Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES September 19, 2023 MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeremy Schiller, Chair, Sara Moore, Geri Yuhas, Datanis Elias MEMBERS EXCUSED: Paul Kirby OTHERS PRESENT: David Greenbaum, Health Agent, Joyce Redford, Director North Shore Tobacco Control Program TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION 1. Call to Order 7:08pm 2. Approval of Minutes S. Moore motioned to approve the minutes. G. Yuhas 2 nd. (July 11, 2023) All in favor, Motion passed by a vote of 3 to 0. 3. Hearing Request – Vapor Outlet – Mr. Stone failed to appear; the violation is upheld. 103 Lafayette Street for violations of Regulation #24 of City of Salem Board of Health Restricting the G. Yuhas motioned to uphold the violation at Vapor Outlet with the Sale and Use of Tobacco Products fine and suspension. S. Moore 2nd. and Nicotine Delivery Products. All in favor, Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. 4. Public Hearing on proposed J. Schiller informed the Board that the highlighted sections of the draft changes to Regulation #24 of the regulations were the proposed changes discussed at the meeting in July. City of Salem Board of Health J. Redford explained the difference between the green and yellow Restricting the Sale and Use of highlighting, the green is to be discussed and the yellow was initially Tobacco Products and Nicotine discussed at the July meeting. Delivery Products. Discussion began on page 5 with the green highlighted section and J. Redford explained that state law defines enhancers, anything that can be used to enhance flavor, liquid, flavored rolling paper, flavored hemp or other items that can be used to add or enhance flavor. J. Redford further described other flavor enhancers and informed the Board that this language tightens up the regulation so that when she is doing inspections there is no ambiguity as to what is and isn’t a flavor enhancer. J. Schiller asked if any other communities have this language in their regulation. J. Redford stated, Danvers, Beverly, Ipswich and Rockport have this language as well as many others outside of out collaborative. J. Schiller asked, how do you educate the retailers about this and over what 1|Page period of time before it becomes an enforcement action. J. Redford explained, we will do a mailing prior to the enactment date with the information for retailers outlining what this change means and what the new regulations are and if needed retailers can request consultation of what the new language covers before the enactment date. The board discussed the dual cap, there is currently a cap of 50 tobacco permits, the new language would maintain the cap of 50 tobacco permits but of those 50 only 3 could be adult only establishments. J. Redford explained to the Board that as an adult only establishment they cannot sell incidental items like the lottery. Salem recently had an incident at an adult only establishment that was selling lottery, Joyce informed them that was a violation of the regulation, so they shut the machine down. The lottery notified Joyce the machine would be removed. Joyce advised the Board regarding language exempting adult only establishments from language around no self-service displays and that this was included because anyone under 21 years of age should not even be allowed in an adult only establishment. The last update to the regulations is the language to the penalties increasing all fines to state level amounts of $1,000, $2,000, and $5,000. Discussion took place regarding the enactment date, it was decided that the date would be January 1, 2024. D. Elias asked, in case of a fourth violation, the regulation states the Board “may permanently revoke the tobacco sales permit”, if the Board decides not to revoke would the penalty remain the highest penalty? She was informed that was correct. J. Redford informed the Board that typically we don’t see tobacco retailers reach a third offense in thirty-six months, but when we do it is easy to revoke a tobacco sales permit because of the egregious nature of the violations. Additional discussion took place regarding violations within the 36-month tolling period and what that meant for penalties. S. Moore motioned to approve the amendments to Regulation #24 effective January 1, 2024. G. Yuhas 2nd. All in favor, Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. J. Redford updated the Board on regulations regarding illegal marijuana sales and synthetic marijuana sales. J. Schiller asked that these regulations be tentatively placed on the agenda for the November meeting. D. Greenbaum provided the Board context for the hearing for Bunghole Liquors at the October meeting. The owner of this establishment was in front of the Board a few months ago for a hearing, he subsequently withdrew his appeal stating he would pay his fines and serve the 7-day suspension. A letter was sent outlining the suspension timeline, Joyce conducted an inspection and found they were still selling tobacco products. Based on the language of the regulation, a new suspension for 30 days was issued and the owner has appealed that suspension resulting in his appeal to be heard at the October meeting. 2|Page  5. Chairperson Communications NONE 6. Public Health Announcements /Reports/Updates NONE 7. Administrative Report Copy available at BOH office. 8. Council Liaison Updates Councillor Varela advised the Board that the City Council approved an order for the licensing Board to approve regulation to ban 50-100ml or less, nips. Would the Board write a letter to the Licensing Board in support of this ban? That is my only update currently. Julie Krespin, recently retired psychologist in regard to the nips issue, the number of bottles along Sargent Street is astronomical, this is a great idea to ban nips. 9. New Business/Scheduling of Future NONE Agenda Items 10. Items that could not be NONE anticipated prior to the posting of the agenda. MEETING ADJOURNED: S. Moore motioned to adjourn. G. Yuhas 2nd. Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. Meeting Adjourned: 7:48 PM Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, October 10, 2023, at 7:00pm at City Hall Annex, 98 Washington Street, 1st Floor, Salem, MA Respectfully submitted, David Greenbaum Health Agent 3|Page