Don van Natta story

Looking at tool #25 : Learn the difference between reports and stories.

I used the Don van Natta “random story” link to find this story. This story talks about how nail products used in almost every nail salon can cause very serious health problems for the workers ingesting the fumes everyday.

This story could have easily been a report using data and facts, but instead it told the story of an Ecuadorian immigrant, Ms. Otavalo and the people she works with everyday. This story isn’t just about Ms. Otavalo and the people she works with but the thousands of people this is impacting. People are often concerned about the safety when they go into a nail salon for their manicures or pedicures but what they don’t realize is that they aren’t the ones really at risk but the workers are.

What makes this a story rather than a report is that there are characters and a setting and action. This story has a lot of characters and the writer interviewed a lot of nail salon workers / owners who have diagnosed with diseases or have children that have to live with the life long effects of their mom’s working in nail salons.

This story focuses on different sections: “‘They Cannot Breathe’”, “Miscarriages and Warnings”, “‘Fox Guarding the Henhouse’” &”Standing in the Breeze”.