1982-10-18 - Laserfiche WebLink

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350 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING OCTOBER 18, 1982 The regular meeting of the Board of Health was held Monday, October 18, 1982 at 7:15 p.m. in Room G-1 (Recreation Office) of the Town Office Building. Members present were: Mr. James W. Lambie, Chairman; Linda Roemer, ph.D. and George A. Smith, Director of Public Health. Minutes of the last meeting were approved as read. At seven -thirty p.m. Bernice Joyal, Health Commissioner for the City of Newton came into the Board Meeting at the request of George Smith, Health Director for the Town of Lexington. Mr. Smith explained to Ms. Joyal that Collaborative Research has moved into Lexington, At the present time they are not doing research but there is a lab there that is not being utilized at this time as far as he knows. Mr. Smith said he knows Newton has come up with regulations for DNA research and he and the Board would like to hear about it. Ms. Joyal said it is a long process that started with them in 1980. Their problem at the time was pharmaceutical labs moving into town. They started with using the NIH guidelines. They then had a couple of open meetings and made the police and fire departments aware of the hazards that could occur. Other towns and Mass Public Health began to have meetings at that time about DNA research and had drawn up guidelines. Newton also had meetings with the two people that were originally involved in the Cambridge and M.P.H. guidelines. In Newton they have to apply to the "Land Use Committee" and then it is discussed with the bio hazards committee. The CDC also are making guidelines and determinations of what containmant should be used for which organism. There is some thought that eventually the CDC guide- lines will be substituted for the NIH guidelines. The questions also comes up - should we allow institutions to come in that are working with exempt organisms without a license such as ecola and we decided "No, they should also have to get a license the same as anyone else because you don't know what they will eventually be working with". Newton has also written in to have a surveyor go in to survey the Lab. Someone that is an expert in DNA and they will survey the facilities at least once a year. We had a few guidelines drawn up after meeting with different people knowledgeable on the subject. Ms. Joyal also got involved with a committee with people from Boston, some scientists, etc. that were drawing up guidelines and interested in DNA. In addition, Tufts had a course in relation to DNA that Bernice took and now the ordinance is three pages in relation to the zoning laws. Ms. Joyal would suggest you send for the NPHA model ordinance that is being used throughout the country. Ms. Joyal said that there will still be changes in their regulations and she wants to get them updated again within the year. She suggests that if and when the guide-