It ’s been almost three old age since Dr. Mona Hanna - Attisha was tipped by a protagonist , at a barbeque of all places , that the metropolis of Flint , Michigan ’s drinking water could be tainted by tether . For Dr. Mona , a pediatrician at Flint ’s Hurley Medical Center , the calendar month that followed were a non - stop hunt for the missing slice of evidence that would finally stir the government into action at law : proof that Flint ’s children had been poisoned by pencil lead in the metropolis ’s water system supplying .
Dr. Mona ’s novel playscript , What The Eyes Do n’t Seechronicles her persistent efforts — and those of the many water experts , journalist , and activists she work on with — to unwrap the true extent of the harm done by lead in Flint ’s water supply , the wake of what she bring out , and her own personal history .
Since publically announcing that Flint children had perilously high levels of Pb in their blood in September 2015 , Dr. Mona has become an unwavering voice for Flint ’s fry and an embassador for Flint ’s resiliency in wake of the water system crisis ( whichisn’treallyover ) . Earther spoke with Dr. Mona about her book , where Flint is now , and how the trauma that unfold in Flint can determine child for their total lives .
This interview has been edited for duration and lucidness .
Earther : Why did you compose this book ? What do you hope reader get out of it ?
Hanna - Attisha : I started compose this book over two years ago , because I knew even back then that the nation ’s attention would fade on Flint . Understandably , there ’s a lot of thing going on . Yet we still needed to share our story , we still needed to share our terrible lessons . But more significantly , we need a fashion to share the activism , to share the resistance , and to apportion the Leslie Townes Hope that we are building in Flint .
Earther : The beginning of the book details what inspired you to become a baby doctor . Talk to us about it .
Hanna - Attisha : I retrieve the crisis — being discredited , give birth the science dismissed — really only inspired me to keep fight more . I ’ve always , as a pediatrician , had this inscrutable certificate of indebtedness . I literally convey an oath to protect children . This is very much my professional obligation , but also an ethical and a moral obligation to these nipper . When our skill , when our numbers , when our facts were being refuse and dismissed , that only cause me to reground myself in that role as a pediatrician , in that role as a protector of nestling . [ It caused me ] to be even more stubborn , to be even more loud , to be even more of an counselor-at-law for these children .
Earther : The last outburst of national word on Flint happened when thestate stopped doling out bottled piss . What ’s the condition today in terms of multitude ’s access to drinkable body of water ? What more need to happen for it to be drinkable ?
Hanna - Attisha : The state burn the bottled piss supply and properly now the great unwashed are getting bottled water through churches and not-for-profit like the United Way . There ’s still a supplying of filter and there ’s still a home chat program that helps folks install and keep their filter . We ’re still under a public health emergency . The recommendation is that people do preserve to use filter or bottled body of water . A properly installed and conserve filter clears the lead .
But there ’s a draw of common people who do n’t trust what ’s coming out of their spigot , even when it ’s filtered . The bottled pee was really kind of a bridge — a nosepiece for base hit , for access , for trust , and for affordability . It ’s a lot of work that need to happen to rebuild that trust .
the great unwashed need to rest on bottled and filtered water , but we ’re already a third of the way through the pipework switch . Once that happens , it ’s only going to be the third city in the country that ’s substitute their lead pipes , which is really awe-inspiring .
Earther : From the book , you talk about how the trauma in Flint is a toxic emphasis . How do these toxic stresses attest in the long term ?
Hanna - Attisha : I opine the most important concept in pediatrics and public health the right way now is the credit of the role of early adversity and toxic stress on nipper ’s development . Adverse puerility experiences and toxic tension , the more of those that you have without a buffering mechanics , affect kids in a very predictable and grade fashion . The more that you are exposed to say , violence or remand parent or impoverishment or want of alimentation or any one of these toxic strain , the more probable that you ’re gon na grow up with hazard factors , chronic disease , and eventually decreased liveliness expectancy .
When we ’re capable to frame this water crisis as an append toxic tension , it really reach us a way forward . There is no cure for lead , or a cure for the trauma of this crisis , but this was a toxicity on top of so many perniciousness that our kids already had — from poorness , fury , lack of nourishment , crumble schools , and discrimination . When we entrap it that way , we were capable to holistically progress a good example of recovery that leans on the incredible and emerge science of child growth and resiliency to soften the impact of this exposure .
And that is absolutely one of the reason that I write this book — to share how we are using scientific discipline . We are lean on that scientific discipline of brain development and resiliency to extenuate this crisis and hoping to serve as a model for other community . The lesson that we learned in Flint are applicable and translatable to Kid everywhere who are growing up with very interchangeable toxicities .
Earther : Can you tell apart me more about environmental Justice Department , and how it has manifested in Flint since the water crisis ?
Hanna - Attisha : Flint already had suffered from environmental unfairness in regard to industrial pollution and manufacture . Areas in Southwest Detroit are layered with gentle wind befoulment because of manufacturing in a predominately piteous minority community . There ’s so many exemplar of it in our country where multitude who lack political clout disproportionately suffer from burdens . And Flint ’s [ crisis ] is a classic good example of an environmental injustice .
The central tenet of environmental iniquity is that people need to be part of the determination making process . And that was finally taken aside in Flint because of a usurp to democracy . There was no answerability , there was no use of citizen booking . The focus was nonindulgence under the state - driven pinch manager . It clearly enounce that the demographic of the population not only precipitate the crisis but made it go on for as long as it did .
Earther : There have been a bombardment of recent news report about how children are being break from their parent upon crossing the mete . As a pediatrist , what are your vexation around psychic trauma and the similarities to what Flint ’s shaver are experiencing ?
Hanna - Attisha : It ’s the same thing . [ It ’s ] exactly like the trauma of the small fry of Flint . As a paediatrician , we make love what it does to children . We know that these hurt will leave life long scratch in full term of their minor development and their life course of action trajectory . These child will necessitate life long mental wellness financial support , which I very much doubt that they will get . What we are doing is fundamentally government sanction child abuse of these children .
Earther : Throughout the book , we see how your dogged efforts and those of piss expert , journalists , and advocates in Flint brought truth to business leader . What was the importance of collaborating as a united front after being stonewall by the governing ?
Hanna - Attisha : Flint is a story where folks acquire out of their silo and worked together to open up their oculus and also to get that power within themselves to make a difference . That is one of the biggest moral that I need to share — that role of activism , of resistance , with a settlement . I thought pediatricians had a monopoly on caring for children . I did n’t read that anybody else could handle as much about kids . But , hey , in reality no . An environmental scientist and a journalist and mom and pastors and activists and the EPA whistleblower , this someone and that someone , all these kinfolk cared about kids .
So often in our professions and our study we tend to environ ourselves by people who are just like us . We do n’t work with folk in other disciplines or people who do n’t attend like us or do n’t vote like us . I imagine one of the important lesson from this story is that you are not alone and that there are villagers out there . You just have to go out and find them and surround yourselves . Together you are so much more powerful .
Flint Water Crisis
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