Each team member had an area of expertise. Spivak, 52, the paper’s investigative reporter for business, was known for his in-depth, non-judgmental approach and his ability to trawl meticulously through documents. “I like digging a little harder. I like it if somebody has a piece of information they don’t want me to have, and figuring out a way to get to it, kind of the ‘thrill of the chase’ type stuff,” he says.

Spivak knew that both he and Kissinger were “pretty much novices” when it came to science, but saw this new foray into a foreign topic as similar to past ventures into areas with which he was unfamiliar. He says:

It wasn’t that long ago that I knew nothing about bond deals. The job of reporting to me isn’t so much the knowledge, although having background in the subject is always helpful. The job of reporting is to learn about the subject so that it’s just another day at the office. It was just getting used to it. It’s a different language, but it’s still a lot of politics and a lot of business and a lot of money. [1]

Kissinger, 50, was the health sciences investigative reporter, with experience working on large reporting projects, and “one of the best writers at the whole paper,” according to Managing Editor Stanley. She was warier of treading on scientific turf. She appreciated the potential news interest in a substance which, as Stanley described it, had spooked some scientists researching it into banning plastic from their homes. “At the same time, I thought it cannot be that cut and dried,” she says. “I was somewhat skeptical about it.” [2] Rust, meanwhile, brought her scientific acumen to the mix.

The three reporters decided to start their research with a wide-ranging review of endocrine disruptors in general, and BPA in particular. As they quickly discovered, each approached the subject from a different starting point. Rust, most familiar with BPA, was most willing to believe that the chemical was dangerous—certainly to wildlife and likely to humans. Spivak insisted that the chemical industry be given an opportunity to articulate its viewpoint. Kissinger was agnostic on the dangers; she just wanted to be sure the story they produced was fair. “We all wanted to paint a balanced picture,” she recalls. First, they had to find out what the picture was.