By Shealyn Paulis

This is the 7th in a series of articles by Knight Center students who attended the annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers.

When journalists and science writers gathered in the windy city of Chicago, a panel offered space for veteran science reporters to share their experiences when their jobs called for a step beyond typical journalistic requirements.

These stories explored when journalists also became scientists, and how these experiences bettered their coverage.

The gathering of those concerned with science’s involvement with journalism comes as the Trump administration leads an unprecedented attack on science throughout its first year in office. This includes redrawn requirements for funding approval and historically large cuts to federal research funding in the name of efficiency.

In 2025, the National Science Foundation showed a 25% reduction in funding compared to the average of the past 10 years.

The National Association of Science Writers session was organized and moderated by Priyanka Runwal, associate editor of Chemical & Engineering News. She began by introducing the topic of reporters conducting their own research and data-gathering methods, while emphasizing the crucial timing of the panel.

Runwal explained that as the scientific community faces mounting difficulties imposed by the government,  leaving journalists with fewer resources for their reporting.

If journalists gather and analyze their own data, they have the opportunity to not only enhance their coverage, but do some of the work researchers are unable to do during difficult times.

“This year, we’ve witnessed the removal of many scientific and social justice data sets from U.S. government websites, the freezing and cancellation of many, many research grants and mass layoffs of the nation’s public health and scientific research agencies,” Runwal said.

Uncovering lethal levels: Lead and asbestos in the children of Philadelphia

Panelist Wendy Ruderman is a senior health and science reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer and won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for a series on police corruption, “Tainted Justice.”

More recently, she conducted her own research for her project exposing lead-based pollution in schools across Philadelphia, which made her a 2019 Pulitzer finalist. She detailed the production process for her project “Toxic City: Sick Schools.”

Here, Ruderman and her team analyzed lead and asbestos exposure in public schools after discovering children with extreme amounts of the toxins in their blood in 2015. Ruderman said they were inspired to begin after noting that kids in Philadelphia had higher levels of lead in their bodies than in the infamous Flint, Michigan, lead poisoning cases of the same year.

Lead exposure can cause both long term and immediate adverse health effects, especially in children. This includes lowered IQ, damage to brain and nervous system, learning and behavioral difficulties and slowed growth, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Asbestos exposure can cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis disease.

Ruderman and her team hired trained researchers, and used the process to learn how to collect their own samples.

They also used countless public datasets, such as school maintenance logs, which documented problems the schools had, as well as the status of repairs over time. They found that the presence of lead and asbestos was not unknown, but inadequately dealt with.

In one experience, a school said they did not remediate the lead paint in its building because it was on the ceiling and not considered a risk. As pieces fell from the old ceiling and onto a little boy’s desk, he did not throw them away in the classroom trash.

“He ended up eating the chips as they came down,” Ruderman said, “And obviously he got really, really, really, really sick.”

There were parts of the project they could not afford to fund or complete traditionally, so the team did the work themselves where they could, learning skills in lab work for data collection and analysis. They also wrote their own grant applications and funding proposals.

“We ended up hiring environmental scientists to come out with us and take samples in the homes to prove that they weren’t actually cleaned up,” Ruderman said, “and that was actually really expensive, but it did teach me a lot about how to do dust wipe samples in homes.”

In gaps they could not fill themselves, the team used the teachers in affected schools to help them.

This citizen science, Ruderman said, made her project possible, though it wasn’t easy.

Her team had to collect a list of affected schools, then the names of all teachers before contacting them via phone call, social media DM or even waiting outside of schools. When teachers were collecting samples, they risked their health and jobs.

“And we were like, ‘Hey, we want you to get on your hands and knees and basically test for lead in dust or asbestos fibers, or you could test your water,’” Ruderman said, “and lo and behold, we finally got a bunch of teachers to help us.”

This combination of journalists and teachers performing as scientists, willing to learn new skills like data collection and testing, made this project possible. Their reporting sparked new attention to this life-threatening problem, resulting in the construction of new schools and treatment of existing toxic areas.

Exposing their exposure: Poison on farms harms workers

Journalist Patricia Clarembaux was an additional panelist sharing her experience of being the scientist her story needed.

Clarembaux is a senior reporter with extensive experience as a multimedia journalist reporting on human rights, violence, gender, conflict and immigration in Latin America and the United States.

In her 2024 project “Exposed: Latino farmworkers risk their health working under threat of pesticide exposure,” she investigated farm workers’ susceptibility to dangerous agricultural chemicals.

Clarembaux’s work uncovered that many workers were unaware of the health risks their work posed. In some cases, she also confirmed the presence of banned pesticides on farms.

Clarembaux said she began this project to prove the personal health risks farm workers undertake to provide the food on our tables.

Research and laws were failing to protect these people, with migrant and undocumented workers most likely to be victims of pesticide exposure, Clarembaux explained.

“We knew that the people being exposed are undocumented workers,” Clarembaux said. “But it doesn’t matter if you have an immigration status when it is to talk about pesticide exposure.”

When she began looking for data and only found inaccurate, outdated information, she realized no one was conducting the research needed to tell these worker’s stories.

“So the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national tracking system were old. And they don’t even talk about farm workers – they only talk about occupational workers,” Clarembaux said.

Her team’s multi-state investigation proved that for many decades, workers in Michigan, Florida and North Carolina have been working with harmful pesticides, many unaware of the risk they take every day.

They began their project by researching pesticides to understand their  health effects. Then, they found victims and told their stories.

This included Carlitos Candelario, who was born in 2004 with a rare syndrome called tetramilia which caused him to be born without limbs.  His mother, Francisca Herrera, was unknowingly pregnant when she was heavily exposed to harmful chemicals while working in tomato fields.

Clarembaux partnered with scientists to engineer a silicone bracelet that could detect various chemicals. Worn by farmworkers, the bracelets collected field data for the reporters to deliver to the scientists for analysis.

This methodology was not without its barriers.

The wristbands were expensive – about $1,000 each – so they were only able to acquire funding for 10. Additionally the silicone bands could not detect all chemicals in pesticides, but up to 75.

Additionally, the team faced hesitancy and fear from workers, who risked their livelihoods working with journalists.

In the final published product, some identities were kept anonymous.

“At the end, you want to tell a story, but not at all cost,” Clarembaux said, “and it’s their security and their lives that are important.”

Collaborating with fieldworkers who were activists and translators, the team distributed and re-collected the bracelets in secret to reduce the risk to the farmworkers.

But these methods were yet another hurdle, risking the jobs of the workers and data of the bracelets. Similar to working with the teachers of Philadelphia, the reporters worked with activists in secret.

“We went to these communities at midnight,” Clarembaux said, “when everyone was asleep.”

Analysis of the bracelets revealed the presence of banned chemicals on some farms. While the bands couldn’t quantify levels, they confirmed the workers were definitely exposed.

“Three of them showed exposure to organophosphates that are related to cancer, reproductive problems, neurological disease,” Clarembaux said. “Two detected chlorpyrifos, which was banned at the time. Four workers were exposed to pesticides classified as organic chlorines, and they were banned decades ago.”

Their partnership with scientists proved vital when investigating the presence of illegal chemicals. They explained that the banned substances could be lingering amounts known as “forever chemicals” that persist in the environment even after use is stopped.

“And that’s where scientists were super important for us,” Clarembaux said. “We asked, ‘Were they exposed because pesticides were applied where they were working?’ And they told us, no, these are forever chemicals.”

In addition, Clarembaux says she was able to garner more respect for the profession and saw action from her coverage. She was able to publish personal stories of affected workers as well as educate countless more on their rights to protective gear while working.

A nontraditional partnership between a network of activists, journalists and scientists worked to conduct this project and provide the science needed to tell these stories. The science that fills the gap in research that Clarembaux found when beginning the project.

In a time where science is stretched thin, similar methods need to be utilized by reporters to continue providing important coverage for communities despite the support of the sciences. Even with the loss of these services at the hands of the current presidential administration, quality coverage is still possible through adaptation. As seen in these cases, journalists can become the scientists their stories need.

Journalists and the general public alike are reaping the disadvantages of recent science and research cuts. Despite these barriers, coverage persists that fill the gaps.