Mexico.
01:26The job was weeks behind schedule.
01:28Before displacing the heavy mud with lighter seawater, the crew ran a negative pressure test
01:33to confirm the well was sealed.
01:35The results contradicted each other.
01:38One line showed no flow.
01:40The drill pipe showed about 1,400 pounds per square inches, a clear sign the well was not
01:46sealed.
01:47Under pressure to finish, the crew explained the anomaly away and called the test a pass.
01:52They pumped out the heavy mud, and with the last barrier gone, oil and gas surged up the
01:58well.
01:58Around 9.50 p.m., the kick became a full blowout.
02:02Gas reached the rig, found an ignition source, and two explosions tore through it.
02:07All 11 men died on the rig, and their bodies were never recovered.
02:12The well then spilled for 87 days.
02:15The two sets of books.
02:17On the 5th of April, 2010, around 3 p.m., 31 miners were working underground at the Upper
02:24Big Branch Mine near Montcol in Raleigh County, West Virginia, run by a Massey Energy subsidiary.
02:30The mine had piled up hundreds of citations, many for the exact conditions that were about
02:35to kill them, bad ventilation and unchecked coal dust.
02:40Methane had accumulated because ventilation controls were inadequate.
02:44Coal dust lay thick because it hadn't been properly treated with rock dust.
02:49When a cutting machine struck rock and sparked, it ignited the methane, and the fireball raced
02:55into the untreated coal dust, turning a small flash into an explosion that tore through more
03:00than two miles of the mine.
03:0229 miners died of blast trauma, burns, and asphyxiation, and one man survived.
03:09Investigators found Massey had kept two sets of examination books, one recording hazards
03:14and one omitting them.
03:15CEO Don Blankenship went to prison for one year, but only on a misdemeanor conspiracy
03:21charge, the safety test.
03:23Just after 1 a.m. on the 26th of April, 1986, the night shift at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl
03:30plant near Pripyat in Soviet Ukraine ran a safety test at very low power with emergency
03:35systems disabled.
03:37The reactor was already unstable.
03:39When an operator pressed the emergency shutdown, the flawed graphite-tipped rods briefly spiked
03:45reactivity instead of killing it, and the core exploded, blowing off the reactor lid and
03:51opening the burning core to the sky.
03:53Two plant workers died at once, one buried in the rubble, and never recovered.
03:59Then, the firefighters and plant staff went in.
04:02They treated it as an ordinary industrial fire, without dosimeters or protective gear, because
04:07no one told them what they were walking into.
04:09They absorbed enormous doses over minutes and hours.
04:13Dozens of first responders and plant workers received severe radiation exposure, and 28 people
04:19died of acute radiation syndrome in the weeks that followed, as their bone marrow and organs
04:24failed.
04:25It remains the worst civilian nuclear accident in history.
04:29Dry drilling.
04:31In 1930, near Gawley Bridge in Fayette County, West Virginia, Union Carbide's contractor set
04:37roughly 3,000 men to dig a water diversion tunnel through Gawley Mountain.
04:42Many of the workers were black laborers recruited from the South for the job.
04:46The rock they hit was quartz sandstone, in places more than 98% crystalline silica.
04:53Wet drilling was known to suppress the dust.
04:55Dry drilling was faster, so that's what they used.
04:58In confined tunnel headings with no ventilation and no respirators.
05:03Witnesses said the wet method appeared only when inspectors did.
05:07The men worked 10- to 15-hour shifts in clouds of silica dust.
05:12Silica slices lung tissue and scars it.
05:15The men developed acute silicosis, breathless and wasting, and some died within a year.
05:20Death estimates have varied widely.
05:23Some sources cite 109 confirmed deaths.
05:26While later reviews and hearings gave much higher totals.
05:30Many were buried quickly in unmarked graves.
05:33No one was ever criminally prosecuted.
05:36Point the brush.
05:37Starting around 1,917, at the United States Radium Plant in Orange, New Jersey,
05:45young women were hired to paint luminous numbers onto watch dials using radium paint.
05:50To get a fine point, they were taught to shape the brush tip with their lips, dip, paint, and lip
05:56point again.
05:57Every few strokes, all shift long.
06:00They were told the paint was harmless.
06:02Some company literature called radium healthful.
06:05Radium behaves chemically like calcium and can accumulate in bone,
06:09where its radiation damages tissue from within.
06:12It settled in their jaws, teeth, and spines.
06:15Teeth fell out.
06:17Extraction sites never healed.
06:19Jawbones crumbled and had to be removed in pieces.
06:23Molly Maggia died in 1922 as her jaw disintegrated.
06:28The company blamed syphilis.
06:30In 1927, Grace Fryer and four dying co-workers sued for $250,000 each.
06:38In 1928, they settled for $10,000 apiece, medical costs, and a $600 annuity for life.
06:46The case helped establish a worker's right to sue for occupational disease.
06:51Soft Toys
06:52Around 4 p.m. on the 10th of May, 1993, fire broke out in the Kater Industrial Toy Factory in
06:59Nakhon Patham,
07:00on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, where workers were making stuffed toys for export.
07:05The workforce was overwhelmingly women and teenage girls.
07:09The factory had inadequate and poorly implemented fire exits,
07:13with some exits shown on the approved plans never actually built, and others reportedly locked or blocked.
07:19As the blaze spread, workers ran for doors they found locked.
07:23Then the steel supports gave way, and part of the structure collapsed.
07:28Some jumped from upper windows to escape.
07:32188 workers died, and 469 were injured,
07:37most from fire, smoke, entrapment, and the collapse.
07:41Bodies were found stacked in front of blocked exits.
07:44It was the third fire at the plant in five years,
07:47and it remains the worst factory fire ever recorded.
07:51Padlocked, again.
07:52The morning after Labor Day, the 3rd of September, 1991, around 8.15 a.m.,
07:59about 81 workers were on shift at the Imperial Food Products chicken plant in Hamlet, Richmond County, North Carolina.
08:07A hydraulic line feeding a cooker had been repaired in a makeshift way.
08:11When it was brought up to pressure, it burst, spraying fluid into the gas flames below
08:16and igniting a flash fire fed by chicken grease.
08:20Workers ran for the exits.
08:22Several doors were padlocked from the outside,
08:24and reports said management did so to prevent theft, echoing the Triangle fire 80 years earlier.
08:30There were no sprinklers, no working alarm, no fire drills,
08:35and the plant had never once been inspected in 11 years of operation.
08:3925 workers died of smoke inhalation and burns, many found clustered at the locked doors.
08:45The state cited 83 violations.
08:48Owner Emmett Rowe pleaded guilty to 25 counts of manslaughter,
08:52got a sentence near 20 years, and was paroled after roughly four.
09:0825-year-old officer Joe Burson, just a year on the force, pulls over a car for speeding.
09:14It's a routine traffic stop, the kind of thing that happens a thousand times a night all over the country.
09:19But this one is about to turn into a nightmare.
09:24The driver, a man named Ancy Dolce, decides he's not going to comply.
09:29Nope.
09:29He hits the gas.
09:30As the car lurches forward, Officer Burson becomes entangled.
09:35He is dragged along by the speeding vehicle.
09:37What happens next is a sequence of pure, visceral horror,
09:42all captured on his own body cam and dash cam.
09:46Joe is being dragged to his death.
09:48He's clinging on for dear life as the car picks up speed,
09:52his body being slammed against the asphalt.
09:55In these final, terrifying moments,
09:57with unimaginable pain and adrenaline coursing through him,
10:01he does something absolutely heroic.
10:04He doesn't give up.
10:06While being dragged, he manages to unholster his weapon.
10:09He fires at the driver, Ancy Dolce,
10:12in a desperate attempt to stop the car, to save his own life.
10:16He succeeds in shooting the driver, but it's too late.
10:20Both men would die from the incident.
10:22Ancy Dolce from the gunshot wounds,
10:25and Joe from the horrific trauma he sustained while being dragged down the road.
10:29He was a hero until the very end,
10:32fighting for his life and trying to stop the threat even as he was being killed.
10:37The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case.
10:40The police chief of Holly Springs called Burson a model officer and said,
10:45if you want to be a police officer, you should clone Joe Burson.
10:50Curtis Worland
10:52Police officers are trained to deal with human threats.
10:55They prepare for violence, for confrontations,
10:58for the worst that society can throw at them.
11:01But what about a threat that's prehistoric?
11:05A threat that has been roaming the frozen tundra since the last ice age.
11:11Meet Curtis Worland,
11:13a court services officer with the Alaska State Troopers.
11:16With 13 years of service,
11:19he was a seasoned veteran of law enforcement
11:21in one of the world's most unforgiving environments.
11:24On December 13, 2022,
11:27in the remote town of Nome, Alaska,
11:30Officer Worland faced his final call-out.
11:33But it wasn't a person he was responding to.
11:35It was a group of musk oxen.
11:38A herd of these massive, shaggy beasts had wandered near his home,
11:42and he went outside to try and haze them away from his dog kennel.
11:46Now, a musk ox is not a creature to be trifled with.
11:50We're talking about an 800-pound animal with sharp, curved horns and a temper to match.
11:56They look slow and dopey, but they can be incredibly aggressive.
12:01Worland, a man trained to de-escalate conflicts with people,
12:05found himself in a primal, man-versus-beast confrontation.
12:09One of the musk oxen charged him.
12:12He was trampled and gored.
12:13The sheer weight and power of the animal was overwhelming.
12:17It was the first recorded fatal musk ox attack in the history of Nome.
12:22The death of Officer Worland sent shockwaves through the small, tight-knit community.
12:27It's a death so bizarre, it's almost hard to process.
12:31He didn't die in a shootout or a car chase.
12:34He died on his own property,
12:36defending his dogs from a wild animal that seems like a relic from another time.
12:42Ryan Allen
12:43Let's go to Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
12:45Ryan Allen was the kind of cop you see in movies.
12:48At 35, he was a decorated canine officer,
12:51the founder of his department's canine unit,
12:54a father of two young sons.
12:56He was strong, brave,
12:58and trained to handle some of the most dangerous situations in policing.
13:02In October of 2021,
13:05Ryan's life was on an upward swing.
13:07He had just gotten married.
13:08Two days after the wedding,
13:10he was at home when he was stung by a bee.
13:13A bee.
13:14For most people, it's a painful nuisance.
13:17For Ryan Allen,
13:18it was a death sentence.
13:20He had no idea he was allergic.
13:23He suffered a massive anaphylactic shock.
13:25His body's reaction was swift and violent.
13:29He went into cardiac arrest,
13:30and his heart stopped beating for nearly 20 minutes.
13:34Paramedics were able to restart his heart,
13:36but the damage was done.
13:38The prolonged lack of oxygen to his brain
13:40caused a severe, irreversible brain injury.
13:44Ryan Allen,
13:45the tough canine cop,
13:47was now in a vegetative state.
13:49For five long months,
13:51he lay in a hospital bed,
13:52unresponsive.
13:53During this agonizing time,
13:56his wife,
13:56who he had just married,
13:58gave birth to their second son.
14:00A new life coming into the world
14:01as his father's was slipping away.
14:04His family held on to hope,
14:06but the man they knew was already gone.
14:08In April of 2022,
14:11after five months in a coma,
14:12Ryan Allen died.
14:14His community gave him a hero's farewell
14:17with a massive police procession
14:19called The Last Ride.
14:21His wife,
14:22now a widow and a coach
14:23for other grieving spouses,
14:25was left to raise their two sons alone.
14:29Liam Trimmer
14:30Let's continue with a story
14:32in Perth, Australia,
14:33on a day that should have been
14:34the happiest of a young man's life.
14:37It was March 9, 2024.
14:39Liam Trimmer,
14:41a 29-year-old senior constable
14:42with the Western Australia Police,
14:44was celebrating.
14:45And he had a lot to celebrate.
14:48Originally from the UK,
14:50Liam had moved to Australia
14:51and built a life for himself.
14:53He was a respected officer,
14:55part of the elite tactical response group,
14:58a real poster boy for the force.
15:01On this day,
15:02he and his partner,
15:03a nurse named Lily Watts,
15:05had gathered their friends and family
15:06for their engagement party.
15:08But there was more.
15:09They were also about to announce to the world
15:12that they were expecting their first child.
15:15It was a picture-perfect moment,
15:17a double celebration of love and new life,
15:20surrounded by the people who mattered most.
15:23In the midst of the joy and laughter,
15:25something went horribly, freakishly wrong.
15:29Liam slipped and fell.
15:31It could have been nothing,
15:32a clumsy moment,
15:33a spilled drink,
15:34a story to laugh about later.
15:36But it wasn't.
15:38In a one-in-a-million accident,
15:40as he fell,
15:41he cut his neck on a sharp object.
15:43The wound was catastrophic.
15:46It severed his carotid artery.
15:49Chaos erupted.
15:51His partner, Lily,
15:52a trained nurse,
15:53rushed to his side.
15:55Other officers and guests,
15:56trained in first aid,
15:58desperately tried to save him.
16:00They applied pressure.
16:01They did everything they could
16:02to stop the bleeding.
16:03But the injury was too severe.
16:06The man who had faced down
16:07armed criminals and tactical situations
16:10was bleeding to death
16:11in his own home,
16:12at his own engagement party,
16:14just moments after announcing
16:15he was going to be a father.
16:17Liam died right there,
16:19on the floor,
16:20surrounded by his loved ones.
16:22He died not in the line of duty,
16:24but in a moment of pure,
16:26cruel, random chance.
16:28A GoFundMe for his pregnant fiancé
16:31raised over $60,000.
16:32The police commissioner called him
16:35a shining example of a police officer.
16:38Rest in peace.
16:41Houston Tipping
16:43Sometimes the most painful death
16:45is one shrouded in suspicion,
16:47where the official story
16:48just doesn't add up.
16:50This is the story of Houston Tipping,
16:52a 32-year-old LAPD officer.
16:55The official report says
16:56he died in a tragic accident.
16:58His family says he was murdered
17:00by his own colleagues.
17:02In May of 2022,
17:04Officer Tipping was participating
17:06in a realistic training exercise
17:08at the LAPD's Elysian Park Academy.
17:11The scenario was meant to simulate
17:13grappling with a suspect.
17:15During this exercise,
17:17Tipping suffered a catastrophic
17:19spinal cord injury.
17:20He was rushed to the hospital,
17:22but it was too late.
17:23He died from his injuries.
17:25The LAPD called it a tragic accident,
17:28but Tipping's family and their lawyer
17:30paint a much, much darker picture.
17:33They claim this was no accident.
17:35It was an act of retaliation.
17:38According to their lawsuit,
17:39Houston Tipping was a whistleblower.
17:41He had recently filed a report
17:43accusing four of his fellow officers
17:45of being involved in a gang rape.
17:47The family alleges that those same officers,
17:50or their allies,
17:51orchestrated the training accident
17:53to silence him.
17:54The family's lawyer claims
17:56that Tipping was repeatedly struck
17:58in the head during the exercise
17:59and that his neck was broken.
18:01The autopsy report confirmed
18:03a broken neck and multiple broken ribs,
18:06injuries that seem extreme
18:07for a controlled training scenario.
18:10The family believes he was beaten to death
18:12by his colleagues
18:13in a brutal act of revenge
18:14disguised as a training mishap.
18:17The LAPD, of course, denies this.
18:20They conducted an internal investigation
18:22and, surprise, surprise,
18:24found no evidence of misconduct.
18:26They maintain that Houston Tipping's death
18:28was a terrible but accidental consequence
18:31of a realistic training exercise.
18:34So what's the truth?
18:35Was it a freak accident
18:36in a dangerous training environment?
18:38Or was it a cold-blooded murder,
18:40a conspiracy to silence a whistleblower
18:43carried out by the very people
18:44who were supposed to have his back?
18:47We may never know for sure,
18:48but for Houston Tipping,
18:50the pain of his death is compounded
18:52by the poison of suspicion.
18:55Crystal Rivera
18:57The line between partner and suspect
19:00can sometimes get blurry.
19:02In the chaotic world of policing,
19:05trust is everything.
19:06But what happens when that trust is broken
19:09in the most violent way imaginable?
19:12Let's go to Chicago, June 5, 2025.
19:1636-year-old officer Crystal Rivera,
19:19a four-year veteran and a mother
19:20to a young daughter,
19:22was responding to a call
19:23involving an armed suspect.
19:25During a foot chase,
19:27the situation got messy.
19:29The official story is that Crystal
19:31was tragically killed by friendly fire.
19:34Her partner, Officer Carlos Baker,
19:37fired his weapon at the suspect,
19:38but the bullet struck
19:39and killed Crystal instead.
19:41A terrible accident
19:43in a high-stress situation.
19:45But Crystal's family says
19:47that's a lie.
19:48They filed a wrongful death lawsuit
19:50and their claims paint a picture
19:52that is much, much darker.
19:55According to the family,
19:56Crystal and her partner,
19:58Officer Baker,
19:59weren't just colleagues.
20:00They were romantically involved.
20:02But the relationship had soured.
20:05Crystal had recently ended the affair
20:06after discovering Baker was unfaithful
20:08and she had allegedly threatened
20:10to expose the relationship
20:12to his live-in girlfriend.
20:13Suddenly, the friendly fire incident
20:16looks... different.
20:18The family's lawsuit claims
20:20that Baker intentionally shot Crystal
20:22in the back during the chase,
20:23using the chaos of the moment
20:25as cover for murder.
20:26They believe he killed her
20:28to silence her.
20:29And the tragedy doesn't even end there.
20:32As if the story wasn't painful enough,
20:34the police car that was rushing Crystal
20:37to the hospital crashed
20:38and burst into flames.
20:40A final, horrific indignity
20:42in a story already filled
20:44with suspicion and heartbreak.
20:46Was it a one-in-a-million accident?
20:48A tragic case of friendly fire
20:51in the heat of the moment?
20:52Or was it a cold, calculated murder
20:54committed by a fellow officer
20:56she once trusted with her life?
20:59The case is still under investigation,
21:01but the pain for Crystal Rivera's family
21:03is magnified by the horrifying possibility
21:06that she was killed not by a criminal,
21:08but by the man standing right next to her?
21:13Fred Fissler
21:15Finally, a story of tragic, classic irony.
21:19It was April 16, 2024,
21:21in Plainfield, Indiana.
21:23Deputy Fred Fissler,
21:24a husband and father to two young children,
21:26was on duty.
21:27He responded to a call
21:29about a single-vehicle accident.
21:31A car had lost control
21:32and slammed into an electricity pole.
21:34When Fissler arrived,
21:36he found a chaotic scene.
21:38The pole was shattered
21:39and live high-voltage power lines were down,
21:42lying across the wet road.
21:44The driver of the crashed car was injured
21:46and the scene was incredibly dangerous.
21:49Fred, with just two and a half years on the force,
21:51went to work.
21:52His job was to secure the area,
21:54to keep people away from the live wires,
21:57to help the injured driver,
21:58to make sure no one else got hurt.
22:00He was the first responder,
22:02the man in charge of bringing order to the chaos.
22:05In the darkness and confusion,
22:07while trying to manage the scene,
22:09Deputy Fissler made a fatal mistake.
22:11He came into contact
22:12with one of the live power lines.
22:14He was electrocuted instantly.
22:16The man who was there to save lives
22:19became a victim himself.
22:20He died right there,
22:22on the side of the road.
22:23It's a story that's heartbreaking
22:25in its simplicity.
22:26There was no malice,
22:28no criminal intent,
22:29just a simple, fatal misstep
22:31in a hazardous environment.
22:32The driver of the original accident
22:35was taken to the hospital.
22:40Alan Catterall
22:41Two days before Christmas, 2010,
22:45Piranha Mouldings,
22:46a kayak and canoe factory
22:47on the White House industrial estate
22:49in Runcorn, Cheshire, England.
22:52Alan Catterall, 54,
22:54was the senior supervisor,
22:5612 years with the company.
22:58His wife worked there,
22:59one of his daughters worked there,
23:01and on the morning of December 23rd,
23:03one of his daughter's boyfriends,
23:05the young man she was about to marry,
23:07was also on shift.
23:10A fault had developed
23:11on one of the rotational molding ovens,
23:13the machines that bake molten plastic
23:16around steel frames
23:17to shape a kayak hole.
23:19The oven was taken out of service
23:20for about an hour
23:21while the fault was tracked down.
23:23The initial problem was fixed.
23:25The operator,
23:26Alan's future son-in-law,
23:28noted the machine was now working
23:30and switched it back on.
23:32He had no idea Alan had gone inside.
23:36The oven's design,
23:37developed in-house by Piranha Mouldings,
23:40meant that the instant
23:41the electrical supply was restored,
23:43its power-operated doors
23:44swung shut and bolted from the outside.
23:47Metal bolts
23:48on the outside.
23:50There was no emergency release inside.
23:54No alarm.
23:55The insulated walls swallowed
23:58the sound of a man screaming
23:59on a noisy factory floor.
24:01No, dude!
24:02Alan had a crowbar.
24:04He used it.
24:06The oven reached temperatures
24:08of up to 280 degrees Celsius.
24:11Court records indicate
24:12he died of shock within 10 minutes.
24:15Staff only opened the doors
24:17when they noticed smoke drifting out.
24:19Piranha Mouldings
24:20was convicted
24:21of corporate manslaughter
24:22in January 2015.
24:25The verdict returned 10 to 2
24:27by the jury
24:27at Liverpool Crown Court
24:29after a five-week trial.
24:31The company was fined
24:32200,000 pounds.
24:35Director Peter Macareth
24:36received a nine-month
24:37suspended sentence
24:38and a personal fine
24:40of 25,000 pounds.
24:42The HSE inspector
24:44who led the investigation
24:46said the way maintenance
24:47was carried out
24:48was fundamentally unsafe.
24:51Elway, Lewis, and Robert
24:54January 16, 2017
24:56Long Key Road, Key Largo, Florida
25:01It's a Monday morning
25:02on a stretch of tourist road
25:04in the Florida Keys.
25:05Blue sky, palm trees,
25:07the kind of postcard backdrop
25:09that makes what's about to happen
25:11feel even more surreal.
25:13Four utility workers
25:15employed by private contractor
25:17Douglas N. Higgins, Inc.
25:19have been sent
25:19to investigate a complaint.
25:21A section of recently paved road
25:23has developed a slight dip.
25:25They find a manhole cover
25:27near the end of the street
25:28on the golf side of US-1.
25:30Routine stuff.
25:32One worker removes the cover.
25:35The drainage hole
25:36is just wide enough
25:37to fit a body.
25:39About 15 feet deep.
25:41Years of rotted vegetation
25:43at the bottom
25:43had been generating
25:44hydrogen sulfide
25:46and methane gas
25:46in concentrations
25:47nobody had tested for.
25:49Because nobody
25:50had tested for anything.
25:52The area had smelled
25:54like rotten eggs
25:55for months.
25:56A local resident,
25:58Barbara Guerra,
25:59told reporters,
26:00It was out here again
26:01this morning,
26:01and I'm used to it
26:02because they've been
26:03a whole year already.
26:04She used to bring
26:06the workers water.
26:07She knew their faces.
26:09The first man
26:10descended into the hole
26:11and went silent.
26:13The second climbed down
26:14to rescue him.
26:15He stopped responding.
26:17The third man
26:18entered to save
26:19both of them.
26:20All three were dead
26:22before anyone above ground
26:23fully understood
26:24what was happening.
26:26None of them
26:27were wearing respirators.
26:28No atmospheric tests
26:30had been run.
26:31No ventilation equipment
26:33had been set up.
26:35Elway Gray, 34
26:37Louis O'Keefe, 49
26:39Robert Wilson, 24
26:43Three men in a hole
26:44barely wide enough
26:45to hold them
26:46in the middle
26:47of the Florida Keys
26:48on a sunny Monday morning.
26:50A Key Largo firefighter,
26:52Leonardo Moreno,
26:53an eight-year veteran,
26:55responded to the 911 call.
26:57The entry point
26:58was too narrow
26:59for him to descend
27:00with his air pack,
27:01so he removed it.
27:02He was overcome
27:03within seconds
27:04and had to be dragged out.
27:06He was airlifted to hospital
27:08in critical condition.
27:10OSHA later cited
27:11Douglas N. Higgins
27:12for ten serious violations,
27:14including failure
27:15to ventilate
27:16the confined space,
27:17failure to provide
27:18atmospheric monitoring,
27:20and failure to have
27:21rescue equipment present.
27:23The company had received
27:24a prior OSHA citation
27:26for a Marco Island
27:27manhole job in 2002.
27:29They knew.
27:30The protocol existed.
27:33They just didn't follow it.
27:36Roland Hoskin
27:38To understand how
27:39Roland Hoskin died
27:41on June 29, 2000,
27:43you first need to understand
27:44Tyler Pipe.
27:46Tyler Pipe was a sprawling
27:48iron foundry
27:49on Route 69
27:50in Tyler, Texas,
27:51a subsidiary
27:52of McWane, Inc.,
27:54one of the largest
27:55cast-iron pipe manufacturers
27:56in America.
27:58The New York Times,
27:59in a joint investigation
28:00with PBS Frontline,
28:02described it in January 2003
28:04as part Dickens,
28:06part Darwin.
28:07Turnover was so high
28:09that the company
28:09recruited workers
28:10from local prisons.
28:12Unguarded machinery
28:13was a known hazard.
28:15Multiple OSHA violations
28:16had already accumulated.
28:18And in May of 2000,
28:20Roland Hoskin
28:21took a maintenance job
28:22on the graveyard shift there
28:23because he needed the work.
28:26According to his family,
28:27Roland told them repeatedly
28:28how dangerous
28:29the plant felt.
28:31Nobody showed him
28:31how to do anything properly.
28:33You were just expected
28:34to figure it out
28:35and keep production moving.
28:37At 4 o'clock in the morning
28:39on June 29, 2000,
28:41Roland was working alone.
28:43A sand conveyor belt
28:44near one of the molding machines
28:46needed adjustment.
28:47He entered the sand pit
28:48where the belt was running.
28:50The conveyor was moving.
28:51It was not guarded.
28:53OSHA rules required it
28:55to be locked out
28:55and guarded
28:56before any worker
28:57entered that space.
28:58Neither had been done.
29:00Both were routinely ignored
29:01at Tyler Pipe.
29:03The belt grabbed him.
29:05OSHA's investigative photographs
29:07documented what happened.
29:08Roland Hoskin
29:09never had a chance.
29:10He was pulled into the belt
29:12and pulley system
29:13and killed.
29:14After the accident,
29:16the company's position
29:17was that it was his fault.
29:18His daughter pushed back publicly.
29:20She said her father
29:22was not stupid.
29:23He didn't want to lose his job.
29:24He knew the place was dangerous
29:26and he went in anyway
29:27because that was the culture
29:28Tyler Pipe had built.
29:30Where you do whatever it takes
29:32or you're out.
29:34OSHA proposed fines
29:35of over $1 million.
29:37In July 2002,
29:39Tyler Pipe pleaded guilty
29:41to criminal charges
29:42under federal law,
29:43a misdemeanor,
29:44the maximum available,
29:45and paid a fine
29:46of $250,000.
29:49A misdemeanor.
29:51For a man
29:52ground to death
29:52by a belt
29:53that should have been
29:54switched off,
29:55no manager went to prison.
29:57Roland Hoskin
29:58was one of nine workers
30:00killed in McWane plants
30:01between 1995
30:02and 2003
30:04against a backdrop
30:06of more than
30:064,600 reported injuries.
30:10His case was the only one
30:11that resulted in McWane
30:13being held criminally responsible
30:14under federal law.
30:16The bar was that low.
30:19Reginald Elston
30:20On August 22, 2000,
30:22at McWane's Union Foundry Plant
30:24in Anniston, Alabama,
30:26maintenance employee
30:27Reginald Elston
30:27was working near
30:28a conveyor belt.
30:29The belt did not have
30:31the safety guard
30:31required by OSHA regulations.
30:34Federal court documents
30:35would later confirm
30:36this was not a maintenance oversight
30:38or a day of unusual
30:39corner cutting.
30:40From March 17, 2000,
30:42through the day
30:43Reginald died,
30:44five full months,
30:46Union Foundry
30:47had been allowing employees
30:48to work on that same
30:49conveyor belt
30:50without a guard
30:51every single day.
30:54Management knew
30:55it simply was not a priority.
30:59Union Foundry
31:00made ductile iron
31:01waterworks fittings.
31:02It was one of the
31:03McWane Corporation's
31:04family of foundries
31:05operating across
31:06the American South
31:07and Northeast.
31:08Plants described
31:09by federal prosecutors
31:10as having a
31:11systematic indifference
31:13to safety.
31:14The safety director
31:15at Union Foundry
31:16during this period
31:17was a man named
31:18Clyde Dorn.
31:19In testimony,
31:21Dorn described
31:22a workplace
31:22where safety decisions
31:23had to pass through
31:24plant management,
31:25where production pressure
31:27set the culture,
31:28and where fixing problems
31:29often meant waiting
31:30for permission
31:31that was slow to come.
31:32The unguarded conveyer
31:34had been flagged.
31:35Reginald Elston
31:36was caught in a pulley
31:37of the belt.
31:38He was crushed to death.
31:40Another employee
31:42found him.
31:43When federal investigators
31:45from the EPA
31:45and FBI arrived,
31:47this case was
31:48investigated jointly
31:49with environmental
31:50violations at the
31:51same plant,
31:51they found a facility
31:53that had been
31:53knowingly exposing
31:54workers to the hazard
31:56that killed
31:56Reginald for months.
31:58The plant was also
31:59illegally treating
32:00lead-contaminated
32:01hazardous waste
32:02without a permit,
32:03exposing workers
32:04to that as well.
32:06In September 2005,
32:08McWane's Union
32:09Foundry Division
32:10pleaded guilty
32:11to a willful
32:11OSHA violation
32:12resulting in
32:14Reginald's death.
32:15The criminal fine?
32:16$3.5 million.
32:19The company was placed
32:20on three years probation
32:21and ordered to contribute
32:23$750,000
32:25to community service projects
32:27in the Anniston area.
32:29Clyde Dorn,
32:30the safety director
32:31who had been there
32:32throughout,
32:32was eventually fired.
32:34Not over Reginald's death,
32:36but because he was arrested
32:37for trafficking
32:38in the painkiller
32:39OxyContin.
32:41That detail
32:42has no punchline.
32:43It's just what
32:44the record says.
32:46Foundation Food Group.
32:47January 28, 2021.
32:50Foundation Food Group
32:51Poultry Processing Plant,
32:53Gainesville, Georgia,
32:54about 60 miles
32:55northeast of Atlanta,
32:56in a city sometimes called
32:57the poultry capital
32:58of the world.
33:00About 130 workers
33:01were on shift
33:02at the plant,
33:03which had been processing
33:04raw chicken
33:04for food service
33:05and commercial sale.
33:07The morning shift
33:08started normally.
33:09Somewhere in the facility,
33:10in the Line 4
33:11Immersion Freezer Room,
33:12a bent tube,
33:14likely damaged
33:14during a maintenance operation,
33:16had disabled the system
33:17that monitored
33:18and regulated
33:19liquid nitrogen levels.
33:21Liquid nitrogen
33:22is used in commercial freezing
33:23to flash chill meat product.
33:25It is colorless,
33:26odorless,
33:27and non-toxic
33:28in its gaseous state.
33:29The problem
33:30is what it displaces.
33:31When the bent tube failed,
33:33the freezer filled
33:34and then overflowed
33:35with liquid nitrogen,
33:36which vaporized instantly
33:38on contact with air
33:39and formed a cloud
33:40up to five feet high
33:41across the freezer room.
33:43The air became unbreathable.
33:45There were no oxygen monitors
33:47in the room.
33:47There was no alarm.
33:49Nobody outside the room
33:50knew what was happening
33:51inside it.
33:53Three maintenance workers
33:55entered the freezer room.
33:56They collapsed.
33:57Other workers rushed in
33:58to help,
33:59as workers do,
34:00because their co-workers
34:01were down.
34:02At least 14 people
34:03entered the room
34:04or the surrounding area
34:05before the scope
34:06of the hazard
34:07was understood.
34:08Five men and one woman
34:09were killed by asphyxiation.
34:11Jose de Jesus Elias Cabrera,
34:1445.
34:15Corey Allen Murphy,
34:1635.
34:18Nelly Perez Rafael,
34:1928.
34:20Saulo Suarez Bernal,
34:2241.
34:23Victor Belez,
34:2538.
34:26Edgar Vera Garcia,
34:2728.
34:29Five of the six
34:30were Mexican citizens.
34:31Three Gainesville firefighters
34:33and one Hall County firefighter
34:35were also injured
34:36in the response.
34:37The U.S. Chemical Safety
34:39and Hazard Investigation Board's
34:40final report called it
34:42completely preventable.
34:44A bent tube.
34:45A single point of failure
34:46with nothing else
34:47in the system to catch it.
34:49No air monitors.
34:50No alarms.
34:51No liquid nitrogen training
34:53for the workers
34:53who process chicken
34:5410 feet from a cryogenic
34:56overflow hazard
34:57every single day.
34:59Foundation Food Group
35:00faced nearly $600,000
35:02in OSHA fines.
35:04The company had allowed
35:05its safety management position
35:06to stay vacant
35:07for over a year
35:08before the incident.
35:09The safety job was empty.
35:11Six people filled
35:12that gap instead.
35:14Ira Kofor.
35:16Not every story in here
35:18ends with a body count.
35:19January, 1997.
35:22Tyler Pipe Foundry,
35:23Tyler, Texas.
35:24The same McWayne plant
35:26we visited earlier
35:26with Roland Hoskin.
35:29Ira Kofor was a mechanic.
35:31He was working near
35:32an unguarded moving conveyor
35:33when a sleeve of his clothing
35:35became entangled
35:36in the machinery.
35:37His arm was pulled
35:38under the belt system
35:39and trapped there.
35:41Because of layoffs,
35:43Ira was working alone.
35:44He couldn't free himself
35:45and he couldn't reach anything
35:46to call for help.
35:47He stayed conscious.
35:49He kept calling out.
35:52OSHA's accident report
35:53is precise about the timeline.
35:55Ira Kofor was missing
35:56for more than two and a half hours
35:58while he was crying out
35:59for help the entire time.
36:02When workers finally heard him
36:03and found him,
36:04he was standing on top
36:05of his hard hat,
36:06trying to use the height
36:08to relieve some of the pressure
36:09on the arm
36:10that had been caught
36:11in the belt
36:11since it grabbed him.
36:13The belt had been running
36:14the whole time.
36:16It rubbed it all down
36:17to the bone,
36:18Ira told Frontline years later.
36:20Took all my flesh off.
36:23Surgeons fought to save
36:24whatever they could.
36:25The injuries were catastrophic.
36:28Ira survived,
36:29but the arm
36:30was essentially destroyed.
36:31His life after the accident
36:33was defined by medical bills,
36:35workers' compensation claims
36:36that made getting treatment
36:37a fight,
36:38and the particular cruelty
36:40of watching a company
36:41argue that its workers' comp
36:43obligations also shielded it
36:44from any further
36:45legal accountability.
36:48Management at Tyler Pipe
36:49did not speak publicly
36:51about Ira's case.
36:52The plant,
36:53cited for hundreds
36:54of OSHA violations
36:55over the following years,
36:57continued operating
36:58and continued injuring workers.
37:00Three years after Ira was trapped,
37:03Roland Hoskin was killed
37:04at the same plant,
37:06caught in the same kind
37:07of unguarded belt
37:08under the same conditions.
37:11OSHA had already flagged
37:12conveyor guarding violations
37:14at Tyler Pipe
37:15before Ira's accident,
37:16before Roland's death.
37:18The fine after Roland died
37:21was $250,000
37:23and a misdemeanor.
37:26The belt was eventually guarded.
37:29The lesson cost two people
37:31everything they had.
37:37Philidomide.
37:38The drug is called a miracle.
37:40That is the actual word
37:43used in the marketing materials.
37:45A miracle.
37:47In the late 1950s,
37:49a West German pharmaceutical company
37:50called Chemie Grunenthal
37:52introduces a new sedative
37:54to the market.
37:55It eases morning sickness.
37:56It helps pregnant women
37:57sleep through the worst
37:58of the first trimester.
38:00Doctors across Europe,
38:01Australia,
38:02the UK,
38:03and Canada
38:03hand it out freely
38:05because the safety data
38:06says it is safe.
38:08The safety data
38:10they generated
38:10by testing it
38:12on adults.
38:14I mean,
38:14nobody tests it
38:15on pregnant women.
38:17Nobody tests what it does
38:18to the tissue
38:19forming inside them.
38:21Frances Kelsey
38:22is a pharmacologist
38:23newly arrived
38:24at the FDA
38:24when she receives
38:26the American approval application
38:27in September 1960.
38:29Something in the data
38:30bothers her.
38:32She cannot prove
38:33the drug is dangerous,
38:34but she keeps asking
38:35for more evidence
38:36before she will sign off.
38:38The pharmaceutical company
38:39calls her obstructionist.
38:41They go above her head.
38:44She holds her ground.
38:46Europe is not so fortunate.
38:48By 1961,
38:49the reports begin arriving.
38:51Babies born without arms,
38:53without legs,
38:55with small,
38:56flipper-like limbs
38:57where hands and feet
38:58should be,
38:58a condition called
38:59phocomelia,
39:01so rare that most physicians
39:02have never encountered
39:03a single case
39:04in their careers.
39:05Now they are seeing
39:07dozens,
39:08then hundreds.
39:11Frances Kelsey's
39:12obstruction
39:12has kept the drug
39:13out of American pharmacies.
39:15In the rest of the world,
39:17more than 10,000 children
39:19are born with severe deformities.
39:226,000 survive infancy.
39:24The drug is pulled
39:25from shelves
39:26in November 1961.
39:28It has been on the market
39:29for less than four years.
39:31The company is aware
39:33something is wrong
39:34by August.
39:35They wait three months.
39:38Frances Kelsey
39:38receives the President's Award
39:40for Distinguished
39:41Federal Civilian Service
39:42in 1962.
39:44The executives
39:45of Chemi Grunenthal
39:46are never convicted.
39:49The Trico System
39:51The appointment
39:52is Tuesday morning.
39:53The technician,
39:54not a doctor,
39:55just a technician,
39:56adjusts a dial
39:57and asks the woman
39:58to hold still.
39:59It is 1924
40:01and she is here
40:03to have her facial hair removed.
40:05The modern way.
40:07In the early 20th century,
40:09x-rays are new,
40:10thrilling,
40:11and deeply misunderstood.
40:13Which is another way
40:14of saying nobody
40:14with a commercial interest
40:16particularly wants
40:16to understand them yet.
40:18What is understood
40:19is that radiation
40:20destroys hair follicles.
40:22The beauty industry
40:24moves fast.
40:25Yeah,
40:26of course it does.
40:27Clinics and salons
40:28across America
40:29and Europe
40:29begin offering
40:30x-ray hair removal,
40:32the Trico system,
40:34marketed as painless,
40:35permanent,
40:36and safe.
40:37Women pay for it.
40:39Their mothers pay for it.
40:41Occasionally,
40:41they bring their daughters.
40:43The treatments work
40:44at first.
40:45The hair disappears.
40:47The skin looks smooth.
40:49Clients return
40:50for more sessions
40:51and more after that
40:52because the hair
40:53keeps growing back
40:54and they are told
40:55that a few more treatments
40:56will fix it permanently.
40:58Each time,
40:59the technician
41:00turns the dial
41:01a little higher
41:01than before.
41:02Then the skin
41:04starts to change.
41:05Ulcers open
41:06where the beam
41:07was aimed.
41:08The jaw swells.
41:10Bone begins dying
41:11beneath the surface,
41:13a condition called
41:14radiation osteonecrosis
41:16where the jawbone
41:17quietly rots
41:18from the inside out.
41:20Skin cancers develop
41:22years later,
41:23clustered in patterns
41:24that correspond exactly
41:25to where the machine
41:26was pointed.
41:27Some women lose
41:28portions of their faces.
41:30Some develop tumors
41:32that move into the throat.
41:34The man behind
41:35the tricho system
41:36is Albert Geiser,
41:37who holds a medical degree.
41:39He understands
41:40what ionizing radiation
41:42does to living tissue.
41:44He markets the device
41:45for over a decade anyway.
41:47No criminal charges
41:48are ever filed.
41:50The clinics close quietly.
41:52The women left behind,
41:53scarred,
41:55disfigured,
41:56dying of cancers
41:57that will not be
41:58formally documented
41:59for another generation
42:00have no word
42:01for what was done to them.
42:04D.E.S.
42:06The prescription
42:07is for the mother.
42:09The damage
42:10is for the daughter.
42:12Diethyl stilbestrol,
42:14D.E.S.,
42:15is a synthetic estrogen
42:16developed in 1938
42:18and prescribed
42:19to pregnant women
42:19throughout the 1940s,
42:2150s,
42:21and 60s
42:22to prevent miscarriage.
42:24It is,
42:25doctors are told,
42:26safe and effective.
42:28The evidence
42:28behind that claim
42:29is thin.
42:31D.E.S.
42:31is never formally tested
42:32in pregnant women
42:33before approval.
42:35The assumption,
42:36unstated and unexamined,
42:38is that if it is safe
42:39in an adult body,
42:40it is safe in the womb.
42:42Between 2 and 10 million
42:44American women
42:44take it during pregnancy.
42:46Some are given it
42:47without a clear explanation
42:48of what it is.
42:49Just a pill
42:50to protect the baby.
42:52That's it.
42:53That's the full explanation
42:54they receive.
42:55Huh?
42:55What it does
42:57is cross the placenta.
42:58It reaches
42:59the developing child.
43:00And in daughters,
43:01it quietly rewires
43:03the architecture
43:03of the reproductive system
43:05while it is still forming.
43:07The first signal
43:08comes in 1971.
43:10A Boston physician
43:11named Arthur Herbst
43:13notices a cluster
43:14of clear cell
43:15adenocarcinoma,
43:16a rare vaginal cancer,
43:18in women
43:19between the ages
43:20of 15 and 22.
43:21This cancer
43:23essentially does not occur
43:24in women this young.
43:25He traces every case back.
43:28Each patient's mother
43:29took DES
43:30during pregnancy.
43:32The FDA
43:33issues a warning.
43:34The drug is banned
43:36for use in pregnancy.
43:38But the prescriptions
43:39span nearly 30 years,
43:41and the daughters
43:42who carry the consequences
43:43are scattered
43:44across the country.
43:45DES daughters
43:46grow up to find
43:47their cervixes
43:48are malformed,
43:49their uteruses
43:50misshapen.
43:52Their miscarriage rates
43:53run two to three times
43:55higher than average.
43:56Their cancer risk
43:57is elevated for life.
44:00DES sons,
44:01male children
44:02exposed in the womb,
44:04develop genital abnormalities
44:05and higher rates
44:06of testicular cancer.
44:08Researchers are now
44:10documenting effects
44:11in the grandchildren,
44:12three generations
44:14from one prescription.
44:16I mean,
44:17the mother took the pill
44:18her doctor gave her.
44:19She didn't tell her daughter
44:21because she didn't know
44:22there was anything to tell.
44:24The daughter found out
44:25from a pathology report
44:26at 20 years old.
44:30Walter Freeman
44:31Walter Freeman
44:33does not need
44:34an operating theater.
44:35He does not need
44:36a surgical team
44:37or a general anesthesia.
44:39All he needs
44:40is an ice pick
44:41in about 10 minutes.
44:43Freeman is a neurologist,
44:45not a surgeon,
44:46who becomes
44:47America's most prolific advocate
44:49for the lobotomy
44:50in the 1940s and 50s.
44:52The original procedure
44:53requires drilling
44:54through the skull.
44:56Freeman finds this
44:57unnecessarily involved.
44:59He modifies the technique.
45:01A surgical ice pick
45:03inserted above the eyeball,
45:05through the thin bone
45:06of the eye socket,
45:07angled upward,
45:08and moved back and forth
45:10to sever the connections
45:11between the frontal lobes
45:12and the rest of the brain.
45:14He uses
45:15an electroconvulsive shock
45:17to render the patient
45:18briefly unconscious
45:19instead of anesthesia.
45:21He calls it
45:22the transorbital lobotomy.
45:25He takes it on the road.
45:27Nearly literal.
45:28Freeman travels
45:29the United States
45:30in a vehicle
45:31he calls
45:32the lobotomobile,
45:33performing procedures
45:34at state psychiatric hospitals,
45:36sometimes completing
45:38multiple patients
45:39in a single afternoon.
45:40He keeps his ice picks
45:42in a felt-lined case.
45:44He times himself.
45:46His personal record
45:47is 228 lobotomies
45:50in 12 days.
45:52While one hand
45:53holds the pick in place,
45:54the other takes photographs.
45:57The patients who come to him
45:59include people
45:59with schizophrenia,
46:01severe depression,
46:02chronic anxiety,
46:04and,
46:04in a number of cases,
46:06simply being difficult
46:07to manage in an institution.
46:09They emerge calmer.
46:11They emerge compliant.
46:13In a significant number
46:15of cases,
46:15they emerge as something
46:17that no longer resembles
46:18the person who walked in.
46:20An estimated 40,000 Americans
46:23are lobotomized
46:24between the mid-1930s
46:25and mid-1950s.
46:27Freeman personally performs
46:29around 3,500.
46:31His most famous patient
46:33is Rosemary Kennedy,
46:3523 years old,
46:37mildly intellectually disabled.
46:39After Freeman is finished,
46:41she cannot walk properly
46:43or speak clearly.
46:44She lives in an institution
46:46for 64 years.
46:49The procedure earns its creator,
46:51Antonio Igas Moniz,
46:53the Nobel Prize in Medicine
46:55in 1949.
46:57Freeman loses
46:58his surgical privileges
46:59in 1967
47:00when a patient dies
47:02on the table.
47:03He spends the remaining
47:04years of his life
47:05driving the lobotomobile
47:07to visit former patients,
47:08taking notes
47:10on their condition,
47:11calling it follow-up.
47:15Vioxx
47:16Merck launches Vioxx
47:18in 1999
47:19with a straightforward pitch.
47:21It is a painkiller
47:22that is easier on the stomach
47:23than aspirin or ibuprofen.
47:26That part is true.
47:28What Merck does not include
47:29in the pitch
47:30is what the drug does
47:31to the heart.
47:33Vioxx
47:34is a COX2 inhibitor
47:36prescribed primarily
47:37for arthritis.
47:38Within a few years,
47:40it becomes one of the
47:41best-selling drugs
47:42in pharmaceutical history.
47:4380 million patients
47:45across more than 80 countries.
47:47And by 2000,
47:49Merck's own researchers
47:50have clinical trial data
47:52showing that patients
47:53on Vioxx suffer
47:54significantly higher rates
47:55of heart attacks
47:56and strokes
47:57than patients
47:58on naproxen.
47:59There is an internal memo.
48:01There are internal discussions.
48:03And there is a strategy.
48:06That strategy,
48:08documented in company emails,
48:10involves training
48:11sales representatives
48:12to deflect
48:12cardiovascular questions
48:14using a prepared script.
48:16The document is called
48:18Dodgeball Vioxx.
48:21Merck also runs a program
48:22called Advantage,
48:24presented as a clinical trial,
48:25but functioning primarily
48:27as a tool
48:27for getting physicians
48:28familiar with the drug
48:29and prescribing it
48:30to new patients.
48:32The trial is designed
48:33for market penetration.
48:35Safety is not the priority.
48:38An FDA scientist
48:39named David Graham
48:41conducts an independent analysis
48:42in 2004.
48:44His estimate?
48:45Vioxx causes
48:47between 88,000
48:48and 139,000
48:50heart attacks
48:51in the United States
48:52during its time
48:53on the market.
48:54Between 27,000
48:56and 55,000
48:57of those patients
48:58die.
49:00Merck voluntarily
49:01withdraws Vioxx
49:02in September 2004,
49:04not under regulatory order.
49:07A new clinical trial
49:09has made the cardiac data
49:10impossible to manage
49:11publicly any longer.
49:13They pull it themselves
49:14before the FDA can act
49:16and frame it
49:17as a responsible
49:18corporate decision.
49:20In 2007,
49:22Merck agrees to pay
49:23$4.85 billion
49:24to settle
49:26approximately
49:2627,000
49:28personal injury claims.
49:29No individual executive
49:31is charged
49:32with a crime.
49:33A separate
49:34$950 million
49:36settlement
49:36follows in 2011,
49:39including an admission
49:40of illegal marketing.
49:41The company
49:42continues operating.
49:45David Graham,
49:46the scientist
49:46who ran those numbers,
49:48is investigated
49:49by his own employer,
49:50the FDA,
49:52for going public.
49:55Purdue Pharma
49:56In 1996,
49:58Purdue Pharma
49:59launches OxyContin
50:00with a sales strategy
50:02built on one central claim.
50:04This opioid
50:05is different.
50:06It releases slowly.
50:07It is less addictive.
50:09Doctors can prescribe
50:10it freely.
50:12That claim
50:12is not supported
50:13by evidence.
50:15Purdue's own data
50:15suggests otherwise.
50:17The sales representatives
50:18are trained
50:19to say it anyway.
50:21OxyContin
50:21is reformulated
50:22as a 12-hour
50:23slow-release pill.
50:25The slow-release mechanism
50:26is supposed
50:27to reduce
50:28the euphoric surge
50:29that drives addiction.
50:30In practice,
50:32the effects wear off
50:32in six to eight hours
50:34for many patients,
50:35leaving them in pain
50:36and early withdrawal
50:37twice a day.
50:38The solution offered
50:39to their doctors
50:40is a higher dose.
50:42Purdue builds
50:43a sales force
50:44of over 900 representatives
50:46by 2001,
50:47paid on commission,
50:48tied directly
50:49to prescription volume
50:50in their territories.
50:52They target
50:53high-prescribing physicians.
50:54They bring them
50:55to resort conferences.
50:57They hand out
50:58patient-starter coupons.
50:59The first prescription
51:00is free.
51:02Internal documents,
51:03released through litigation,
51:04show that Purdue executives
51:06identify suspected
51:07pill mills,
51:08clinics where OxyContin
51:10is clearly being diverted
51:11for non-medical use.
51:13They make a deliberate decision
51:14not to report
51:16these clinics
51:16to authorities,
51:17because those clinics
51:19are also among
51:19their highest-volume customers.
51:22Between 1999
51:23and 2021,
51:25approximately 600,000
51:27Americans die
51:28of opioid overdose.
51:30Around 80%
51:31of heroin users
51:32report their addiction
51:33began with a prescription
51:34painkiller.
51:35In 2022,
51:37members of the Sackler family
51:38agree to pay
51:39$6 billion
51:40in a civil settlement.
51:41They face
51:42no criminal prosecution.
51:44They are permitted
51:45to retain billions
51:46in personal wealth
51:47transferred out of the company
51:48before the litigation began.
51:51Several major museums
51:52have since removed
51:53the Sackler name
51:54from their walls.
51:56Several have not.
51:57thanks so much
51:58for rocking
51:58with the channel
51:59for real.
52:00Hit that subscribe
52:00and turn on the bell
52:02so you don't miss
52:03a single one.
52:04And got a topic
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