U-M alumna makes Flint’s water safer for children

U-M School of Natural Resources & Environment alumna Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha spotted a problem and wouldn’t let it go until others paid attention. So says Dr. Eden Wells, the state’s chief medical executive.

Well-known around Flint’s Hurley Medical Center as “Dr. Mona,” the director of the Pediatric Residency Program fought tirelessly to get the city to recognize that its water supply was poisoning residents—and especially its children—with lead.

When the source of Flint’s water supply changed from the Detroit system to the Flint River, the switch made its water 19 times more corrosive and wreaked havoc on a decayed system. Mona was the first to research the impact of this change upon the blood levels of Flint’s children, reporting that, since the change, the blood-lead levels of Flint’s youngest citizens had risen dramatically.

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