Mona Hanna-Attisha

On 24 September 2015, in a press conference at Flint's Hurley Medical Center, Dr. Hanna-Attisha revealed that Flint children's blood lead levels doubled after the water was switched from the Detroit River to the Flint River in April 2014. It was later determined that the mean blood level of Flint children increased from 1.19 to 1.30 micrograms per deciliter in the calendar years before and during the switch to the Flint River for city water supply.[7]

Dr. Hanna-Attisha conducted her research after talking to a high-school friend, Elin Warn Betanzo, a former Environmental Protection Agency Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water employee and water engineer. Betanzo told Hanna-Attisha that Marc Edwards, a water engineer and professor from Virginia Tech and his team of Flint Water Study researchers, found high levels of lead in Flint residents' homes.[8][9] Even though Hanna-Attisha was not provided the data she sought from the State of Michigan, she used hospital electronic medical records as data for her study.[10][11]

At a risk to her career, Hanna-Attisha revealed her findings at the 24 September 2015 press conference before her research was scientifically peer reviewed, because of the public health implications.[12] Hanna-Attisha's findings were later published in the American Journal of Public Health.[13] Hanna Attisha's findings were confirmed in a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in July 2016, and is recognized as an underestimate of exposure.[14]

At Dr. Hanna-Attisha's 24 September 2015 press conference she urged residents, particularly children, to stop drinking the water, to end Flint River as a water source as soon as possible and urged the City of Flint to issue a health advisory.[15] A day after Dr. Hanna-Attisha released her study, Flint issued a health advisory advising residents, particularly children, to minimize exposure to Flint tap water.[16] The water source was switched back to the Detroit River on 16 October 2015.[17] Later, the City of Flint, the State of Michigan and the United States made emergency declarations.[18]

Dr. Hanna-Attisha's research was initially ridiculed by the State of Michigan, when a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson accused her of being an "unfortunate researcher" "splicing and dicing numbers" who was causing "near hysteria."[19] About ten days later, after The Detroit Free Press published its own findings consistent with Dr. Hanna-Attisha's findings and after Hanna-Attisha engaged in one-on-one conversations with Michigan's chief medical officer, the State of Michigan backed down and concurred with her findings.[20][21] Later, at the press conference in which the State of Michigan acknowledged the lead in water crisis, Department of Environmental Quality officials apologized to Hanna-Attisha.[22] In his 19 January 2016 State of the State address, Governor Snyder publicly thanked Hanna-Attisha and Edwards for sounding the alarm about the Flint water crisis.[23][24] Dr. Hanna-Attisha's work was subsequently heavily criticized in prestigious medical Journals (Clin Toxycol 2019; 57: 790–797. Obstet Gynecol 2019; 134: 628–635. J Pediatr 2018; 197: 15–16.) reporting that the paper on the Flint water accident, although accurate as presented, was plagued by wrong conclusions,being impossible to differentiate the variation in blood lead levels in the time considered from other random variations over time. Moreover, such variation during the accident time was a mere 0,11 µg/dl increase in the mean geometrical blood lead level still within both a low range and a decreasing trend, which sounds differently from the reported "doubling" of a small number of children with levels over a certain threshold.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha testified twice before Congress about the Flint Water Crisis and penned an op/ed advocating for federal assistance for Flint children exposed as a result of the crisis published in the New York Times.[25] Eventually, in part due to Dr. Hanna-Attisha's advocacy, $100 million in federal dollars was allocated to Flint in addition to approximately $250 million in state dollars to address the crisis.[26]

She is the founder the director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative, a partnership between Hurley Medical Center and Michigan State University, to optimize the outcomes of Flint children.[27] Through community and clinical programs, childhood health policy and advocacy, and robust evaluation, the Pediatric Public Health Initiative works with many partners, including Flint's heroic parents and kids, as a center of excellence, with the primary goal of mitigating the impact of the Flint Water Crisis and serving as a national resource for best practices.[28]

Also in response to the crisis, Hanna-Attisha worked to establish, was a founding donor, raises money for and is on the advisory board of the Flint Child Health and Development Fund.[29] In one year, the Flintkids.org Fund raised over $17 million and awarded over $2 million in grants directly supporting Flint kids' health and development.[30]

Hanna-Attisha was appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to three public health commissions formed in response to the Flint Water Crisis, the Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee,[31] the Michigan Child Lead Poisoning Elimination Board,[32] and the Michigan Public Health Commission.[33]