A pediatrician who helped call attention to childhood health risks from exposure to lead in the Flint, Michigan, water supply is one of five people being honored with $250,000 prizes from the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Family Foundation.
The foundation awards recognize innovative work in the arts, environment, human condition, public policy and economics categories.
An associate professor of pediatrics at Michigan State University, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, won the public policy award Thursday for a study published in 2015 that showed Flint's children were exposed to lead levels deemed dangerous by government regulators.
Because lead poisoning can't be reversed, Hanna-Attisha has led programs to aid early childhood development, improve nutrition and otherwise mitigate effects that lead can have on Flint's children.
The winners will be honored at a banquet Oct. 18.
