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Mississippi: The Secret State  

ANALYSIS

FOIA gives people access to workings of government for 40 years

By JEANNI ATKINS
MISSISSIPPI CENTER FOR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

OXFORD --

Without these legal tools to gain access to documents, we would remain in the dark about many important matters affecting American citizens.

A few examples of the millions of pages of documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests illustrate why it matters to you that these access laws exist.

Advocacy groups use the federal and state public records laws to learn about health and safety issues and utilize these documents to lobby for change.

Information obtained through FOIA requests have revealed adverse effects of drugs, hazardous waste dumping, negligence of companies resulting in worker accidents, defects in Firestone tires and environmental dangers such as air and water pollution.

The Public Interest Research Group released findings based on FOIA documents that nearly a third of industrial facilities and government-operated sewage treatment plants significantly violated pollution discharge regulations.

The most dangerous work places in the United States were discovered in records obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Despite assurances following 9/11 that there was no danger to workers at the Ground Zero site, for example, government records revealed environmental deception by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA reassured the public that the air was safe when, in fact, it was contained with dangerous asbestos and other chemicals that resulted in illness and death of workers involved in the cleanup. Disclosure of these records enabled workers to get government assistance for treatment.

Intense pressure on the Food and Drug Administration by the tuna industry was revealed in records obtained from the FDA. The non-governmental organization Environmental Working Group found that although tuna contains significant sources of mercury, the FDA failed to mention tuna in initial warnings to pregnant women about the effects of mercury in fish on the mental development of children. The FDA revised its guidelines about fish consumption after the NGO disclosures.

Hundreds of veterans were finally able to receive disability and health benefits that had been denied to them after the Deseret Morning News in Utah published documents showing Army scientists exposed hundreds of soldiers to germ and chemical warfare tests. The Pentagon had denied using nerve agents and deadly germs in experiments on soldiers and refused disability payments but reversed their policy after these FOIA disclosures.

Autism is being diagnosed in children in much higher numbers, indicating a nongenetic cause. The advocacy group of parents, Safe Minds, obtained documents from the Centers for Disease Control through FOIA requests that show CDC research found that the commonly used vaccine preservative thimerosol contains doses of mercury that dramatically increases the risk of autism in children who received the vaccinations in the first three months of life.

Jeanni Atkins is a journalism professor at the University of Mississippi and is executive director of the Mississippi Center for Freedom of Information.