Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha Talks Race, Environment and Justice for Flint
Dr. Mona will take part in the WDET Book Club Finale event September 10th at the Detroit Public Library Main Branch.
Water is life. It’s the very basis for life on this planet. And access to it is one of the defining characteristics of sustainable life on earth.
Four years ago, we had an environmental crisis right here in Michigan that highlighted just how precious access to clean water is. When an emergency manager switched Flint’s water source from the Detroit system to the Flint river, but failed to take proper precautions, the entire city was exposed to unsafe levels of lead.
It was catastrophic. Easily the most devastating public health crisis in recent memory.
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician in Flint, was among the first to notice elevated lead levels in the blood of Flint’s children, and to sound the alarm about the crisis.
Since then, she has fought without hesitation to get officials to pay attention, to fix the water system, and to address the effects of the lead exposure.
And she wrote a book about the crisis, What the Eyes Don’t See, which details what happened in the city, as well as the intersection between so many different failures that produced the crisis.
Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson is focusing on the book as part of the 2019 WDET Book Club.
You can join Stephen Henderson and Dr. Mona Hanna Attisha, as well as Michigan Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, on September 10th at the Detroit Public Library for the Finale of this Summer’s book club. Register to attend for free HERE.
Click here to find out more about the 2019 WDET Book Club and how you can get involved.
Dr. Mona Hanna Attisha joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to talk about the book, her experiences during the Flint Water Crisis, and what’s happening today in Flint and elsewhere when it comes to access to safe drinking water.
Click on the audio player above to hear that conversation.
Related: Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha: “I Grew Up Knowing Exactly What Injustice Could Be” (Detroit Today 8/30/18)
