Flint Water Crisis Whistleblowers 'TIME 100' Honorees

WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI – Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, whose studies of elevated levels of lead in the blood of Flint children informed the world of the Flint water crisis and public health catastrophe, has been named to the 2016 "TIME 100," the magazine’s list of world’s most influential people released Thursday.

Hanna-Attisha, who lives in West Bloomfield and is director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, shares the spotlight with Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards, whose sampling of Flint water last year exposed high lead levels.

The decision to switch the city’s water supply to the Flint River in 2014 from Lake Huron was intended as a cost-saving measure for the financially struggling city, under the control of a state emergency manager at the time.

But as a result, the city’s 100,000 residents were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead, which can cause irreversible brain damage in children. Flint residents were almost immediately suspicious of the discolored, frequently particle laden water, and Hanna-Attisha's study confirmed their parents’ worst fears: The proportion of children with above-average levels of lead in their blood had nearly doubled since the city began getting its water from the Flint River.

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Hanna-Attisha fought for months to have her work acknowledged by skeptical state officials, who didn’t acknowledge the crisis — considered one of the worst man-made disasters of modern times — until last fall.

Edwards and a team of researchers received a National Science Foundation grant last fall to study what he called a “perfect storm” attributable to the corrosive water distribution system — problems he correctly predicted would create “severe chemical/ biological health risks for Flint residents, including elevated levels of lead” and possibly bacteria problems as well.

Hanna-Attisha and Edwards ranked 20th on the TIME 100 list. In her tribute to the duo, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow wrote that the two cast a spotlight on “an ignorant decision about water treatment that ruined the city’s pipes and poisoned the town.”

“Residents knew something was wrong right away, but to get anyone to listen, it took civil-engineering professor Marc Edwards blowing the whistle on lead in the water and then Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a local pediatrician, testing Flint’s kids, proving they’d been poisoned,” Maddow wrote.

“Up against official ignorance and indifference, Edwards and Hanna-Attisha were right, they were brave, and they were insistent.

“Flint is still a crime scene, but these two caring, tough researchers are the detectives who cracked the case.”

The TIME 100 list, now in its 13th year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals, according to a post on the webiste of the Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, where Hanna-Attisha is an assistant professor of pediatrics and human development.

“We are very proud of Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha for the outstanding work she has done to help the children and families of Flint,” Aron Sousa, interim dean of the Collge of Human Medicine, said in the post. “Her science and advocacy demonstrate why public intellectual institutions like hospitals and universities are important to the health and safety of Americans. It is nice that Time has recognized Mona, but her work and energy have made us very proud already.”

In her response, Hanna-Attisha said she is “honored and humbled,” but it is the residents of Flint who should be honored.

“ … The most influential people in my world are the people of Flint — the smart, strong and resilient people of Flint that are approaching their third year of unsafe water. I hope this recognition continues to bring awareness to the ongoing Flint water crisis, and the very human story behind the crisis.”

The Flint whistleblowers will be profiled in the May 2 issue of TIME, available on newsstands Friday.

The announcement of the follows disclosure Wednesday of criminal charges against two state Department of Environmental Quality officials and one city official. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and his special investigative team said more charges are expected after investigators sort through an estimated 2.5 million emails and documents related to the crisis.