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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981-11-09297 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING NOVEMBER 9, 1981 The regular meeting of the Board of Health was held Monday, November 9, 1981 at 7:15 p.m. in Room G-1 of the Town Office Building. Minutes of the last meeting were approved as read. Mr. Smith reported to the Board that he has had a few complaints about res- RESTAURANTS taurants. People report an alleged food poisoning but it is about a week after they had become sick. It is a little late for a follow-up by this time as the food is gone so it cannot be proved. Mr. Smith said a problem that is more prevalent in the chinese restaurants is cockroaches and cleanliness in their kitchens. He said Bora Bora and Yangtze River Restaurant are more of a problem then Peking Garden. Chester, owner of the Peking Garden is very cooperative. There is a language barrier also because the help does not seem to understand. Mr. Lambie asked if they knew that their permit is in jeopardy would it make them shape up? Mr. Smith said, "Yes, it woud". He said he is going to go back to these restaurants soon. He thinks they should be brought into the Board Meeting if the violations are not taken care of. Dr. Erdos said perhaps it would help if a member of the Board went out on some of these restaurant inspections with the Director. The Board agreed that each member should go out on some of these restaurant inspections. Mr. Smith told the Board that it is difficult to get good kitchen help these days. No one wants to do the menial jobs anymore. He said there is, on occasion, young people in a restaurant taking manage- ment training but they do not know a thing about the food service area part of the business. Chief Bergeron came into the meeting to meet the member of the Board of Health and also to make known there will be a health -works fair sponsored by Channel 5/WHDH and the Shawmut Bank. They are also looking for a local sponsor. Chief Bergeron and Mr. Smith had gone into a meeting in Boston about this health fair. This fair will be held at the central fire station. They will need doctors, nurses, professionals, and people to volunteer their services. The non-pro- fessionals can help to take the medical histories before the testing begins. Dr. Erdos asked if this is a one -day or an on-going clinic. Chief Bergeron said it is a one -day clinic to be run tentatively on March 20, 1982 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Dr. Erdos suggested for the Chief to contact Symmes to see about the clinics they are running and if they could help. HEALTH -WORKS FAIR 98 Chief Bergeron said Symmes is one place he intends to contact real soon. Dr. Roemer suggested that he also contact the Middlesex Lung Association in Burlington. Chief Bergeron said he hopes to have the Lion's Club put on their Glaucoma Screening Clinic that day and also the Rotary Club to run their Hearing Testing Clinic that day. Dr. Erdos suggested that he check to have some dentists do oral screening that day, also. The only thing wrong about running this fair in March, Dr. Erdos said, is that we could get a snowstorm. The chief said we could perhaps have an alternate date set in case of inclement weather. Another problem could be in trying to get volunteers for programs like this. It has been suggested to get volunteers early while the fair plans are being put together. Also a piece should be put into the local paper ahead of time with a pre- registration form attached. Have people mail back the form and this would give an idea how many people would be interested in coming. Dr. Erdos said some people come to all available clinics. We really want to reach out to those that do not come on a regular basis. One of the big problems is to get people to have a follow-up if needed, if this isn't done then the whole program has failed. Chief Bergeron said that the test results are given to the person and also sent to their private physician. Dr. Roemer said it is difficult for the Board to evaluate the results of a program like this if we do not see the results. She thinks we, the Board, should have the results made available to them. Dr. Erdos wondered if this fair is going to cost the Town anything. Chief Bergeron said that it wouldn't. He is going to try to get some sponsors as they will need food for the volunteers, juices, printed materials, etc. Dr. Roemer said it is good to have the Fire Department involved in something like this. Chief Bergeron said it will give the public a chance to see the facilities at the fire station, the ambulance, etc. He said that he and the Health Director, George Smith, will work together to make this fair a success. What he is looking for is the encouragement and backing of the Board of Health. The Board agreed that they will back this program one hundred percent. Dr. Roemer suggested to call Minute Man Tech School and get volunteers, the students there can take blood pressure readings, and will be willing to give their time. 1 1 1 Chief Bergeron said everything will be free -of -charge except the blood tests. If anyone cannot afford to pay, they certainly will not turn them away. The Board said if they can help in any way, to be sure and come back in to another meeting. Chief Bergeron thanked the Board and retired. Mr. Smith told the Board that Gov. King is declaring the week of November 30, 1981 "Visiting Nurses Association Week". The V.N.A. here are running a mini clinic at Cary Hall on December 1, 1981 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Mr. Smith said if we have any pneumococcal vaccine left from our own clinic we will make it available to the nurses for their mini clinic. Mr. Smith discussed briefly with the Board the new permit fees that are voted in by the legislature. At the present time, our milk licenses are at the maximum of $2.00 a permit but the State has now raised it to a maximum of $10.00 a permit. Dr. Erdos said, "We raised a lot of our fees last year". Mr. Smith said any we raised were not regulated by the State. He said we now get a $1.00 for methyl alcohol licenses and we can now go to $5.00 a permit if we care to, with Town Meeting approval. We get $25.00 for each funeral director and the legislature has voted it can be raised to $100.00. Mr. Smith said he would be interested in raising the milk and methyl alcohol fees with the approval of Town Meeting. Dr. Roemer said we should raise the fees this year. The present fees do not even pay for the clerical help. Mr. Smith had copies of water testing results that had been taken of the Town water. He told the Board these samples are taken every week by the P.W.D. We do the quarterly testing and send it to the Lawrence Experimental Station. Zero coliform in the reports received. X99 VISITING NURSES ASSOCIATION Dr. Erdos said we do not have to spend any time with this letter. We are all in agreement with you that all departments should work together in planning a program to help residents get rid of small quantities of hazardous wastes. This is in regard to a letter Mr. Smith sent to several Town Boards suggesting they get a program started whereby residents can get rid of hazar- dous waste material sometimes found in their homes. Mr. Smith told the Board that the last $2,000.00 of the mosquito control budget appropriated by Town Meeting is being spent this week with drainage and dredge work being done. This has been a good summer this past year with not too many mosquitoes. People have been using everything for the gypsy moths and it seemed to help keep the mosquito population down, also. - FEES - STATE REGULATED WATER SAMPLES HAZARDOUS WASTE DISPOSAL RESIDENTIAL MOSQUITO CONTROL 300 Mr. Smith said there is Federal money available to communities for gypsy moths if they use "Dipel" but that is not the best road to take. The State has not done anything for the gypsy moths so far. They are hoping to get Federal money for the "defoliage program". Mr. Smith did say that this Town is going to be in real trouble in the Spring with the gypsy moths. He said that the eggs are everywhere. Re- infestation started - the eggs can be carried around on cars, campers, etc. He said we will have this problem for a long time. He said all those opposed to mosquito control can breath a sigh of relief now, as we are out of money and are out of the "mosquito control program". 1 Mr. Smith reported that the flu clinic was very successful this year. He VACCINATION said there will be no free flu vaccine from the State next year, he had been CLINICS informed recently. The Town will have to buy their own and we will most likely have to charge a fee for the shot. The pneumonia clinic will be held this coming Thursday, November 12, 1981. Mr. Smith said he hopes to do at least 70 or 80 shots. If we did that, it would be a good clinic as we only did 40 doses last year. We get calls from nursing homes, he said, looking for the vaccine that was left over (flu vaccine) but we ran out ourselves. Dr. Roemer asked bout Medicare paying for the immunizations. Mr. Smith said that Medicare will not recognize public clinics. Mr. Smith mentioned to the Board that he had received a letter from a Chiropractic Society that wanted to run a public education clinic for chiropractic care. The Board did not see any reason to get involved with this type of clinic. Mr. Lambie brought up the subject of goals for the Board of Health/Health Department. What have we accomplished? What are the future goals? The Board should put an emphasis on what they want to do. He said I am not looking for answers tonight, but would like each one's thought about this at a later date. Mr. Smith told the Board that the restaurants are supposed to be inspected twice a year but he has gotten a little behind on that because of other commitments. 1 CHIROPRACTIC SOCIETY He has been doing the quarantining of dogs that have bitten someone and also animal inspections when he can. GOALS MISC. The results of the immunization survey conducted by the State in day-care IMMUNIZATION centers is completed. The results were mailed to the Health Department. SURVEY The results of the survey show that the day-care center children were well immunized. Montessori School had the worse record of all day-care centers. There D.P.T. was poor but their immunizations of polio and MMR were good. Immunization in nursery school is not mandatory as it is in the public schools. 301 Lead paint screening is not required although the State would like to make you think it is. Dr. Erdos said we did discuss a lead -paint screening program about a year ago. There is a family going to move in to 450 Lowell Street from Cambodia as the family there has moved on to another town or city. Mr. Smith tested with sodium sulfide and found there is lead paint in the CAMBODIAN premises. He has a company coming to test with their machine. This will REFUGEES cost $35.00 but he thinks the housing authority is going to pay for it. Many parents have called complaining about the way the schools are handling the head lice problem in the schools. Mr. Smith said he is going to have to contact Jack Monderer to see what is being done. He knows that notices were sent home to all parents notifying them there HEAD LICE IN is a problem in the schools. SCHOOLS The Board wondered if the incidence of head lice was higher this year than in the past. Mr. Smith said that he really didn't know. When he asked, they told him there were only 40 or 50 cases. Dr. Roemer thought notifying the parents was a good idea, then the parents can deal with it sooner. Mr. Smith commented that the one thing he didn't like in the schools was the stuffed furniture they have around. Mr. Smith said this is budget -time again. The Board Members were given BUDGETS a copy of the budget and the explaination of each one. The Board will read it over and discuss it at a later date. There were plans submitted for a 3 house subdivision called Blossomcrest BLOSSOMCREST Tract, owned by Robert Cataldo. TRACT SUBDIVISION Mr. Smith said there is sewer, water and drainage for this subdivision. The Board reviewed and accepted the plans. The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m. M.S.