2016 Got Science? Champions

December 19, 2016 - Union of Concerned Scientists

When Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha heard rumors about lead in the water, she researched her hospital’s records and found an irrefutable correlation between the switch to Flint River water and spiking diagnoses of lead poisoning in children. She immediately went public with her results—and just as quickly, officials tried to discredit her. “I was put through the wringer when my credibility was questioned,” Dr. Hanna-Attisha says. “But for eighteen months Flint residents were ignored. Thinking about them—and particularly the children who, through no fault of their own, were exposed to a neurotoxin—put steel in my spine to speak truth to power.” 

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