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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHEALTH 03032016Town of Mansfield Board of Health Minutes March 3, 2016 Present: Michael McClean, Chairman; Joseph DeGirolamo, Clerk; Nancy Wall; Catherine Memory; Michael Healey; Scott Leite, Board of Health Agent. 1. Call to Order at 7:00 pm. 2. Visitors: Marilyn Edge, Director of Western Bristol County & Foxborough Tobacco & Alcohol Prevention Collaborative. Family Food Mart dba Divya Akhand Jyoit Corp., 660 East Street. Pranavkumar Patel and Dinish Patel. Ms. Edge said on February 14, 2016 at 12:00 pm, during a compliance check at Family Food Mart, located at 660 East Street, a 17 year old buyer was able to purchase a pack of Cheyenne Menthol. The store was notified of the sale and received a citation, which has been paid. Ms. Edge said the owner contacted her office several times and Inspector Sarah Leroux invited Mr. Pranavkumar Patel and his employees to a retail training program in Fall River, Mr. Patel was asked what he will do to prevent another violation. He said he will make sure his employees are all trained and will work closely with Ms. Edge to prevent another violation. Ms. Edge said historically this store has never had a sale under this program but did receive a citation for an FDA compliance check violation in 2013. Dinish Patel said the employee has worked at the store for two and a half years. Mr. Patel noted the store has a program on the register so Mr. Leite asked why the program was not used and if Mr. Patel had an employee training plan in place. Mr. Patel said at this time there is only a scanner that asks for an ID. He said he will provide Pranavkumar Patel with a copy of his employee training plan. Ms. Edge suggested Mr. Patel check the register print outs as well as the camera to make sure his employees are asking for ID. Ms. Memory asked how often the employees are reminded of the importance of checking IDs. Mr. Patel said he talks with them frequently. Ms. Edge explained the tolling period to Mr. Patel; this is Mr. Patel's 1St offense but if another violation occurs in the next two years, the fine will increase with a possibility of suspension. Mr. Leite said if there are no violations within that period of time the current violation will be removed. Elias Kazan, owner of Mansfield Service, was present Ms. Edge said on February 14, 2016 at 11:23 am, during a compliance check at Mansfield Service, Inc., 189 Chauncy Street, a 17 year old buyer was able to purchase cigars; the buyer was not asked for an ID. Ms. Edge said Mr. Kazan received a citation which is due March 10th; the citation has not been paid or appealed to Attleboro District Court as of March 3, 2016. Ms. Edge offered the retail training to Mr. Kazan and his employees. Mr. Kazan said the employee has been with him since 2008 when he opened the store and at the time of the sale, the employee, who is very experienced and thorough, was alone and very busy. Mr. Kazan said his employees have been trained but he will send them to the employee training offered by Ms. Edge. Ms. Edge said this is the first offense since 2011 and there is no record of an FDA violation. Mr. McClean asked if there was a training program in place for the store. Mr. Kazan said he does not have any formal training program but new employees spend a considerable amount of time with a manager before they are left alone. Ms. Edge said she uses the training program model submitted by Robert Langton, owner of Tedeschi Food Shop, because it is the best non - corporately done training program. Mr. Healey noted he spoke with Mr. Langton about sharing his program with other retailers; Mr. Langton volunteered to serve as a mentor to any of the Mansfield retailers. Mr. Kazan asked for a copy of the training program and said he will contact Mr. Langton. Mr. Healey asked if there were any programs on the registers to assist employees to prevent tobacco sales. Mr. Kazan said Mobil Corporation recently acquired new registers but at this time the function to flag tobacco sales has not been enabled. Mr. McClean said this function would be useful to check to see if the same birth date has been entered and suggested Mr. Kazan get the software for the register. Ms. Edge said in just about every case where a birth date has been entered and a sale has been made anyway, it is because the cashier entered their own birth date. She noted that Xtra -Mart recently had their program adjusted so if the same date is entered more than 2 or 3 times per shift, an e-mail is sent to the manager; the report for that shift is then examined. Ms. Edge noted this is the first offense for Mansfield Service under the new regulations. 3. Consent Agenda Minutes of February 4, 2016 Motion to approve Consent Agenda: Healey /Memory Motion passed 5 -0 -0. 4. Correspondence: Bristol County Mosquito Control Project: Letter regarding aerial spraying. HealthCare Options Nursing Reports for November and December 2015 5. Agent's Notes: A. Household Hazardous Waste Collection will be April 9, 2016 from 8 -1 at The Xfinity Center B. Tobacco Control: 1. Proposal for use of FDA Inspector /Contractors: Letter from Christy Fedor, Director of the Massachusetts FDA Tobacco Enforcement Program, a part of the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Ms. Edge said in 2012 the Collaborative became part of a pilot project under the State of Massachusetts to have Boards of Health appoint two FDA inspectors as agents of the Board of Health so FDA violations could be counted in the tolling period. She said this year the state decided not to pay for the time for the inspectors to be sworn in as actual agents of the Board of Health and, because the agents were never sworn in, she cannot use any of their data. Ms. Edge said Ms. Fedor sent the letter asking all Boards of Health to consider changing the enforcement language by adding one sentence to their regulations which does not specifically name the agents, just a class of agents so any of the six agents working under the Mass contract with the FDA would then be considered agents of the Boards of Health without being sworn in. Mr. Leite noted the Mansfield Board of Health never appointed the two agents. Mr. Leite said he sent a letter with questions to Ms. Fedor but never received a response. He also sent the questions to Town Counsel, Mr. McClean said the Board has always felt a violation is a violation and the Board still has the flexibility to handle the violations here, to bring people in to visit with the Board, to go through a procedure. He said if the FDA fines a violator, the Board will not impose a second fine. Mr. McClean said Town Counsel is telling the Board they disagree with the state's interpretation of the law to allow the deputizing of the agents. Mr. Leite noted that FDA violations count when considering license renewal. 2. Compliance check accuracy: Ms. Edge said there were clerical errors in the citations issued to the Mansfield Service and Family Food Mart; the section under enforcement of the regulations was cited wrong. 3. Age of compliance purchaser: Ms. Edge explained because the state's legal age to purchase tobacco products is still 18, when she does compliance checks she still has to use 16 -17 year old buyers. She said the only time she can use 18 -20 year old buyers is if the Board of Health has the funds to pay the buyer. Mr. Leite said there is still $3,500 - $3,700 to do compliance checks so an older age group, 18- 20, can be used. He said he has also discussed with the Police Department and Town Counsel about combining alcohol and tobacco compliance checks, which would allow for more compliance checks to be done with the older age group. Ms. Edge said there is an issue as to where any money collected from tobacco violations would go. Mr. Leite said at this time, because of the new accounting system in place, there is no account for the money; all money from fines would go into the town's general fund. He said if the Board wants to set up a revolving account, it would have to have approval at Town Meeting. The Board will re -visit this issue at a later time. Ms. Edge said Mansfield Service and Family Food Mart will be re- checked within the next three months. She said she will also be meeting with Pat Harrison at the High School with the other school department nurses to recruit and train students to do compliance checks. C. NEFFA: Will be held at the Mansfield School Complex on April 15tH to April 17'n D. Alcohol & Tobacco compliance checks: Mr. Leite has been discussing with the Police Department and Town Counsel about combining alcohol and tobacco compliance checks, which would allow for more checks to be done with the older age group; will be discussed at a future meeting. E. Sharps Kiosk: Chief Boldrighini will not be purchasing the sharps kiosk because it would be the responsibility of the Fire Department, not the bio -waste hauler, to empty the container, allowing contact with needles not disposed of properly in the medical waste box, as well as other discarded materials. Instead, the money will be used to purchase medical waste boxes so needles can be disposed of properly at the Fire Department. F. Household Hazardous Waste will be held on April 9th at the Xfinity Center; the event will be advertised with a press release, on the town's web site and social media, as well as the distribution of flyers. G. Retirement date: Mr. Leite will retire on July 1, 2016 6. New Business: 7. Old Business: 8. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn at 8:15 pm. DeGirolamo /Wall Motion passed. All matters listed under Consent Agenda are considered to be routine by the Board of Health and will be enacted by one motion. There will not be separate discussion of these items. If discussion is desired, that item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and will be considered separately.