Articles by Steven Gilchrist

According to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), landmines kill between 15,000 – 20,000 people worldwide every year.   Most of the victims of landmine explosions are not soldiers; rather, those tend to be killed by landmines are children, women, and the elderly.   UNMAS suggests that anti-personnel mines have accomplished limited military purposes, despite their prevalence. In every military conflict since 1938, anti-personnel mines have been used.   Anti-personnel mines have a long-life span.   Anti-personnel mines are intended to maim or kill anything that comes in contact with them.   Mines from World War II are still in existence to the present-day.   Since the 1960s, as many as 110 million landmines have been spread throughout 78 countries worldwide.   Submunitions – which include bombs delivered by air, artillery, sea, or multipurpose weapons, and unexploded ordnance should be categorized as mines, according to UNMAS. In...

September 18 – 24 is recognized as Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week.   In the United States, there has been a significant human toll caused by the rampant use of opioids and heroin.   Opioids are drugs that specifically target the nervous system to relieve pain.   However, ongoing usage of opioids can lead to addiction and withdrawal symptoms.   It is estimated that up to 80% of the global opioid supply are consumed in the United States.   Globally, pain drugs are the second largest pharmaceutical class, following cancer medicines. On average in the United States, approximately 308 people die each week from a prescription pain pill overdose according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).   In 2014, about 28,000 people in the U.S. died from a prescription pain killer overdose. Facts about Opioid usage in the United States: * According to Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator for the Drug Enforcement A...

A few months ago, in April 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother.   The toddler was sitting in the backseat of the car that his mother was driving.   A loaded gun was on the floor behind the driver’s seat.   The boy picked up the gun and pulled the trigger.   A bullet struck and killed the boy’s mother.   Unfortunately, this heartbreaking circumstance is not an isolated occurrence.    According to The Washington Post, in 2015, about once a week across the United States a child has found a gun and pointed the gun at themselves or someone else and pulled the trigger. According to an October 14, 2015 Washington Post article by Christopher Ingraham, research indicates that more than 2/3rds of these incidents involving children accidentally shooting guns could have been prevented if gun owners had stored their guns properly and prevented children from gaining access to the firearm. With the r...

According to The National Center For Victims of Crime stalking is “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.”   Stalking is a serious social problem that can lead to anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression that is of higher prevalence in stalking victims than non-stalking victims. Statistics from the Stalking Resource Center and Colorado State University’s Women and Gender Advocacy Center indicate the following: * 6.6 million people are stalked annually in the United States. * 1 and 6 women (16.2%) and 1 in 19 men (5.2%) have experienced stalking at some point in their lifetime in which they felt fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed. * The majority of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know. * 76% of intimate partner femicide victims have been stalked by their intimate partners. * 54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police ...

L ast month, on September 10 th , Vice President Joe Biden and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced that $79 million in funding will be directed towards testing sexual assault kits currently being held by police departments across the country.   The funding from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Justice Department will be given to more than 40 law enforcement jurisdictions to pay for crime-lab processing of 70,000 untested sexual assault evidence kits. “It’s estimated there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits sitting in police storage facilities nationwide.   What stands in the way of testing them is money and the will to get the job done,” Vance said during the September press conference announcing the funding initiative.   Testing kits for DNA evidence has proved to be a valuable component in identifying perpetrators of sexual assault crimes.   However, nationwide there are thousands of untested rape kits that ...

L ess than six months ago, legendary comedian, actor, and philanthropist Robin Williams committed suicide.   Williams’ death cast a light on social issues that are often times kept in the dark.   Williams had struggled with depression and substance abuse in the past.   For Robin Williams to take his own life shows that even people with significant resources can face challenging times in their lives and struggle with depression.   Williams’ death was tragic news for millions of his fans.   Perhaps his death can lead other people who are having difficulty with substance abuse, depression, or other mental health concerns to seek treatment. Suicide is a national health problem.   Suicide can occur in any age or demographic group.   According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention a person dies by suicide every 16 minutes in the United States.   This represents approximately 32,000 deaths per year.   Additionally, the Foundation ...

F ood waste is a significant international problem.  According to a 2013 United Nations report, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted annually.  The report,  Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources  was the first research study to examine the impact of global food wastage from an environmental perspective.  The report also revealed that 28% of the world’s agricultural area or 1.4 billion hectares of land is used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted.  Worldwide food wastage costs an estimated $750 billion annually to food producers.  Wasting food also wastes the oil and water used to produce it.  Food that rots in landfills creates greenhouse gas emissions.  “All of us – farmers and fishers; food processors and supermarkets; local and national government; individual consumers – must make changes at every link of the human food chain to prevent food wastage from happening in the first place, and re-use ...

F or twenty-three years Americans have celebrated the month of September as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.   The purpose of Recovery month is to educate Americans about mental health services and addiction treatment programs that can help people struggling with substance abuse.   Recovery month also raises awareness about specific challenges that people in recovery face.   Although drug and alcohol addictions are complex problems with the correct treatment and support people who struggle with these addictions can recover. In a Presidential Proclamation On August 31, 2012, President Barack Obama declared September 2012 as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.   In his proclamation Obama said: “Over the past 3 years, we have worked to strengthen substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, and to support Americans in recovery… Drug and alcohol abuse continue to take a tragic toll on millions of lives across our country. ...