This pediatrician is working to save 9,000 young lives in Flint, Mich.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, whose research helped call attention to lead contamination in tap water in Flint, Michigan, is leading a group of experts that is developing a strategy to minimize the health effects on children(Sean Proctor/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT (Sean Proctor/AP)
As federal, state and community leaders grapple with the immediate challenge of providing Flint, Michigan with safe drinking water, the pediatrician who unearthed evidence of lead in the city’s water supply is now focused on long-term efforts to reduce the health impact on an estimated 9,000 Flint children.
“We cannot sit back and wait 20 years to see the consequences of lead poisoning in our schools and in our criminal justice system,” said Mona Hanna-Attisha, director of pediatric residency at Hurley Children’s Hospital, who in September led a group of doctors urging Flint to stop drawing tap water from the Flint River after finding elevated lead levels in the blood of young children.
Hanna-Attisha, 39, who also is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Michigan State University, is leading a committee of experts to develop a strategy that would mitigate the impact of lead exposure on thousands of children under age 6.
The state’s chief medical executive said this week that all children who consumed the city’s water since April 2014 are considered to have been exposed to lead, a neurotoxin that affects the development of the brain and nervous system. Lead is particularly damaging to children under 6 because the brain shows rapid growth in the early years of a child’s life.
Exposure may have been heightened during three periods when city officials This pediatrician is working to save 9,000 young lives in Flint, Mich. - The Washington Post:
