A pediatrician who exposed the flint water crisis shares his "story of resistance"

In August 2015, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was having a glass of wine in her kitchen with two friends, when a friend, water expert, asked her if she was aware of what was happening in the house. water in Flint, Michigan.

Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician in Flint, knew that the city had changed sources of water the previous year. Instead of channeling water from the Great Lakes, residents were now drinking water near the Flint River. She had been aware of some problems with bacteria after the change, but she thought that everything had been cleared up.

Her friend told her, "Mona, the water is not treated properly, something is missing that is called corrosion control … Without this corrosion control, there is will have lead, "recalls Hanna-Attisha.

The possibility that drinking water in the city was tainted with lead triggered alarms at Hanna-Attisha; lead exposure can lead to long-term cognitive and behavioral problems, especially in children.

When Hanna-Attisha began to review the medical records of her patients, she noticed that the percentage of children with high levels of lead had increased after the change in water. But when she shared her data at a press conference at the hospital, government officials tried to discredit her.

"The state said that I was an unfortunate researcher, that I was causing near-hysteria, that I was cutting out and cutting out numbers," says Hanna-Attisha. "It's very difficult when you present science and the facts and figures for the state to say you are wrong."

But Hanna-Attisha refused to give up. Instead, she led efforts to publicize and resolve the water crisis in Flint. She writes about her experiences in the book What the eyes do not see.

"It's a story of resistance, activism, citizen action, awakening and opening eyes and making a difference in our community," she says. "I wrote this book to share the terrible lessons that happened at Flint, but more importantly, I wrote this book to share the incredible work we did, with our community, for that our community takes care of our children. "

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Highlights of the interview

On how the Flint water crisis began

Flint was in a state close to bankruptcy, suffering really crisis for years, even decades before this water crisis. In Michigan, if you are in a desperate financial situation, the state can come in and really usurp democracy. Thus, in 2011, Flint became under the control of the state-appointed financial emergency management, and the work of this emergency manager was austerity. It was ostensibly save money, no matter the cost.

They decided that the water we had been receiving for half a century from the Great Lakes – from the pristine Lake Huron fresh water we had bought in Detroit – was too expensive. We would begin to draw water from the local Flint River until a new pipeline is built in the Great Lakes. The move to the Flint River had to be temporary. …

The biggest irony is that the chemical treatment, the control of corrosion, would have cost only 80 to 100 dollars a day. That's all it would cost to properly treat this water.

Mona Hanna-Attisha

All this has been done to save money, to reduce costs, without regard to public health or children's health. People who grew up in Flint know the story of the Flint River. We are an inherited industrial community. The Flint River has already caught fire twice in the past. Corrosion or the impact of the water crisis was not the fault of Flint River. The Flint River would probably have been OK, not ideal, if it was treated properly. The biggest irony is that the chemical treatment, the control of corrosion, would have cost only 80 to 100 dollars a day. That's all it would cost to properly treat this water. Yet, this has never been put in this water. The pump to install this treatment has never been installed, so there has never been any intention to treat this water properly.

On how lead is a "silent pediatric epidemic"

The consequences of exposure to lead are something that we do not easily see. This has an impact on cognition at the population level, and therefore drops the IQ of a population of children, moving this IQ curve to the left where you have more children who have need special education services, less talented children. It influences the behavior – increasing the likelihood of things like deficit disorder of attention. It has been linked to impulsivity. It has been linked to violence and even crime. Exposure to lead therefore has permanent cognitive and behavioral consequences that you do not see right away.

On his approach to treating children exposed to lead

Our response to Flint has been very proactive and preventative because we can not wait morally to see the consequences of lead poisoning and lead exposure. We have therefore implemented multiple interventions that promote the brain development of children and limit the risks. impact of this crisis. We can not remove lead – I wish I could prescribe a magic pill or antidote to remove lead poisoning; there is no such thing. But we can do a lot to limit the exposure of children in order to mitigate the impact of this crisis.

On if people from Flint can bathe safely in the water

Many people had concerns, especially at first, with bathing and showering. We had bacteria in the water, then we had a lot of chlorine in the water, which irritated the skin and the eyes of people. People had rashes and hair loss and they took a bath and up to the water line, their kids were bursting into rashes. We did not really know why people had these rashes. Lead in itself does not cause skin problems. the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] In fact, they came in and did a huge survey of the rashes and they noted that yes, people had more skin problems, but we do not know why. There were a lot of things in this water that could have irritated people's skin. So, it's case-by-case, decide if you can swim, if you can take a shower. For some people, that's fine. for some people, it always causes irritation.

On the quality of Flint water today

Flint is still in a state of public health emergency. Flint people are always recommended to drink filtered water or bottled water. The quality of our water has improved considerably since the beginning of this crisis. however, Flint launches into something that no other city does: we replace our damaged lead pipes. We were on this untreated corrosive water for 18 months and it devoured our infrastructure. So these pipes are replaced and it takes time. We have replaced about 6,000 damaged lead pipes, but there are still about 9,000 that still need to be replaced. Until then, if people have not had their pipes replaced, they must be [drinking] filtered or bottled water. …

[Flint is] one of the poorest cities in the country. Until recently, the state was paying for bottled water, and that ended a few weeks ago, so now it is supported by churches and nonprofits as United Way.

On how the Flint water crisis exacerbates the "toxic stress" that the city's inhabitants are already facing

Growing up in poverty is a toxic stress. Being exposed to violence, lack of nutrition, dangerous places to play – all this is toxic stress. And now, with the incredible science of brain development, we have learned that all this stress and repetitive trauma for children is affecting their entire life course in a very gradual and predictable way.

The more adversities you have – especially very early in life during this critical brain development period, this prenatal or preschool period – the more toxicity you have, whether it's lead exposure or poverty or the separation of the family, that you will grow up to be unhealthy and have more chronic diseases.

In the original study on [adverse childhood experiences]it has actually shown an impact on morality. If you have had six or more of these ACEs, these negative experiences in your childhood, your mortality has dropped by 20 years. Your life expectancy has dropped by 20 years. Our Flint children already had a reduced life expectancy. Their life expectancy in Flint postal code is 15 years lower than the life expectancy of an adjacent postal code. So we were a community that was already shaken by these toxic stresses.

Sam Briger and Mooj Zadie produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Scott Hensley have adapted it for the Web.

Copyright NPR 2018.