Mona Hanna-Attisha, Pediatrician Who Exposed Elevated Levels of Lead in Children - Heinz Awardee — Transcript

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1. 0:10when I became a physician I took an oath
2. 0:12I took an oath to take care of my kids
3. 0:15to stand up to be their protector to be
4. 0:17their healer Oh Flint was an almost
5. 0:20bankrupt city and in 2011 lost control
6. 0:25of the city's finances and it was
7. 0:27decided that the water that we had been
8. 0:29getting from Detroit for half a century
9. 0:30pretreated Great Lakes water was too
10. 0:33expensive and that we would start
11. 0:35drawing water from the local food River
12. 0:36you know what I've heard about the
13. 0:38positive lead and water I decided to to
14. 0:41see if that lead in the water was
15. 0:42getting to the bodies of my kids the
16. 0:44kids that I take care of in clinic we
17. 0:46noticed that after the water had
18. 0:48switched the percentage of kids with
19. 0:50elevated lead levels actually increased
20. 0:53population wide exposure to a potent
21. 0:56irreversible neurotoxin my focus and my
22. 1:00commitment shifted to the tomorrow's of
23. 1:02our children a child is never supposed
24. 1:05to be exposed to lead um it impacts a
25. 1:07child's cognition how kids think it
26. 1:10actually drops their IQ levels it
27. 1:13impacts a child's behavior how they act
28. 1:15leads to things like attention deficit
29. 1:17disorder it also impacts a child's
30. 1:21impulses causes things like impulse
31. 1:23disorder conduct disorder has even been
32. 1:25linked to violent crime and criminality
33. 1:27it affects a child entire life course
34. 1:31trajectory so we held a press conference
35. 1:33to share these research findings and
36. 1:37right after that is when I was attacked
37. 1:39and by the state my science was attacked
38. 1:41my credibility was attacked but we've we
39. 1:44fought back we fought back with with the
40. 1:47science with the data the numbers didn't
41. 1:50lie
42. 1:50but more importantly the numbers of my
43. 1:53research weren't just numbers there were
44. 1:56kids you don't mess around the kids you
45. 1:59don't mess around with lead so finally
46. 2:01our evidence spoke truth to power and
47. 2:03within a few weeks the state did admit
48. 2:05that there was a problem and we switched
49. 2:07back to treated water so I currently
50. 2:12direct this amazing program it's called
51. 2:14the Michigan State University Hurley
52. 2:16Children's Hospital pediatric Public
53. 2:19Health Initiative children in Flint have
54. 2:21previous to the water crisis a 15-year
55. 2:24less life expectancy than children in a
56. 2:26neighboring zip code Flint was already
57. 2:28suffering from significant disparities
58. 2:31the water crisis is an added disparity
59. 2:34and added adversity and added toxic
60. 2:36stress so what we are putting in place
61. 2:38is is the treatment for all of this
62. 2:41adversity it is investing in public
63. 2:43health
64. 2:43it is investing in the wraparound
65. 2:45support programs that are evidence-based
66. 2:48that science has taught us improve
67. 2:51children's health and development you
68. 2:53can often think of it like a giant hog
69. 2:56we are hugging these children with
70. 2:58everything right here in our clinic
71. 3:00every kid that comes in gets a nutrition
72. 3:02prescription just like a prescription
73. 3:04for amoxicillin we give them a
74. 3:06prescription for healthy living where
75. 3:08they can fill right downstairs in our
76. 3:10farmers market we've expanded
77. 3:11breastfeeding services we have mobile
78. 3:13grocery stores a lot of our efforts are
79. 3:16on early education I call D child care
80. 3:18things like Head Start and literacy
81. 3:22programs all benefit children's
82. 3:24development so we're bringing in these
83. 3:26evidence-based interventions to Flint
84. 3:29and we're bringing in as many as we can
85. 3:31for our children we hope to share really
86. 3:35with the world in five 10 15 years that
87. 3:38yeah Flint had this disaster yet we were
88. 3:41proactive and we were positive and we
89. 3:43intervened and because of what we did
90. 3:46these this is what you can do in your
91. 3:48community
92. 3:49because by and large there are Flint's
93. 3:51everywhere yet that doesn't have to be
94. 3:53the case so we are hoping to really
95. 3:55share this blueprint of what we were
96. 3:57able to do for our children - for
97. 4:00children all over the country