YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on Environmental Justice | 2018 APHA Environmental Justice Town Hall

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on Environmental Justice | 2018 APHA Environmental Justice Town Hall — Transcript

by Graham Sustainability Institute · 2,903 words · 416 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00to our special guest dr. mona
0:02hanna-attisha and we're we're you can't
0:07imagine how excited we were when we
0:09found out that she agreed to do this to
0:13do this event and and she is the founder
0:17and director of the pediatric public
0:20health initiative of Michigan State
0:23University and her early Children's
0:25Hospital in Flint Michigan she did the
0:30science and advocacy that finally got
0:34government action to take place during
0:37the Flint water crisis and she is a true
0:41public health hero when we were looking
0:45for someone that could link
0:47environmental justice and public health
0:50we were I guess a little starstruck when
0:54we found out that she was going to be
0:57available and that she had agreed and so
1:02because she is because her life and her
1:08work is the perfect embodiment of how
1:12these two issues are integrated
1:14integrally connected dr. Mona is also
1:19here to talk about her new book what the
1:22eyes don't see a story of crisis hope
1:26and resistance in an American city
1:36I get the stool cuz I'm really short
1:40it's awesome thank you for the school it
1:43is it is amazing and humbling and such
1:45an honor to be here with really so many
1:47heroes in the field of environmental
1:49justice and I want to start by taking
1:53you kind of towards the the middle of
1:56the Flint story when I was talking with
1:59a pediatrician colleague of mine and he
2:02turned to me we were in the clinic and
2:04he turned to me he's like Moana have you
2:06ever heard of this concept called
2:07environmental injustice or environmental
2:10justice and I just smiled and I want to
2:15tell you a little bit of my background
2:18we heard some amazing family stories
2:20that really molded people's careers
2:23already today and why they do the work
2:25that they do
2:26so my path to medicine and to Pediatrics
2:29was a bit atypical I started out as a
2:32community organizer I started out as a
2:36tree-hugging environmentalist so I was
2:39in high school and I was young I was 13
2:43got involved in my high school
2:45environmental Club and we did what high
2:47schoolers do we recycled cans and we put
2:50on plays for the elementary school but
2:53then we found out that there was a trash
2:55burning incinerator in an adjacent city
2:57and that that incinerator was literally
3:01in the backyard of an elementary school
3:03and a Senior Center and that the kids in
3:06that neighborhood had one of the highest
3:08asthma rates and we've heard about this
3:10already and that the adults had high
3:13rates of COPD or respiratory disease so
3:16my environmental group leader was
3:18amazing and she got us involved in a
3:22real fight in a real environmental fight
3:26and we door knocked and we protest and
3:28we organized and this was all led by a
3:31courageous mom who was a nurse and we
3:35finally elected a local state
3:38representative who went into the state
3:40legislature he won and the very first
3:42thing he did was passed a law that an
3:45incinerator could not be located that
3:48close to an elementary school and that
3:51incinerator has been closed for 20 years
3:57so I was a kid I couldn't even drive my
4:00parents would like drop us off to these
4:02like protests and like just don't get
4:04arrested but at that young age I
4:07realized the importance of having a
4:12voice of being an activist the role that
4:15environment plays in your health the
4:18impact it has on vulnerable communities
4:21and the power of elected officials to do
4:25good and so I went on I created my major
4:28in environmental health and then I also
4:30realize what something else that we
4:32heard today that kids are impacted first
4:35and impacted disproportionately by
4:39environmental burdens so I went on to be
4:42a pediatrician to care for those kids
4:44but very much espousing all of these
4:46concepts of environmental health and of
4:49environmental justice and environmental
4:50print and public health and so when that
4:53colleague of mine after the Flint water
4:55crisis had erupted and said to me have
4:58you heard environmental justice what
5:01that is have you ever heard of that
5:02concept I just looked it up on Google
5:04I'm like of course I have I've known
5:09what it has been and what it is for
5:11about a couple decades because I
5:13fortunately went to college at the
5:15University of Michigan School of Natural
5:16Resources we have some of them here and
5:18I was blessed to learn about those
5:21concept by some of the fathers of net
5:23field Onion Bryant Paul mow I who were
5:26influenced by Charles Lee's work so I
5:30was blessed to have really that training
5:32and really be at the right place at the
5:34right time with the right team and the
5:35right village and the right access to
5:38data to do the work that I did in Flynn
5:40so obviously you have hopefully heard of
5:44Flint and our water crisis and by now
5:47you know that it is probably the most
5:49emblematic environmental and public
5:52health disaster of this young century it
5:56is a story of what happens when the
5:58people charged with keeping us safe
6:02care more about power and money than
6:06they do about us or our children but I'm
6:11here to share that the story of Flint
6:13and you know this by now is not an
6:14isolated story it is a story of really
6:18the deeper crises that we are in right
6:20now as a nation it is a story of what
6:23happens when you take away democracy it
6:27is a story of what happens when we deny
6:29science a total disrespect for science I
6:32don't need to tell you what kind of how
6:34this reverb reflects on what's happening
6:36today it is a story of what happens when
6:40we dis invest in infrastructure because
6:42of austerity and inequality but once
6:46again it is a story of an environmental
6:49justice that was not the first
6:50environmental injustice but a story of
6:52environmental and justices that continue
6:54throughout this nation to this day so I
6:59want to kind of rewind and share a
7:01little bit of kind of what happened in
7:02Flint how we got to where we are we were
7:05and and really more importantly share
7:07where we are so Flint was really
7:11suffering from decades of crisis and
7:13decades of really environmental and
7:14justices because of massive
7:16manufacturing and Flint was in a near
7:20bankruptcy state in 2011 and right away
7:23overnight
7:24Flint lost democracy we were under the
7:27control of a financial emergency manager
7:29who had one job and his job was was
7:32austerity it was to save money no matter
7:35what the cost
7:36and that emergency manager reported to
7:38the governor there was the no role of
7:40elected local officials and it was
7:44decided that the water that we had been
7:46getting from the Great Lakes for half a
7:48century was too expensive for this poor
7:52predominantly minority community and
7:54that we would stop getting water from
7:56the Great Lakes and instead we would
7:59draw water from the local Flint River
8:00until a new pipeline to the Great Lakes
8:03was to be built so any Michiganders in
8:05the audience the some show me show me
8:08how you tell me where you're from show
8:09me yours
8:10okay point to where you're from all
8:12right look around this is really cool if
8:13you're not from Michigan California
8:14can't do this okay
8:15so if I'm Flint area are you from Flint
8:18Saginaw north of Flint okay so Michigan
8:21is the mitten stay right so we have a
8:23lower peninsula we also forget we have
8:25an upper peninsula but but in a yearís
8:28Flint literally kind of in the middle of
8:29the mitten so why are we the mitten stay
8:32what are we surrounded by the Great
8:35Lakes okay so we don't have a water
8:38accessibility issue so we are surrounded
8:42by the Great Lakes the Great Lakes are
8:43the largest source of fresh water in the
8:46world 20% of the fresh water in the
8:49world is around the good Great Lakes
8:51yet to this day we have a city that
8:54cannot turn on their tap and drink safe
8:57water so it was decided it was too
9:01expensive for this poor predominantly
9:03minority city and in April of 2014 by a
9:07very simple flip of a switch we started
9:09drawing our water from the local front
9:10River and it didn't seem right and the
9:14heroic people of Flint absolutely raised
9:16their voices and they said my water's
9:19brownish and greenish and it tastes
9:22weird and my kids are getting rashes and
9:24we had bacteria and we had boil
9:26advisories and then they dumped a lot of
9:28chlorine and that felt like people were
9:30taking a bath in a swimming pool and
9:32drinking bleach that irritated skin and
9:35eyes then we had so much chlorine in
9:37this water it led to a high level of
9:39disinfectant byproducts which are
9:41carcinogens and just a few months after
9:45this water switch General Motors which
9:49was born in Flint stopped using this
9:52water because it was corroding their
9:54engine parts at their plant so think
9:57about that our water was corroding
9:59engine parts but the entire time the
10:03state of Michigan was telling the people
10:05of Flint to relax that everything was
10:10okay so the Flint water was missing an
10:14important ingredient called corrosion
10:16control federally-mandated ingredient
10:18and without that ingredient ingredient
10:21our water was 19 times more corrosive
10:23than the water that we were getting from
10:26from the Great Lakes
10:28and it was so corrosive that it ate up
10:30our lead-based plumbing we have a lot of
10:35lead service lines we have LED in our
10:38premise plumbing which is the plumbing
10:39inside our homes we had lead in water
10:43levels in the hundreds and thousands and
10:45tens of thousands of parts per billion
10:48the EPA action level which is not health
10:51based is set at 15 parts per billion we
10:54had a home with a lead level of 22,000
10:57parts per billion of lead and water and
11:01that lead and water data came to us
11:04because of citizen science so amazing
11:08environmental researcher and Virginia
11:11Tech mark Edwards when he heard that
11:13Flint wasn't treating their water
11:15properly he was contacted by a mom an
11:17amazing Flint mom named Leanne Walters
11:20and he packed his minivan overnight with
11:24grad students and supplies and he drove
11:26up to Flint and worked hand in hand with
11:28the people of Flint to prove that there
11:30was lead in the water and they did and
11:33they were attacked and dismissed and
11:35denied and then by sheer randomness I
11:40heard from a high school girlfriend who
11:43happens to be a drinking water expert
11:45like have diverse friends with lots of
11:48different disciplines who was at my
11:50house hanging out drinking a glass of
11:52wine our kids were playing together and
11:55she she shared that that the water
11:58wasn't being treated properly and
12:00because of this lack of corrosion
12:02control there would be lead in the water
12:04and that was a year and a half after the
12:07water switch and that was the very first
12:10time I heard the word lead and when a
12:13pediatrician here is the word led when
12:15anybody in public health hears the word
12:17lead we freaked out
12:19we absolutely freaked out because we
12:21know what that does it's a potent
12:23irreversible neurotoxins incredible
12:26science has brought us the point that we
12:28now know there is no safe level of lead
12:30levels we thought were okay decades ago
12:32when we had paint and let him paint and
12:34letting gasoline we now know are no
12:36longer okay
12:37and I also freaked out because I also
12:40knew lead
12:41the form of environmental injustice
12:44because I already knew my Flint kids
12:46already had higher levels of lead just
12:49like kids in Detroit and Chicago and
12:52Philadelphia and Baltimore struggling
12:56with every toxicity they now had this
12:59added burden so in rapid speed and in
13:04kind of detective fashion which you can
13:06read about in my book we did the
13:09research to prove the impact which never
13:12needed to happen we never needed my work
13:16never should have happened this crisis
13:18should have ended when that first mom
13:19raised her jog of brown water and said
13:22there was something wrong it should have
13:24ended when those car parts were
13:26corroding it should have ended when we
13:28knew there was lead in the water but to
13:32move this mountain that were and I knew
13:34I needed that cumulative impact or that
13:37impact that it was increasingly in the
13:39bodies of our children so as I said
13:43earlier I literally walked out of my
13:45clinic and I stood up at a podium but I
13:47was shorter I could hardly like peek out
13:49and I stood up at a press conference
13:52which is an academic nono and I shared
13:55the science that after the water switch
13:58our children had an increase in the
14:00burden of lead in their blood and I was
14:05also attacked just like everybody else
14:07who had raised any concerns in the story
14:09and you know for a moment you know the
14:14entire state every arm of the state was
14:16saying I was wrong they called me an
14:19unfortunate researcher that I was
14:21splicing dicing numbers that I was
14:24causing near hysteria which is also
14:26wonderfully sexist and and for a minute
14:30I absolutely I believe them I was scared
14:34I thought to myself maybe I should have
14:37just stayed busy pediatrician mom wife
14:40why did I why did I step out of my box
14:42why did I take this risk I was
14:45physically ill and ultimately it was the
14:52children that got me back in this fight
14:54and made me realize that
14:55my research my numbers my statistics
14:57we're just we're not numbers there were
15:00kids there were kids that I as a
15:02pediatrician have literally taken an
15:04oath to protect and we fought back we
15:08fought back with more science more
15:09evidence more numbers and finally the
15:13state conceded and exposed this man-made
15:17crisis raised by the voices of the
15:21incredible people of Flint who had been
15:23vocal throughout this crisis and from
15:27that point on we have been on a road to
15:29recovery in Flint we still cannot drink
15:33our water we are still on bottled water
15:35and filtered water because our damaged
15:37lead pipes are being replaced
15:39we've already replaced about 7,000 lead
15:42pipes
15:42we've got about 10,000 more to go we
15:45will only be the third city in the
15:46country that has replaced their lead
15:48pipes there's a lot more work that we
15:50need to do as a nation but I get to
15:53spend my every day working on the
15:55tomorrow's of our children we cannot
15:58take away what happened there is no
15:59magic pill there is no antidote but
16:02there's a lot that we can do to promote
16:03the development of our children so
16:06sometimes I say that I'm actually
16:08writing prescriptions for hope but it's
16:11so much more than just words so we've
16:13put into place things like to brand new
16:16childcare centers home visiting programs
16:18trauma-informed care behavioral health
16:20services school health school health
16:23clinics early literacy programs home
16:27visiting programs breastfeeding support
16:29and the list goes on and on and on of
16:31things that we've been able to put in
16:33place to promote the development of our
16:34children and we're also working on the
16:37bigger things that kids and families
16:39need like restorative justice that
16:42accountability that's important
16:45self-determination having a voice at the
16:47table being partners in this work
16:51economic development these are all
16:54things that kids need all over and we
16:56hope to very much share our best
16:58practices of what we're doing in Flint
17:00with communities all over facing similar
17:04toxicities be it the toxicity of
17:08or be it the toxicities of poverty lost
17:13democracy austerity racism
17:16discrimination all of these impact the
17:21life course trajectories of our children
17:23I saw these wonderful signs at this
17:26conference about zip codes Flint is one
17:28of those places it's a place where a kid
17:31in Flint lives actually 15 years less
17:34than a kid in a neighboring zip code and
17:37that's not unique to Flint that's
17:39everywhere and we need to do better for
17:42all of these kids because your zip code
17:45of birth the water that comes out of
17:48your tap should not predict where you
17:51end up so there have been incredible
17:54ripple effects of our Flint work and
17:56that's the story of kind of hope that we
17:58want to share people are paying
18:00attention to drinking water
18:02they're testing schools have done
18:04amazing work because there's lead in all
18:06of our water because the lead industry
18:08was evil and powerful for too long
18:11people are talking about lead again we
18:13thought led it was a problem of
18:14yesterday it's a problem of today it's a
18:16problem of tomorrow we're talking about
18:19environmental injustice as we should yes
18:22it's been around for about thirty years
18:24but we have a lot more work to do
18:26together so I'm grateful to be here I
18:30look forward to your discussion
18:32questions and once again this is this is
18:35my community I started with and it's
18:38great to be back in this community thank
18:39you everybody
18:40[Applause]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha on Environmental Justice | 2018 APHA Environmental Justice Town Hall by Graham Sustainability Institute, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 2,903 words across 416 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.