ATHOL — Changes to the town’s tobacco and food safety bylaws will go into effect at the beginning of the new year, while Board of Health officials continue to discuss potential regulations on the processing and sale of marijuana products for consumption.
At a Board of Health meeting Tuesday afternoon, members discussed how they are educating business owners about the upcoming changes, giving them time to comply before they begin enforcing the new rules in 2019.
“All we want them to do is comply,” Board of Health chair Marty Miarecki said. “We’re not trying to slap a fine on anyone.”
Beginning Jan. 1 the minimum age to purchase cigarettes, tobacco and vaping products statewide will be 21 years old, except for people currently between 18 and 20 years old. Athol took this law a step further by writing a bylaw that also prohibits the young adults from being “grandfathered” out of the regulation, which the Board of Health passed after a hearing on Oct. 30.
Four major changes to the federal food safety laws will also go into effect on Jan. 1 to bring the Athol into compliance with the FDA’s 2013 Food Code regulations. Food establishments will be required to keep written clean-up procedures in place for vomit and diarrhea accidents, and use-by dates on prepared foods to avoid potentially dangerous bacterial growth. The holding temperature for food served hot will also be lowered to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, while the cold storage temperatures for cut tomatoes, leafy greens and cut melons will lower to 41 degrees Fahrenheit.
The food safety changes will update some of the Athol Board of Health’s bylaws from 1999.
“For us it’s an overhaul, because we’re all the way back in 1999,” said Board of Health vice chair Joan Hamlett. “We’ll see how everybody is doing with it after (January) first.”
Marijuana bylaws
The Board of Health is considering writing a set of bylaws that address the public health side effects of the marijuana industry.
“It might as well be a food,” said health agent Deborah Vondal, referring to the state’s recommended list of public health regulations. “They put everything in here that we do for food establishments.”
Keeping marijuana away from youth is a top priority, Miarecki said, making careful enforcement of customer ID laws a necessity.
“It’s very similar to tobacco,” Miarecki said.
They compared potential marijuana bylaws with those used Northampton and Leicester, the first two municipalities in the state to open recreational marijuana dispensaries. Board members said that in most cases local zoning boards and the state Cannabis Control Commission regulated how cannabis dispensaries operate. However, local boards of health can make sure that discharge from the cultivation facilities does not pollute the water supply, and is not too much for the wastewater treatment plant to handle.
Under Athol’s current bylaws, the number of retail marijuana establishments is limited to 20 percent of the liquor licenses in town. Currently, that number rounds down to two establishments, but Miarecki pointed out that this number can change as more establishments apply for liquor licenses. There is no limit to the number of growing facilities or medical marijuana facilities in Athol.
Hamlett said the Board is in the early stages of researching and drafting their own bylaws and would go through a thorough public hearing process before passing any. In theory, local bylaws would help the town oversee regulations the state might be too busy to follow up on or enforce.
“Basically we’re mimicking the state law so if someone sells to someone under 21, we can do something about that, “ Hamlett said.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@atholdailynews.com.