Marian Wang
Marian Wang was a reporter for ProPublica, covering education and college debt.
Marian Wang was a reporter for ProPublica, covering education and college debt. She joined ProPublica in 2010, first blogging about a variety of accountability issues. Her later stories focused on how rising college costs and the complexity of the student loan system affect students and their families. Prior to coming to ProPublica, she worked at Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco and freelanced for a number of Chicago-based publications, including The Chicago Reporter, an investigative magazine focused on issues of race and poverty.
States' Tally of Spill Worker Illnesses Exceeds BP's Total
Louisiana and Alabama are reporting more illnesses related to the oil disaster in the Gulf than the Deepwater Horizon response team has recorded. Total health complaints in Louisiana alone have risen 35 percent since a previous report was issued last week.
by Marian Wang,
Read: BP E-mails Show Decisions Pre-Blast to Save 'Lots of Time' and Money
The House Energy and Commerce Committee releases documents suggesting that BP took dangerous shortcuts on its disastrous well in the Gulf of Mexico. The committee says BP "repeatedly chose risky procedures in order to reduce costs and save time,"
by Marian Wang,
Read: BP's Document on Workers' Illnesses and Injuries, Little Mention of Chemical Exposure
BP has posted an accounting of 485 injuries and illnesses reported by cleanup workers in the Gulf of Mexico. But there's no breakdown of illnesses possibly connected to exposure to oil or dispersants.
by Marian Wang,
Experts: Gulf Workers' Levels of Chemical Exposure May Be 'Perfectly Legal, but Not Safe'
Federal standards on what a safe exposure to toxic chemicals constitutes vary by agency. And the legal standard, applied to workers in the Gulf oil spill, may not necessarily be safe, some experts say.
by Marian Wang,
Gov't and BP Unresponsive on Requests for Data on Sick Cleanup Workers
If you ask the CDC how many workers have been sickened while cleaning up the Gulf oil spill, CDC says to ask OSHA. OSHA says to ask BP. BP says to ask Unified Command, which hasn't yet responded to our requests.
by Marian Wang,
Scientists Criticize BP's Claims About How Much Oil It's Siphoning
More scientists are expressing skepticism about BP's claim on how much oil it's recapturing. One said that the estimate that BP is capturing most of the oil "is going to be proven wrong in short order."
by Marian Wang,
BP's Spill Plans Had Few Ways to Stop a Blowout
None of BP's documents and plans we've been able to find have details on how to deal with stopping a spill, and are limited to phrases like "Stop further pollution at the source," or "Identify and shut off the source as soon as possible, taking safety into account."
by Marian Wang,
BP Refuses to Provide Oil Samples to Scientists Investigating Underwater Plumes
BP has refused to supply samples that would prove -- or disprove -- that underwater oil plumes are from the Deepwater Horizon site. The scientist who requested the sample called the refusal "a little unsettling."
by Marian Wang,