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A US judge has approved financial reparations of $626m for the thousands of victims of the lead water crisis in the city of Flint, Michigan. Most of the money will go to local children who drank the poisoned water. At least 12 people died after the authorities switched its water supply.

One of the key figures in this story is Flint-based paediatrician Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha of the Hurley Medical Center, whose research flagged up elevated levels of lead in the blood of the city's children.

"It was a population-wide trauma. The folks most impacted are kids, especially the youngest kids. Lead is a neuro-toxin and impacts cognition and development and behaviour, and can really alter the life course projectory of not just one child but a population of children. So it is wonderful to hear the majority of the settlement does go to the children."

"There are folks who will never trust the water. They were lied to, betrayed by the individuals who were charged with keeping them healthy and safe. Our water source was changed. It was super-corrosive. A form of environmental racism."

(Pic: Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha; Credit: Hurley Medical Center)

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