Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES May 8. 2018 MEMBERS PRESENT: Paul Kirby, Chair, Dr. Jeremy Schiller, Mary Lauby, Geraldine Yuhas EXCUSED: Kerry Murphy OTHERS PRESENT: Larry Ramdin, Health Agent, Suzanne Darmody, Public Health Nurse, Maureen Davis, Clerk of the Board, Beth Gerard, City Council Liaison, Kelsey Currier-Dougherty, Salem High School Junior & Salem Sound Coastwatch Intern, Sharon Byrne-Kishida – MA DEP and Janine Delaney-Bishop – MA DEP, Datanis Elias, Esq., potential candidate for Board appointment to replace Mary Lauby TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION 1. Call to Order 7:04pm 2. Approval of Minutes J. Schiller motioned to approve minutes. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in (April 10, 2018) favor. Motion passed. 3. Chairperson Communications P. Kirby announced this is M. Lauby’s last meeting after having served almost two years. She is moving back to her home state of Wisconsin. She has been a terrific asset and has brought great perspective to the group. Her potential replacement, Datanis Elias, Esq. is in attendance. P. Kirby said with regard to L. Ramdin’s salary increase, it appears other positions in the City with similar or lesser required qualifications and responsibilities are paid more than the Health Agent. M. Lauby said it’s clear other health agents in the area are making more. A Health Director position in Watertown, population of 38,000 recently posted for $98,000.00 to $107,000.00, depending on experience. L. Ramdin said it’s a question of pay equity. June 5th is L. Ramdin’s budget hearing. M. Lauby will update the draft letter to the Mayor to include the actual salary increase number. She will email it to Beth Rennard to ask how to proceed correctly and will cc P. Kirby and L. Ramdin. M. Lauby motioned to take item #5 out of order. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 4. Kelsey Currier-Dougherty - Kelsey Currier-Dougherty spoke of the negative effects of polystyrene Health risks of polystyrene used in toys, packaging, food containers, etc. Top two negative effects are health and environmental. The health effects are that polystyrene is a carcinogen, causing cancer of the esophagus and pancreas. It also causes damage to the nervous and respiratory systems, kidneys and liver. The carcinogens can leach into food and beverages. Food trays at the high school used by 80% of the students every day – approximately 3,000 trays per day are used at the schools. Kids poke the tray with a fork, exposing themselves further. The environmental effects are that it floats, causing marine pollution and endangering marine life. It is made out of petroleum. We incinerate our trash, so the air is polluted by it. Because it is so porous, it soaks up chemicals. She would like to propose a ban of polystyrene. Currently 29 communities have legislation to ban it. Lynn uses paper boats which are plastic-coated, but still better. Marblehead banned polystyrene for businesses, but not schools. M. Lauby asked if she has an alternative proposal to the polystyrene trays. K. Currier-Dougherty explained there are compostable trays, but they cost 8 cents compared to the current trays cost of 3 cents. The 5-cent cost difference would mean a cost increase of about $27,000.00 for the schools. There are reusable plastic trays, but most schools don’t have dishwashers to clean them. J. Schiller thinks the ban is an excellent idea. L. Ramdin suggested she present the ban to the school committee. J. Schiller agreed and said if we as a board support her, she should then go to the school committee with our backing. G. Yuhas suggested perhaps the school food provider may be able to help us and we could have less waste. S. Byrne-Kishida and Janine Delaney-Bishop from MA DEP said their goal is to “green” the schools and there are grants available to help. Deb Jeffers, Director of School Food Services for Salem, is working on making changes toward that goal. Julie Rose applied for the grant. L. Ramdin said he will look for suppliers at MASSBUYS Expo next week. J. Schiller said we should send a letter of support to the school committee. L. Ramdin said we should accept K. Currier-Dougherty’s concerns and support a move away from polystyrene and investigate further, looking forward to a ban in the future. J. Schiller suggested we request text and policy from other communities with a ban. We should continue discussions at the June meeting. L. Ramdin feels if we start with the schools it will be easier when a ban is in place. K. Currier-Dougherty will send her PowerPoint presentation to L. Ramdin and he will forward it to board members. M. Lauby motioned to accept and include into the minutes the report and recommendations of Ms. Currier-Dougherty regarding polystyrene and take action to address the concerns raised, including communicating with the Salem Engineering Department, the Marblehead Board of Health and the Salem School Department. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed.  J. Schiller motioned to take item #6 out of order. M. Lauby 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 5. Period of public comment for L. Ramdin said Regulation 7 has been in place since the 1980s. It amendment to Regulation 7 - excluded businesses and multi-unit housing. Solid Waste We will license all trash haulers. We don’t license restaurant dumpsters. We will register them and they must tell us where the trash is going once it is picked up. He said about 50 computer screens were dumped on Harmony Grove Road. Some landscapers are dumping in places around the City. S. Byrne-Kishida, DEP Regional Recycling Coordinator for MA DEP said she is present to speak in support of the regulation. She distributed a handout about waste bans. She says of her 39 communities, Salem has the highest waste reduction and recycling. Salem also has the best recycling Facebook page. Salem was the first to have sidewalk food waste collection. Salem also has a plastic bag ban and a repair café twice a year for reuse of items. The DEP is looking to include all waste generators. They are hoping to have all private trash haulers include recycling in a bundle package, so customers will pay for recycling whether they choose to recycle or not. Most will recycle if they are paying for it anyway. J. Delaney-Bishop with MA DEP gets calls from frustrated residents living in apartment buildings with no access to recycling. In response, the DEP has put a document together for best management practices for municipalities. She says Salem has a well-known outstanding recycling reputation with the Boston DEP office. Salem’s draft regulations are very well-written and include a lot of the DEP’s best practices. M. Lauby asked if they have heard that less places are accepting recycling. They responded that they are aware and the DEP is working on cleaning up the recycling stream. China especially is not accepting as much recycling. domestic, reduction of waste is best. Reduce, reuse, recycle – in that order. P. Kirby asked what happens to all the Salem recycling. G. Yuhas said Waste Management takes it to places. China still accepts paper, but not contaminated with food, etc. Some places are starting to make factories to clean and reuse glass bottles. L. Ramdin reminded all that the next meeting is the deadline to accept the regulation due to funding from the DEP grant. J. Delaney-Bishop said haulers want consistent regulations for a level playing field across all communities. L. Ramdin said the Board can adopt the regulation to give time to educate people. Businesses realize they can save money by reducing waste. A lot of businesses now have two dumpsters; one for trash and one for recycling. Ledger restaurant is putting out more recycling than trash. G. Yuhas commented that some restaurants are even composting. P. Kirby asked how the waste ban works with haulers. J. Delaney-Bishop said haulers want to work with their customers, so  with the waste ban in place, they can tell them they are regulated by the DEP to require recycling. G. Yuhas asked if we are charging a fee for the haulers and if it includes all of the landscapers. L. Ramdin said yes, there is a $100.00 fee for waste haulers and it does include the landscapers. J. Schiller motioned to adopt the regulation at the June meeting. M. Lauby 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. If we hear nothing by the May 15th deadline for written comment, then: M. Lauby made an amended motion to consider and vote on the regulation at the June meeting. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 6. Monthly Reports-Updates a. Public Health P. Kirby asked if flu season is over. Nurse’s Report S. Darmody said we are definitely on the tail end of it. Now it is camp season. The camp seminar with new regulations was really well attended. Salem State University was there. There was a lack of communication from them with their camps last year. J. Schiller said to let the Board know if there are any issues with Salem State University camps this year. Copy available at the BOH office. b. Health Agent’s We’ve moved! We are now located at 98 Washington Street on the 3rd Report floor. We are settling in. Still waiting on the installation of a counter. Smoke permeated from the Red Lion smoking room, so we had to shut it down. Heard from a few very unhappy people, but it was for the greater good. Met with the opiate commission this morning. Jeffrey Barosy has completed his licensed lead determinator training. Janice Orta finished her RS review course and is preparing for the test. Elizabeth Gagakis and Jeffrey Barosy went to training on Title V onsite wastewater disposal systems. All the inspectors will attend the MEHA Annual Meeting next week in Wrentham. Lots of rat complaints. Dry ice can be used to kill rats. The dry ice is put into the burrows and when it dries up carbon dioxide is released and it kills the rats. P. Kirby commended L. Ramdin on his support of his staff with trainings, etc. Short-term rentals (air bnbs) must be inspected once a year. A working group is discussing a cap on the number of days a year that owners can rent property for short-term rentals. P. Kirby asked who the members of the working group were. L. Ramdin said it is a working group with the police department, City  solicitor, Office of Tourism, etc. The issue will be most likely addressed by City ordinance. L. Ramdin introduced Datanis Elias. She grew up in Salem and is raising her family here. She does not have a public health background, but he thinks that is a good thing. She is a practicing attorney. M. Lauby sent her resignation on Friday. She will be meeting with the Mayor and will recommend Datanis. J. Schiller feels she will bring a healthy perspective. L. Ramdin said it takes two City council meetings to confirm a new Board member. First the Council has to accept the Mayor’s recommendation, then at the next meeting the member is confirmed and then the swearing in will take place. Larry Ramdin will attend the confirmation meeting. J. Schiller feels the information on the tobacco fact sheet for Salem is not accurate. He wants to put it in perspective – what has happened in Salem from year to year? How has our tobacco 21 program helped? Some communities don’t do spot checks, or not as often. L. Ramdin said the information is cumulative for the entire year. Copy available at the BOH office. c. Administrative No comments/questions. Report Copy available at the BOH office. d. City Council B. Gerard said Councilor Dominguez wants us to be at the next Council Liaison Updates meeting to discuss restaurant bar patrons smoking outside establishments. L. Ramdin said some people want exclusion zones, i.e. 20 feet from entrance to restaurants. G. Yuhas said at one point they were trying to get restaurants to adopt cigarette disposal “butt” bins, but they were not interested. B. Gerard said she can present the Board’s letter in support of K. Currier-Dougherty’s proposal to ban polystyrene. She asked if Trolley Depot can use up the 4-mil plastic bags they ordered because she mistakenly told them they could use them. L. Ramdin said we must enforce the ban, but he is always guided by the City Solicitor who said under the circumstances they can use them until they’re gone. The zoning board approved the application for recreational marijuana for the medical dispensary. We can have up to five licenses in the City, but we don’t want them all in one place. L. Ramdin is more concerned about growing and chemicals and the safe use of edibles. The strong odor of marijuana may cause nuisances. L. Ramdin asked Councilor B. Gerard if she will be willing to participate on a data analysis committee to review and analyze opioid data for Salem. M. Lauby moved to approve the reports. J. Schiller 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed.  7. Board of Health program M. Lauby handed out “Healthy People 2020” packets that included planning leading health indicators. She likes the approach with a positive tool looking at the strengths in a community, rather than Gateway city programs that are negative and only highlight problems. Data should be from the MA School of Public Health, Boston University or Harvard. Her contacts would be able to dig down to get Salem data. Sexual and domestic assaults are social determinants of health. They affect mental health and so many other areas. She believes in the appreciative inquiry. Do we want community providers to come in to talk to us? J. Schiller asked what our agenda would be after they come in. M. Lauby said to give guidance for grants, etc. for issues we believe will make a difference, i.e. more bike paths, etc. We can make positive plans. We can also try to get data sources from DPH. 8. New Business/Scheduling of future - Vote on Regulation 7 agenda items - B. Gerard report from Council on polystyrene 9. MEETING ADJOURNED: M. Lauby motioned to adjourn the meeting. J. Schiller 2nd. All in favor. Motion passed. 10:06pm Respectfully submitted, Maureen Davis Clerk of the Board Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at 7:00pm At City Hall Annex, 98 Washington Street, 1st Floor, Salem, MA