Its founding editor-in-chief was Joseph LaDou (University of California, San Francisco), who initially spent between $50,000 and $75,000 of his own money each year to keep publishing the journal.

[4] Epidemiologist David Michaels told ProPublica in 2017 that the journal was one of the few publications where "scientists whose work is independent of the corporations that manufacture chemicals" could publish their research, adding, "The silencing of that voice would be a real loss to the field.

The editors stated in the letter that, had they been consulted, they probably would not have approved of Maier's appointment, citing the tendency of his research to reach conclusions favorable to entities with conflicts of interest in the topic.

The following month, Taylor & Francis managing director Ian Bannerman responded to the letter, claiming that he had consulted editorial board member Jukka Takala before offering Maier the position of editor-in-chief.

In their letter sent to Bannerman, the editors cited Taylor & Francis' appointment of Maier as editor-in-chief, as well as the company's unexplained retraction of Egilman's paper, as among the reasons for their resignation.