Special to the Journal
The Revere Board held a regular monthly meeting last Thursday, on March 26. Chair Dr. Drew Bunker and fellow members Kathleen Savage and Viviana Catano were on hand for the session, as well as Director of Public Health Lauren Buck, Health Agent/Director of Inspectional Services Michael Wels, and Board of Health Clerk Paula Sepulveda. Buck presented the Public Health Communicable Disease monthly report. She said that there were 181 cases of influenza and 32 of COVID reported in the city in the past month, both of which were significant reductions from the previous month. “The worst of the flu season is behind us, but common colds, often associated with the family of RSV viruses, are at their peak,” said Buck. “Norovirus, the stomach bug, also is climbing throughout the country. Measles cases also are higher across the country than they have been in recent memory.”
Buck also noted that the Board of Health will be hosting expired medication and syringe collection dates in April. She said the schedule is on the city’s website. Wells presented the ISD report for February. Wells said that in the past month, ISD issued 111 certificates of fitness for housing units; performed 48 reinspections; and received five interior complaints. In the food department, ISD performed 27 routine food inspections, four reinspections, two complaint inspections, two pre-opening inspections, and 16 temporary food inspections. In the exterior sanitation division, ISD agents issued 416 total citations for trash violations; 37 for overflowing dumpsters; 31 for snow & ice violations; 11 for junk heaps, dumps, and automobile graveyards; and four for multiple unregistered motor vehicles.
The board then took up an appeal of the city’s inspection report for apartment 709 at 650 Ocean Ave. by the tenant-resident, Terence Glenn, for alleged violations including biohazard, mold, debris, and cracks in the wall along the windows. Glenn had requested an inspection by the city, which three city inspections performed on March 9. Attorney Anthony Brunco, representing the city as outside counsel, told the board the inspection did not substantiate Mr. Glenn’s claims, prompting Glenn to file his appeal. However, Mr. Glenn did not appear at the hearing and the board voted 3-0 to reject his appeal.
The board next heard from Bonny Carroll, the Director of Six City Tobacco Initiative, pertaining to the lack of an FDA Marketing Granted Order (MGO) for many tobacco-related products that presently are on local store shelves. Carroll said that some local health boards have notified stores in their communities that products that have not received an MGO must be removed. She acknowledged that this will have a significant economic impact on many stores. “It sounds like we also need to draft a letter,” said Bunker. The board then took up the issue of the problem of kratom, a natural substance derived from the leaves of a tree that has been used safely in Southeast Asia for hundreds of years, but which in its synthetic, highly-concentrated form has been shown to be an addictive and dangerous product. The board discussed the matter extensively at its February meeting.
“Given the information we received last time, my main concern is that kratom is not regulated in the United States and we do not know the potency of what is being sold,” said Catano. “Consumers don’t know either. I would like to move forward with having these substances removed from our community.” “My concern is that someone might die from this,” said Savage, who acknowledged the differences in potency and effects between natural vs. synthetic kratom. “I think we need to jump on this. If we don’t work on banning this, if someone dies from this, they may try to sue the city because we have not been proactive.” Bunker added, “We don’t know the content of what is being sold in stores and almost all of what is being sold in the city is synthetic. If we want to keep the city safe, we need to ban it.”
However, Saugus resident Mike Fisher noted that natural, whole-leaf kratom products are available in stores in Revere and that regulations can be adopted that ban the synthetic versions, but allow for the whole-leaf products, which generally are recognized as safe, to be sold. “The easy thing to do would be to ban everything, but the right thing to do would be to distinguish between the two,” Fisher concluded. “I think there is too much risk in leaving these products on the shelves in our city. I don’t believe this belongs in our corner stores,” said Catano, who added that the city should not wait for the state legislature (which is considering several bills pertaining to kratom) to take action.
Buck concluded the discussion by explaining that the process of banning the product by the Board of Health would entail the drafting of a new set of regulations, a review by the City Solicitor’s office, a public hearing, and then a final vote by the board. The board then took up license renewals, two for chicken keeping (from Carmela & Luigi DiChiara and Joseph DiCenso) and one for beekeeping (from Damian DeMarco). After Buck told the members that her department had performed inspections of the licensees’ premises and all were in compliance with the appropriate rules and regulations, the board voted to renew the licenses.