Uncovering the Flint Water Crisis: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha — Transcript

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1. 0:03when a pediatrician hears the word lead
2. 0:06we we freaked out it's a potent
3. 0:08irreversible neurotoxin this was a city
4. 0:13this wasn't people this was a problem
5. 0:15that the government chose not to see and
6. 0:17toast ignore for too long
7. 0:20[Music]
8. 0:31so in April of 2014
9. 0:33Flint changed their water source from
10. 0:36fresh pretreated Great Lakes water to
11. 0:39the Flint River
12. 0:40but that Flint River water wasn't being
13. 0:41treated properly
14. 0:42it was brownish and greenish and
15. 0:44yellowish and smelled funny and it
16. 0:47tasted even worse when I was a
17. 0:50pediatrician practicing in Flint caring
18. 0:52for children and very much reassuring my
19. 0:55patients that the water was safe that
20. 0:57asked me is it okay for me to mix my
21. 0:59baby's bottled you know formula the
22. 1:02powdered formula with this water and of
23. 1:04course I told them the water is okay
24. 1:06this is America there's rules and
25. 1:08regulations to make sure that our water
26. 1:10is safe
27. 1:25I walked into the public and shared that
28. 1:31research and right away I was attacked
29. 1:34dismissed discredited states that I was
30. 1:37wrong unfortunate and hysterical and for
31. 1:41Mona I believed them but what the kids
32. 1:44my patience really gave me courage to
33. 1:47fight back
34. 1:49[Music]
35. 2:08really it's it's people who've rolled up
36. 2:11their sleeves from throughout the city
37. 2:13and in many different sectors and said
38. 2:16we've had enough and resisted and that's
39. 2:19one of the reasons I wrote this book
40. 2:20there are kids all over this nation
41. 2:22black brown white rural urban that wake
42. 2:26up every day to the same toxicities to
43. 2:31this day in Flint we are still
44. 2:32unfiltered and bottled water as our
45. 2:34damaged blood pipes are being replaced
46. 2:36because that takes time but we have
47. 2:39built a model Public Health Program our
48. 2:43clinic is on the second floor of a
49. 2:44farmers market or across from the
50. 2:46central bus stop we have a social worker
51. 2:48we have books for literacy support we
52. 2:50have all of these wraparound services
53. 2:53that go beyond the realm of medicine to
54. 2:56make sure that our children not only
55. 2:58recover but thrive and the really neat
56. 3:01thing is that we've begun to export our
57. 3:03hope we are sharing our best practices
58. 3:05with communities all over because like I
59. 3:08said the story of Flint is not isolated
60. 3:10and we're hoping to make an impact way
61. 3:13beyond foot
62. 3:16you