Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES June 14, 2016 MEMBERS PRESENT: Dr. Shama Alam, Chair, Nancy Crowder, Paul Kirby, Janet Greene, & Jeremy Schiller OTHERS PRESENT: Larry Ramdin, Health Agent, Erica Rimpila, Public Health Nurse & Heather Lyons-Paul Clerk of the Board, Joyce Redford Dir. NSTACP TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION 1. Call to Order 7:05pm Dr. Schiller motioned to take agenda out of order. N. Crowder 2nd All in favor. Motion passed. 2. Minutes of Last Meeting Dr. Schiller motioned to approve minutes. J. Greene 2nd All in (May 10, 2016) favor. Motion passed. 3. Chairperson Announcements * The Board would like to congratulate Elizabeth Gagakis on the birth of her son. *Dr. Alam informed the Board that she submitted her resignation today to the Mayors office. Her term ends June 27, 2016. Dr. Alam will stay for up to 4 months until a new member is sworn in. Next month’s agenda we will add, organization of the Board * Summer break discussion. J. Greene Motion to cancel the august meeting Dr Schiller 2nd all in favor 4. Monthly Reports-Updates A. Public Health Erica Rimpila in conjunction with the state lab are working on a Nurse’s Report food borne illness investigation. Erica will continue to update the Board when information becomes available to her. Copy available at the BOH office B. Health Agent’s Report The budget is in. There was no additional staff added this fiscal year budget. Dr. Alam suggested a work load assessment might help advocate for more positions. Copy available at the BOH office C. Administrative Report Copy available at the BOH office P. Kirby motioned to accept the reports. Dr. Schiller 2nd All in favor. Motion passed. D. City Council Liaison Updates *No update on the Board reduction from the state. *Resident contacted Councilor Gerard about organizing a petition to declare gun violence as a public health crisis. *There is an influx of rodent complaints in North Salem. The department has baited the storm drains in the problem areas and will continue to monitor the situation 5. Bunghole Liquors – 3rd tobacco Discussion on action to suspend or revocation of permit. The owner  violation hearing did not show to the hearing. The Board asked the Health Agent to notify the Licensing Board of the offenses. Joyce Redford suggested the suspension dates coincide with the suspension date for the other 2nd offense suspensions. P Kirby motioned to suspend Bunghole Liquors Tobacco Permit for 30 days. The Board authorized Larry Ramdin, Health Agent to set the dates of suspension. Dr Schiller 2nd All in Favor 6. Plastic Bags Discussion- Salem Michelle Gottlieb from the Marblehead Board of Health spoke with Student Initiative and Michelle the Board about the process her Board of Health went through to Gottlieb (Marblehead Board of pass a plastic bag and polystyrene ban. Health Member) The Marblehead Board of Health decided to go through a Town Meeting to have an article passed instead of creating a Board of Health regulation. The reasoning behind going to the Town to pass an article was to have the community as a hole decide on this initiative. There was mixed reviews from residences and store owners, as expected. Looking back, they might have added a fee for paper bags. Dr. Alam Opened the floor to questions. *Dr. Schiller – Did Crosby’s have any issue with the change? Michelle - They were the first to jump on board. *J. Greene – Concerned about reusable bag cleanliness? Michelle – Most reusable bags are washable. *Dr. Alam – What was the length of time took to pass a town article. Michelle – discussions started 3 months before The Board brought it in front of the Town to vote on. They also gave the businesses a full year before the article was enacted. Education material and some of the reusable bags came from health department budget. Some money was able to be given to merchants for help on purchasing reusable bags. *P. Kirby- Asked if the polystyrene article was voted on at the same time as plastic bag banned. Michelle- Yes *L. Ramdin – Agreed with the idea of bringing this to the City Council to create an ordinance rather than a Board of Health Regulation. There could be more push back due to the amount small businesses in the city. He suggested we work with recycling committee to get the message out on plastic bags and polystyrene as a starting point to get the message out. *Councilor Gerard – Market Basket in Danvers seems to be moving towards using boxes vs bags. She suggested the Salem Chamber be informed and weigh in on this initiative too. Dr. Alam asked the students from student initiative to speak on about their project. Victoria Kako and Lisa Nguyen Salem High School Senior graduates spoke about their internship, The Talking Trash for Clean Oceans at The Salem Sound Coastwatch. Handouts were given out to the Board. *Presently 28 communities have banned single use plastic bags. * In two years over 571 plastic bags were removed from the environment by Salem Sound Coastwatch events. * MA residents are estimated to use more than 2 billion bags per year. *Plastic bags photodegrade, meaning sunlight breaks them down  but chemicals still remain and will eventually be ingested by marine life. The students would like to keep informing the community. They would also like to see Salem moving forward in banning single use plastic bags. Barbara Warren from Salem Sound Coatwatch spoke about their Noah funded program. Summer hires will be continuing work on this initiative and cleanup efforts. To contact her please email at Info@salemsound.org J. Green motioned to show a vote of support to develop two (2) ordinances regarding single use plastic bags reduction and poly styrene food and beverage container reduction. Dr. Schiller 2nd All in favor. Motion passed. Discussion – Dr. Schiller will send an email with a statement to the committee from the Board. 7. Draft Tobacco Regulation - Paul Kirby handed out edits he made to the draft regulation. discussion with Joyce Redford on The Board discussed the changes he made to the draft including flavor suspension and suspension separating suspension and revocation language (4a. suspension & language update continuation 4b. revocation). Also included was a section for mandatory training yearly in order to receive a tobacco sales permit. The Board invited Joyce Redford to join them for July’s meeting. DJ Wilson, Tobacco Control Director and Public Health Liaison for the Massachusetts Municipal Association and Victoria Coldwell, City Solicitor will be contacted to join them as well. 8. Janet Greene - Beth Israel Janet Greene spoke to the Board about a grant, for up to $1500, that Deaconess Medical Center’s the BIDMC is offering their employees. It is a small grant for (BIDMC) Office of Community community volunteer work. The application for the grant deadline Relations Community Health Fellows is June 28, 2016. This grant must be related to a volunteer project Grant Program that a Beth Israel employee is involved in. Volunteer work must target general health like addiction and the environment. Janet has a strong interest in the plastic bag reduction initiative. 9. New Business / Scheduling of future *Organization of the Board. agenda items *Racism in structural government, requested by Board member Nancy Crowder *Draft Tobacco Regulation continuation 10. MEETING ADJOURNED: Dr. Schiller motioned to adjourn the meeting. 2nd by N. Crowder All in favor. Motion passed. 10:15pm Respectfully submitted, Heather Lyons-Paul Clerk of the Board Next regularly scheduled meeting is July 10, 2016 at 7pm At City Hall Annex, 120 Washington Street, Room 313 Salem.