Flint Water Crisis Whistleblower Is 'TIME 100' Nominee

WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI – Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the whistleblowing West Bloomfield physician whose study with elevated levels of lead in their blood exposed the Flint water crisis and public health catastrophe, has been nominated for TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Hanna-Attisha is the director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Hurley Medical Center and assistant professor of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine.

Her testing revealed that lead levels in some children had more than doubled two months after the city of Flint’s public drinking water supply was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River in a 2014 cost-saving move. The more corrosive properties in the river water caused lead in aging pipes to leach, contaminating the water supply for the city of 100,000.

You can vote for the TIME 100 here through 11:59 p.m. on April 10.

State officials initially spurned Hanna-Attisha, who was recently honored with the 2016 PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award, and as Humanitarian of the Year by the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce.

Others nominated for the TIME 100 honor include President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama; Pope Francis; Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Tsai Ing-Wen, the first female president of Taiwan; Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and his Fox New nemesis Megyn Kelly; Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders; business tycoons Bill Gates and Warren Buffet; Tesla Motors and Space X CEO Elon Musk; and a bevy of actors, musicians and other celebrities.