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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-10-06BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING October 6, 1980 The regular meeting of the Board of Health was held Monday, October 6, 1980 at 7:00 p.m. in the Board of Health Office (G-25) of the Town Office Building. Members present were: Dr. William L. Cosgrove, Chairman; Mr. James W. Lambie, Dr. Michael S. Erdos, Mr. George A. Smith, Jr., Director of Public Health. Mr. Smith told the Board the dates for the Flu Clinic have been set. The CLINICS pneumonia clinic will be held October 16, 1980 and the flu clinic will be held on Thursday, November 6, 1980. Mr. Smith stated that the Town had been cut back more than half of the doses of vaccine usually allowed. Dr. Erdos suggested Mr. Smith call Symmes Hospital and talk to a Mr. Shea in the pharmacy and see if he could halp us out with some vaccine. Mr. Smith said the production of vaccine had been cut back this year. We will just have to give the shots until we run out of vaccine. Mr. Smith told the Board that we are charging $4.00 per person at the pneumonia vaccine clinic as the Board of Health has to purchase vaccine and it is expensive. He said most towns do. Needham is charging $5.00 and Framingham is charging $4.00. Dr. Erdos said the vaccine could be given the same day, it otherwise should be given at least two weeks apart. We are giving the vaccine three weeks apart, is that a problem asked Mr. Smith. Dr. Erdos said no, a minimum of two weeks is all right. Mr. Smith said we are going to have articles in both papers, the Minute Man and the Independent. Dr. Erdos said people use to tell him they didn't know about the clinics. Mr. Smith said we do try to let people know. The Board discussed the money set aside for tuberculosis - why we couldn't use some of that money for vaccines. Mr. Smith said it is a "line" item and cannot be touched. He stated we had a resident at Middlesex County Hospital for two weeks and will take care of any credit we had over there. Dr. Cosgrove said perhaps we could ask Norman Cohen if we could use the money for another purpose. Mr. Smith said he had spoken to Mr. Perry and he said we could not do that. Mr. Smith said we will do all right the way we are. Mr. Smith said our pneumonia clinic would be for persons 60 years of age and over and for people with a respiratory disease. 1 1 1 I PERCY RD. Mr. Smith said if we had the money, the pneumonia clinic would be free. He also stated that 10% of the Town residents are over 60 years of age. That is 3200 persons are over 60 years old. Item #2 on agenda. Mr. Smith said we will skip over that as the people cannot come in tonight. They were coming in to discuss where sewer could go. The yard is com- pletely ledge so they want a variance to put in a septic system. The PERCY RD. resident said it would cost him $15,000 to go through ledge for sewer. Dr. Lucas asked if Mr. Smith wanted to hire Mr. Lucas, civil engineer. No, said Mr. Smith. There isn't anything he does that I cannot do. I have been looking at septic systems long enough. Mr. Smith said these people have to come up with their own answer. Mr. Smith spoke about the fire at the Sheraton Motel. He said they lost about a dozen rooms and the kitchen. They had just had it renovated in SHERATON August. He said the fire started from something cooking on one of the LEXINGTON ranges in the kitchen. Grease went up one of the ducts. Mr. Smith said they are only preparing cold buffets in their kitchen. The hot foods are being brought in by a catering firm from Waltham. All the ranges had been damaged so there is no cooking. They have petitioned off the damaged area and are using one-half of the kitchen. Mr. Smith reported there are more dog poisonings this year. It has been the same time of year, same area and same people's dogs being affected. He said it is someone that knows the material being used and it was probably done intentionally. It has been established after U. Mass. did a toxicology test that the poison used is endosulphin. There was one dead dog, one dead cat and one dog treated at Lexington Veterinarian Hospital and one sick cat. Mr. Smith said there would be an article in the Globe tomorrow. He said they have checked Diamond Jr. High and Fiske schools. Also, Lexington Gardens to see if anyone had been using any of this endosulphin. No one ever calls and complains about loose dogs or barking dogs in the Hathaway/Brent/Sedge Roads area. They have also talked to the mailmen and delivery men for any clues. Mr. Smith told the Board they had found some "pokeweed" and thought it could be that, but they found out later it wasn't. Mr. Lambie asked if there had been any autopsies? Mr. Smith said "no". It cost $300.00 for one and no one wanted to pay it. They did test urine and stomach contents. Dr. Erdos asked if it could be related to paravirus. Mr. Smith said, "no". He said if it was accidental there would be dead birds and other dead animals. Dr. Erdos asked if the dogs run free in that area. Dr. Cosgrove said, "yes they do". Mr. Smith explained that endosulphin is a chemical (pesticide) used for fruit trees. The only place sells it around here is Agway in Waltham. The S.P.C.A. checked it out and only two people bought it last year and neither one of them come from Lexington. Someone asked if it had any connection to horses. Mr. Smith said he had checked out Chiesa's farm but there was nothing around there. He also told the Board he has been in touch with Tufts and he may get some free autopsies. Mr. Smith said he went to a meeting at Concord the other night with Sandy at E.R.T. The State wants a hazard waste coordinator and the Selectmen appointed the new Director of Public Works. Dr. Cosgrove asked how many companies produce anything that is hazardous waste? Mr. Smith said he really doesn't know. He said the Fire Department would have that information. Mr. Smith asked if they want some one from the Fire Dept. to come in. He said they have a chemical advisory team. Mr. Smith is going to some of their meetings. They have people from Kennicott Copper and Raytheon as representatives on this team. Dr. Erdos said there is a role for the Board of Health in these emergencies. Mr. Lambie said the police should be aware of the steps in this hazardous waste booklet. He wants police and fire departments to get copies of the booklet. Police should he aware of trucks going through or dumping and make arrests. Mr. Smith asked if the Board wanted to sit down with the fire and police about this. Mr. Lambie said how about the Town Manager? 1 1 1 L3 The Board all agreed on that - to sit down with all of these people. Mr. Lambie said the State would be involved because of the D.E.Q.E. Mr. Smith said they pass a lot of little things down to the local level but no money or help comes from them. Mr. Lambie would like the police to get involved. He would like to sit down with the Fire Chief and Chief Corr and have some discussion. Mr. Smith said maybe for the December Meeting he has a lot going on now with clinics and things. GYPSY MOTHS Mr. Smith said Paul Mazerall has proposed three alternatives for this PROGRAM program. One - to continue program of this year with limited spraying. Two - expanded program of chemical spraying with dipel until the cater- pillars are two large to control and switch to another chemical. The cost of this program is $20,000. Three limited spray programs with aerial spray with Dipel. Do a 1000 acres of land in two applications in the thirteen most heavily infested areas. Areas not so infested could be handled by trucks. The cost of the aerial spraying is $100,000 and $10,000 for truck spraying. 1 Dipel is $80.00 a gallon. The aerial spraying is not cheap. Mr. Smith said that gypsy moths are really not a health concern with the moths themselves. It is an emotional problem with caterpillars crawl- ing all over the house outside. Dr. Erdos said there is going to be a strong concern with chemical spraying no matter what it is sprayed with. MOSQUITO Mr. Smith said that Dipel is a chemical and some people are adamant CONTROL against it. 1 Dr. Cosgrove asked what about mosquitoes? We are wasting our time. We won't see any mosquito control in 1981. Mr. Smith said you are going to see ditching and draining and lar- vaciding. A letter just went into the Reclamation Board. Dr. Cosgrove asked from whom? Mr. Smith said from the Town Mr. Lambie asked who signed it? Mr. Smith said the Town Manager did. Dr. Erdos said his concern from the health point -of -view is equine encephalitis. Dr. Erdos said the latest bulletin he saw from the Center of Disease Control there was an outbreak of encephalitis in Michigan where there were a few cases of encephalitis and two or three people died and 70-80 cases in horses. Eastern encephalitis is what we are interested here and that is what these people had. CLEAN AIR WEEK BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING ROOM If you survive - people under 30 yrs. of age have a pretty good chance of being normal again. Some older people would be affected and never quite be back to normal. Dr. Cosgrove knew of someone that had encephalitis. They survived and some days seem normal but gets so he does not know his relatives. He has now started to slip and going down -hill. He is loosing his coordination to the point of senility. Dr. Erdos said we should keep an eye on any cases of encephalitis in the State. Dr. Erdos asked if the Board received an invitation to go tonight to the human services meeting (C.M.A.R.C. & M.V.M.H.A.)with the Human Services Council. Mr. Smith said, "No", we never do. Dr. Erdos said they get their money budgeted from this department. Apparently they didn't want us even though we pay their bills. George said the Selectmen use to pay all of it and one day they gave it all to us. Mr. Smith reported that Randy Rice of the E.P.A. came over on the Saturday of Clean Air Week and tested emissions of cars. Approximately 50-60 cars were tested. There was about a 30% failure of cars. Mr. Smith said it was a good day but we could have done better. Mrs. Gabriel, Health Intern, came down also and helped record results. People came with screw drivers to make adjustments if the testing showed that they need any adjustment. Dr. Cosgrove: "We were ordered out of our Meeting Room. I have been waiting two weeks to tell the Town Manager that I do not like it. I don't like to be pushed around." Dr. Erdos asked who is taking over? Dr. Cosgrove said - the Planning Board, Look at the space they have. They carry down their maps, etc. They have one of the biggest offices around. Dr. Erdos said our room is only big enough for our meeting. There is no room for us to have people in for a meeting. We do have groups in at certain times. Where will we put them? Dr. Cosgrove said I am still waiting for an appointment. We have to pick up all our meeting stuff and go down the other end of the hall. Why can't we meet in the planning office? Mr. Smith said the Planning Director doesn't want meeting held in there. MRS. Mr. Smith reported to the Board that Mrs. Gabriel has been busy chasing GABRIEL down stores and restaurants that have been slack about renewing their permits. 1 1 She is also checking candy in the stores where it is Halloween time. Dr. Cosgrove told the Board about the shipment of frozen spinach that STOP & SHOP had come into the Stop & Shop for their sale. Two people in town had pur- chased it with a mouse or a partial mouse in it. Mr. Smith said he had Tom Quinn, Manager of Stop & Shop, take off the shelves all frozen spinach of that code number and he also talked to the Quality Control Lab. of the Stop & Shop at their main office D Street in Boston. They were ordering it off the shelves in all their stores. Dr. Erdos asked if they had begun to sandblast the Town water towers that were owned by the town. Yes, Mr. Smith said, they are pretty well finished. Dr. Erdos asked if they monitored it. Mr. Smith said, "yes, but it didn't need much". "They have maintained them in good condition throughout the year". Mr. Lambie asked if we should be thinking about lead paint in any way at all? Doing testing on children? Is there anything we should be doing? LEAD PAINT Dr. Erdos said they had been to the meeting at the Northeastern Boards of Health and lead paint screening was the topic. Mr. Smith said that single family houses were exempt in testing until 1984. We get complaints on occasion and I refer them to the Lead Program in the State. They have machines to do it. Dr. Erdos asked if we should be screening day care centers? Mr. Smith said he has been doing those for the past few years. He said he did every day care center last year and the law doesn't require that he do it. The law says he has to do it if the Office for Children requests it or the parent of a child. Their licenses to operate come from the State now. We do not have to license them locally. Mr. Smith said he did many lead paint tests several years ago and he was glad to see them change that law. He said the State came out to one house with machines. They said it would be done in a few hours and it took them two days to go through the house. Mr. Lambie asked if we had a sampling of whether there are children with lead paint poisoning. Mr. Smith said we had a clinic. We did 105 children at that time and the re- sults came back negative. Five came back showing high levels and they were retested and came back negative - it was a technician's error. Dr. Erdos asked should we make it part of school entrance exams or make it part of the pediatricians exams? Mr. Smith said there are many ways this can be done. At the present time, there is so many different aspects of health work we are involved in there just isn't time to do it from the Health Department standpoint. Mr. Smith said I don't see it as a real problem in Lexington. Mr. Lambie said people have lead paint poisoning and not really know it. Mr. Smith said they use to collect toys at the Fire Department. The people would paint them up to have a fresh look and it would be painted with lead paint. Dr. Cosgrove said we wouldn't have a complete figure as some people took their children other places to be tested. After further discussion, the Board decided not to run a lead screening clinic at this time. Mr. Lambie feels something should be done in the ne ar future. Board Meeting adjourned.