As afterschool programs (click here) face threat of federal funding cuts, Mott Foundation renews support for YouthQuest program at 15 local sites
The Flint, Michigan, (click here) pediatrician who first connected the city's water to high lead levels in children tells 60 Minutes early results from extensive neuropsychological assessments of 174 kids have found 80% will require services for a language, learning or intellectual disorder. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha speaks to Sharyn Alfonsi for a report on the lead crisis in Flint to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, March 15 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
Mismanagement following a switch in the city's water supply in 2014 caused lead in old pipes to enter the drinking water. Despite complaints by residents of discolored water, Michigan and Flint officials insisted there was no threat to public health. When Dr. Hanna-Attisha heard that independent testing detected lead in the water, she searched for the truth by examining her patients' medical records. In 2015, she found the percentage of kids with elevated blood lead levels had increased since the water switch. Two weeks later, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder ordered Flint to switch back to the Great Lakes water source.
"There is no safe level of lead… It is an irreversible neurotoxin. It attacks the core of what it means to be you, and impacts cognition-- how children think," Hanna-Attisha says. "[Lead] actually drops IQ levels. It impacts behavior, leading to things like developmental delays." She estimated that 14,000 Flint children under the age of six were exposed.
Last year, Hanna-Attisha began the Flint Registry to track them, part of a state and federally funded program to assess those exposed and get them help....
WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSONS TO CONTINUE THE MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR THESE PEOPLE!
