52 pages • 1 hour read
What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City
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Chapters 12-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “What Field Are You On?”
Dr. Mona, understanding that they would need a coalition of support to force the local, county, and state governments to acknowledge Flint had a lead problem, convinced Elin to connect with Edwards and his team. Similar to Dr. Mona, Edwards was also trying to access the blood-lead data from Detroit, Flint, and Genesee County. They agreed to lunch when Edwards was back in town. Dr. Mona needed to meet Edwards “to figure out whether he was trustworthy and legit” (164). Mona also shared the blood-level data from Hurley with Elin. They had proof that “Flint kids are being poisoned” (168). Elin cautioned against Mona sharing the results with Edwards and believed that Jordan from Representative Kildee’s office should be the first to see the results.
Dr. Mona began to add other individuals to the coalition, including Melany Gavulic and Dr. Lawrence Reynolds. Melany was Hurley’s CEO and Dr. Mona’s boss. She was also a Flint native. Dr. Lawrence Reynolds was a pediatrician, friend, and CEO of Mott Children’s Health Center, a nearby facility that also treated Flint kids. Dr. Reynolds advocated for underserved children and reducing racial disparities, and he had served on a childhood lead-poisoning committee. He immediately agreed to reach out to the state regarding access to the blood-lead data.
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Man in the Panda Tie”
Elin and Dr. Mona have lunch with Edwards and one of his PhD students. Mona also invited Dean to the lunch meeting. Dean Dean and Edwards had several tense encounters in 2004 over elevated lead levels in Lansing, Michigan. At that time, Dean Dean did not buy Edwards’s argument that lead in water was a major concern. Edwards did not initially recognize Dean Dean.
From the beginning of lunch, Dr. Mona felt the weight of Edwards’s baggage. Elin had been right—the DC water crisis and all the other lead in water battles since had taken a toll. Edwards said the lack of MDEQ’s oversight violated both the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Lead and Copper Rule. Flint officials should have done significant sampling and testing when they switched water sources, which they failed to do. Rather, the MDEQ “was gaming the system and sampling in a way to get the results it wanted” (180). Edwards also said it was unlikely that the EPA would get involved because the agency rarely challenges states. To him, the game changer would be if blood-lead levels showed an increase after the water switch.
Dr. Mona immediately felt kinship with Edwards. Like her, Edwards believed in good government, science, transparency, and shared a passion for protecting children at all costs. At lunch, the five of them strategized about how to get a waiver from the USDA to give out ready-to-feed formula at Hurley, since they all acknowledged that babies on formula were the most vulnerable population. Mona, at the end of lunch, told Edwards that she trusted him. They both had found new friends and allies.
Mona tried reaching out to the Genesee County Health Department’s Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to ask for their help in getting ready-to-feed formula. They wrote back that they were concerned but were not able to provide water or vouchers. Mona hoped that Jordan from Kildee’s might be able to pressure the USDA to provide the formula. He tried but was told the USDA could not provide waivers unless the government called a health advisory or official emergency.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Environmental Injustice”
Mona and Jenny received IRB approval to access the blood-lead data processed by Hurley. Their sample size went from 350 to almost 2,000 patients. They began to furiously analyze the data, occasionally asking Edwards for his scientific opinion on which data points to use. He recommended using the highest blood-lead levels for children who had multiple tests and controlling for seasonality. With these two modifications, Mona and Jenny had robust proof that lead in water poisoned Flints kids every day since the water switch.
These findings demonstrate that the Flint water crisis was one of the most egregious examples of environmental injustice in the US. Environment disparities are not random. Instead, low-income and minority communities face a greater share of environmental and public health burdens compared to wealthier and non-minority communities. Decades of research has supported this conclusion with studies demonstrating that chemical plants, incinerators, and trash dumps were primarily located in communities that had the fewest resources to fight against them. This reality supports a central tenet of the environmental justice (EJ) movement—local communities should have the decision-making power when it comes to their environment.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Poisoned by Policy”
Mona’s friend and the CEO of the Greater Flint Health Coalition, Kirk Smith, emailed Flint’s director of public works and the mayor regarding concern around elevated blood-lead levels in Flint children and the immediate need for action. The director responded with the usual preemptive excuse and dismissed their concerns. Mayor Walling, in contrast, was interested in meeting with them. Mona thought this development was exciting. As she noted, “We were actually getting traction. Somebody was listening, even if it was a mayor who had been politically neutered by the governor” (199).
Mona also discusses the Flint water situation with her brother Mark, a partner at a successful public interest law firm in DC. Similar to Mona, Mark fights on behalf of some of the most vulnerable groups in society, including immigrant workers. He also represents whistle-blowers in corporate fraud cases. Mark provided an analysis of the politics to Mona. To him, Walling, who was closely associated with the water switch and up for re-election, would not be interested in finding a solution to the lead in water issue. He also likely would not try and go against Governor Snyder. He emphasized that Mona would need a good team. Mona also needed to be careful about pushback, retaliation, and other repercussions since she was a whistle-blower. Despite the potential backlash, Mona’s family, including her parents, brother, and husband, stood behind her. They all moved towards the same goal: “to make the world more just, more equitable, and a more human place” (208).
Chapters 12-15 Analysis
Dr. Mona begins more fully developing her assertion that low-income and minority communities are disproportionately burdened by health risks attributed to environmental contamination. She introduces the concept of the environmental justice movement, pioneered by Bunyan Bryant. Bryant was a Flint native, the first African American member of the School of Natural Resources and Environment faculty at the University of Michigan, and an early mentor to Mona. His research, along with others, documented that places across the US with higher rates of environmental contamination were found primarily in low-income and minority communities. Residents in these places also typically lack a meaningful say in decisions that impact their communities and environment. Flint fits this pattern.
Lead, in general, is more prevalent in low-income and minority communities. Compared to other urban areas, lead exposure was already higher in Flint kids prior to the water switch. With the water switch, this issue was multiplied. As soon as reports started coming out that there might have been lead in Flint’s water, government authorities should have immediately launched an investigation. Despite knowing the serious impacts lead exposure has on children, including reducing intellectual capacity, officials ignored the evidence. The water crisis in Flint is one of the worst cases of environmental injustice.
These chapters also illustrate the toll activism can take on individuals and their families, and the importance of building supportive coalitions. Dr. Mona becomes consumed by the water crisis to the point where she finds it hard to focus on her family, barely eats, and loses weight. Her family and pediatric residents start to notice these changes. Yet, she is not alone. Jenny, like Mona, starts to have bizarre dreams about lead. Edwards’s experiences with the DC water crisis have also left emotional, psychological, and physical marks.
As these players come together, it marks a turning point in the story. Mona builds a coalition of support. She begins speaking to members of various community-based organizations, including the Greater Flint Health Coalition and United Way, about the high amounts of lead in Flint’s tap water and the potential negative impacts this could have on children. She also starts talking to other pediatricians about the Flint water crisis. Mona increasingly recognizes how wrong the public health approach was to lead. The current approach did not prevent harm from occurring. Instead, it documented that harm after it occurred, which means pediatricians were not able to prevent the terrible impacts that come with lead exposure in children. To Mona, a “truly visionary program would be methodically identifying and eliminating the lead from our environment completely before a child is exposed” (191). This program could not come to fruition, however, without the support of the public health field, scientists, researchers, community members, and government officials.
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