Writing about complex scientific stories isn't easy, and takes years of both study and research. These two investigative reporters have been honored for their dedication.
Susanne Rust & Meg Kissinger
Chemical Fallout
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Thirty years ago, a carcinogenic flame-retardant material was taken out of children's pajamas. In 2008 it was being used with frequency in products such as baby carriers and bassinetts. This was just one of several discoveries made by Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in their series, "Chemical Fallout."
The team exposed government programs that favored chemical makers over the public and conflicts of interests among regulators. Rust and Kissinger reported that there was no such thing as "microwave-safe" plastics. An outside laboratory tested containers labeled as such and found toxic levels of chemicals leached from every item.
The Journal Sentinel team did their homework: They reviewed hundreds of scientific journal articles and worked with scientists to determine that the federal government's assurances that bisphenol A (a chemical compound found in many plastics) is safe are based on outdated U.S. government studies and research heavily funded by the chemical industry. PBS broadcaster Bill Moyers compared the reporting to the legendary Upton Sinclair. David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said that the Sentinel was doing the work that the agency should have been doing all along to protect the public.
Susanne Rust
Senior Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Susanne Rust was part of a reporting team that won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi award and the Society of American Business Writers and Editors award for detailing chemical dangers and lax regulations in Washington, D.C. The team also won the 2008 John B. Oakes Award. Rust has continued to break new ground throughout 2008 with more stories exposing the failures of the Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration. In her five years at the Sentinel, Rust has also trekked through the hills of Rwanda to cover stories on civil engineering and AIDS; hacked through the dense foliage of a Ugandan rain forest in search of mountain gorillas; poked around Scotland's Roslin Institute looking for clones; and written about eco-friendly agriculture in Costa Rica. Before joining the Sentinel, Rust pursued a doctorate in biological anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Meg Kissinger
Investigative Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meg Kissinger is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's investigative
reporter focusing on health and welfare. She and two of her colleagues
won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi award and the Society of American Business
Writers and Editors Award for a series of articles on the government's
failure to screen for dangerous chemicals in household products. The
series also won the 2008 John B. Oakes Award. Kissinger has spent the
last year breaking new ground on the failures of the Environmental
Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration to regulate toxic
chemicals. She was a finalist for the 2007 Selden Ring and
Investigative Reporters and Editors awards for her reports on the
filthy and dangerous housing conditions in Milwaukee County for people
with mental illness. That series won the Mental Health America Award
for best news repoting. In her 25 years in the newsroom, Kissinger has
written about abuses in the nursing home industry, the scam of the
door-to-door magazine sales industry and the travails of an oncologist
who unwittingly discovered his own end-stage cancer.