Read This Book…

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a pediatrician who was working in Flint in 2015, running a pediatric internship program for new doctors, and serving her patients, many of whom lived in poverty, in a holistic, community-based way. When her patients started asking her if the water in Flint was safe to drink, her first instinct was to say, “Of course!” After all, if it wasn’t safe, even despite the rumors to the contrary, the city officials would say something, right? Wrong. Once the lead poisoning was brought to her attention, she saw the devastating effects it had on her youngest patients and she immediately sprang into action, relying on her colleagues, patients, community leaders, and various governmental officials who were also concerned but were being ignored by the higher-ups to not only gather the data, but put together an IRB-approved study in record time that showed definitively that Flint’s water was being poisoned, and force the state and city government to take action.

This was at times a really harrowing read, because it becomes clear very quickly that Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s trust in the authorities and scientists who work to keep public drinking water safe was completely misplaced—although through no fault of her own. Who among us wants to believe that those in power are willingly ignoring the signs that the drinking water isn’t safe? She talks about how it was hard for her to believe at first, but when faced the truth, she was physically sick and couldn’t just sit by. But it wasn’t as simple as calling up public services and telling them her patients had lead poisoning…she had to prove the poisoning was coming from the water, and then she had to prove that Flint’s recent changes to the water supply were at fault. I’m impressed with how she made what would normally be a boring process of filing a lot of paperwork to get her study off the ground sound riveting, but that’s in part because it was absolutely urgent—kid’s lives were in imminent danger.

Aside from the high stakes recounting of her realization that the water was being poisoned to successfully exposing the crisis, I really enjoyed Dr. Hanna-Attisha’s contemplation of what we owe each other, how we ought to look after our neighbors, and how an alarming lack of empathy or care can lead to a devastating loss of life. She fought hard, not just to expose the crisis, but to hold those who looked away accountable for their part, and she succeeded, to an extent. But she also grieves for the families and kids who were affected, whose lives are forever changed by the malfeasance of those in charge of contaminating Flint’s water supply, and that’s sometimes difficult to read.

Overall, this is a moving book that’s part science, part environmental and public health exposé, and part examination about what it means to be community-minded. I highly recommend it!