Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani

ANN ARBOR — A local scientist who studies birth defects linked to toxins caused by bombs said lead exposure in Flint children is comparable to the pollution in post-war Iraq. 

Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, an Ann Arbor-based researcher, praised Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha for exposing the high levels of lead in the blood of Flint’s children. 

Savabieasfahani won the Rachel Carson Prize, an international environmental award last year for her research on the impact of war on public health. She has been monitoring lead levels in the teeth and hair of Iraqi children who grew up in combat zones. 

Flint water was contaminated after the state-appointed emergency manager switched its source from the Detroit system to the Flint River. The water caused corrosion in the pipes, which led to the contamination. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality kept assuring residents that the water is safe despite complaints of rashes and foul odor. Late last year, the crisis turned into a national scandal that shook Lansing. 

Savabieasfahani explained that bombs and missiles contain lead, which turns into small particles that pollutes the soil and the air.

“The level of lead that we see in the teeth of the children of Basra is quite reminiscent of what they see in Flint; you can more or less compare them,” she said. “But the point is that there should be no lead in any child. With lead, there is no level that is safe for children.”

The scientist said lead is “terribly toxic” and harms multiple systems in the body. It could halt a child’s physical and mental development and cause behavioral changes and low IQ.

“Your mental ability would be compromised,” she said. “You would have diminished mental capacity. Your IQ will suffer. This is what will be happening to thousands of children in Flint and more children than I can think of in Iraq and Syria and other places where bombs go off, and nobody stops to think what happens to the children.”

Savabieasfahani cited a Wayne State University study by Dr. Douglas Ruden, highlighting the danger of lead. According to the study, if a pregnant woman is exposed to lead, the damage can pass not only to the child she is carrying, but also to the child’s offspring. The lead causes DNA methylation that could affect the grandchildren.

“It’s a known fact that babies in the womb can be affected by low levels of lead exposure,” reads a release by WSU. “If a pregnant woman is exposed to lead, the lead passes through the placenta into the baby’s developing bones and other organs. Pregnant women with a past exposure to lead can also affect the unborn child’s brain, causing developmental problems later in life.”

Savabieasfahani said lead exposure is an environmental justice issue in Flint as well as Iraq.

She added that the poor people of Flint suffered from pollution, much like the powerless people of Iraq.

“The fact that you’re poor leads to more environmental hardship — exposure to toxic stuff,” she said. “That is true from Flint, which is a poor Black town in the United States, to Fallujah and Hawijah, where people live, and where people who are there are not in control of their life because they have to deal with destruction and occupation.”