Fall 2012 Issue

Dr. O’Connell is one of the founding members of he Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) in 1985. As evident in his committment to this organization for the past 27 years, his compassion for delivering quality health care to one of Boston’s most vulnerable populations has continued to grow. Currently, he is the president of the program and one of the head physicians working with a team to deliver primary and specialty care to homeless people around Boston day or night, rain or shine.

Brian Wolf argues that gender selection should be permitted, but Kathleen Li discusses its negative consequences.

This piece aims to detail a seven-week medical volunteering trip to The Gambia during the summer of 2012 and to identify and offer solutions for the problems facing the state of health care. Most notably, the lack of quantity and diversity of prescription medication is addressed. The state of prescription medication is viewed through the lenses of the central government and the practices of the nurses. This piece does not intend to demand change for The Gambia, it simply outlines the apparent problems and suggests methods of improvement.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the earth’s crust. It is also a recognized Group A carcinogen by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. The consumption of contaminated drinking water is the primary route of exposure to arsenic in humans. Chronic exposure leads to a wide-range of detrimental health effects, including cardiovascular diseases, such as peripheral vascular disease, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease. Numerous other vital organs are affected as well, including the skin, brain, and liver. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum arsenic concentration of 10 ppb in drinking water. In Bangladesh, arsenic concentrations have been reported as high as 2,300 ppb. More than half of the tube-wells in Bangladesh are not in compliance with the WHO guidelines and approximately 70 million Bangladeshis are chronically exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic-contaminated drinking water. The situation in Bangladesh is considered to be the largest mass poisoning in history. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the arsenic crisis in the Bengal Basin beginning with the factors that led to the discovery of the crisis and the origins that brought it about. Descriptions of the health effects and a discussion of potential solutions follow

The various effects of substances on children in the womb have been extensively documented for quite some time now. From the outcomes associated with fetal alcohol syndrome to the consequences noted in the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarettes, there are countless reasons to ensure that there are no aberrations in the delicate environment of the developing human body. Marijuana (cannabis sativa) is a commonly used substance by pregnant mothers, especially by mothers aged 18-25. Although in popular culture marijuana is considered a “softer” drug for its allegedly non-addictive properties, there are an estimated 61 different cannabinoids in marijuana, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (􀆋9-THC), which can interfere with the human’s endocannabinoids. The CB1 and CB2 receptors, stimulated by the artificial cannabinoids of marijuana, are shown to be readily involved in neural development, from axon guidance to gliogenesis, and the presence of cannabinoids potentially affect the function of these receptors. Prenatal marijuana exposure can also lead to learning and memory deficiencies, based on psychological tests of children whose mothers self-reported marijuana use while pregnant. This is most likely caused by a decrease in long-term potentiation in the brain (LTP). There is still a need for more research in this field, however, potentially looking at how the cannabinoids affect the nervous system on a receptor level in different animal models.