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waterboy
Senior Member
101 Posts |
 Posted - 06/09/2010 : 4:56:57 PM
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June 1, 2010
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CITY BANS TOBACCO SALES IN PHARMACIES - STRENGHTHENS
HEALTHY COMMUNITY INITATIVE.
Everett becomes the first Metro-North city to institute new regulations.
On Monday, May 24th the Everett Board of Health unanimously passed a new Tobacco
Regulation. With bans on tobacco sales already in effect in pharmacies in Boston,
Uxbridge and Needham, Everett leads the metro-north area with this new Regulation on
the Sale of Tobacco.
The regulation, which will take effect June 15th, will impact four pharmacies in the City:
Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Stop and Shop and Costco. The Board of Health was interested in
sending a strong public health message to the retail pharmacies in the City: by allowing
the sale of tobacco in pharmacies and retail stores with pharmacies a mixed message is
sent to consumers who generally patronize these pharmacies for health care services.
The Everett Board of Health believes that it is important that the sale of tobacco products
be banned in health care institutions including pharmacies in the City of Everett to further
its mission to protect, promote and preserve the health and well-being of all Everett
residents.
Mayor Carlo DeMaria is a strong supporter of this effort by his Director of Public Health,
Heidi Porter and the three member Board of Health comprised of Dr. Sean Connolly,
Chairman and members Judith Murphy, RN and Luisa Dello Iocono. Mayor DeMaria’s
directive is to enact and promote public health regulations and programs to further the
overall health of the community. DJ Wilson, the Tobacco Control Director for
Massachusetts Municipal Association and Jason Dodd of the 5 City Tobacco
Collaborative provided regulatory and enforcement reporting support for this regulatory
revision.
Additionally, during the hearing process, testimony from Teens in Everett Against
Substance Abuse (TEASA) included some powerful statements and personal stories of
how the use of tobacco in their families has impacted their lives as youth and TEASA
provided statistics on the negative health impacts of tobacco on people’s health.
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For additional information please contact Matt Laidlaw, Director of Communications,
City of Everett.
Contact:
Matt Laidlaw
Director of Communications
City of Everett
484 Broadway
Everett, MA 02149
617-394-2270
matt.laidlaw@ci.everett.ma.us
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 06/09/2010 : 6:35:16 PM
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Did the city solicitor give an opinion on that? Just doesn't seem right where we already have regulations that only "adults" can purchase cigarettes and all that's doing is hurting the businesses community YET AGAIN in their pockets.
Overeating and being overweight is unhealthy too. Maybe some of the people implementing this should call Jillian Michaels, since being overweight is unhealthy, so why stop at cigarettes.
What's really nuts is......we discriminate against a teen curfew, and Marchese gets laughed at every time he brings it up? Something is seriously wrong here. |
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waterboy
Senior Member
101 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2010 : 12:37:34 PM
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EVERETT
Everett board bans sale of tobacco in drugstores
City bans tobacco sales in pharmacies
By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent | June 10, 2010
Starting next week, smokers will find it a little less convenient to pick up a pack of cigarettes in Everett.
Hoping to deliver another blow against smoking, the Board of Health on May 24 voted unanimously to ban the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies. The ban, which takes effect next Tuesday, also applies to business establishments that include pharmacies, according to Heidi Porter, Everett’s public health director.
“Pharmacies and drugstores that sell tobacco products are essentially approving of the purchase and use of tobacco. And we think that sends a mixed message to consumers who are going to these pharmacies really for health care services,’’ Porter said, of what prompted the ban. “The bottom line is that these pharmacies are health care establishments.’’
The ban, which took the form of a revision to the board’s tobacco regulation, prohibits tobacco sales in any health care institution or establishments containing them, with “health care institution’’ defined to include pharmacies and drugstores.
Porter said since hospitals and medical offices in this area do not sell tobacco products, the ban on tobacco sales in pharmacies and businesses containing them was the key change. The revised ordinance also bans tobacco vending machines except in private clubs.
Everett becomes the fifth Massachusetts community to bar the sale of tobacco in pharmacies.
Boston led the way in December, 2008 when it became the second city in the country — the first was San Francisco — to adopt such a ban. The Boston ban, which took effect in February 2009, was part of a larger tightening by the city of its tobacco restrictions.
Similar bans on tobacco sales in pharmacies followed in Needham, Uxbridge, and Newton, according to Jason Dodd, director of the 5-City Tobacco Control Collaborative, a partnership among the health boards of Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, and Somerville that works to develop and enforce anti-tobacco policies.
He said the Somerville Health Department is expected to put the idea of a ban in that city before its board after the start of the new fiscal year July 1.
Dr. Sean F. Connolly, chairman of the Everett Board of Health, said the board felt “it is hard to justify the paradox of a health care institution — which these pharmacies and stores with pharmacies are defined as — that is practicing good health and making people healthy through medications, being able to sell cigarettes, which are known carcinogens.’’
But Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said his group opposes the bans that have been adopted in Everett and the other communities.
“As long as it’s a legal product, it seems to me consumers ought to have the choice of buying it at the store that they like to shop at,’’ he said, adding that communities adopting such rules ought to lose some of the funding they receive from the state’s cigarette tax to pay for anti-tobacco programs.
Everett has three pharmacies or establishments with pharmacies that have permits from the board to sell tobacco products, according to Porter.
She said the three — Walgreens, on Ferry Street; Rite-Aid, on Broadway; and Costco, on Mystic View Road — are being notified that they must remove tobacco products from their shelves by next Tuesday.
At an April 20 hearing the board held in considering the regulation, and at the May 24 meeting, representatives from Costco and Walgreens spoke against the change. Connolly said the two companies raised concerns about the financial impact of the ban on their establishments. He said the Costco representatives also noted that it would be virtually impossible for a minor to purchase cigarettes at Costco because it is a member-only business.
But Connolly said those arguments did not sway the board, which he said was focused on public health considerations.
“I see on a daily basis in my office the effects of cigarette smoking,’’ said Connolly, a podiatrist. “So it doesn’t take much to convince me that this is the right idea.’’
Kevin Horst, general manager of the Everett Costco store, said, “We certainly support the idea of stopping teens from smoking, but at this time we don’t have a comment on this specific regulation as it is written. We are exploring options.’’
Robert Elfinger, spokesman for the Walgreens corporation, said, “We intend to comply with the new law.’’
Speaking in favor of the ban at the hearing were members of Teens in Everett Against Substance Abuse, a local youth group that advocates for measures to address substance abuse issues in the city.
Members of the group, an initiative of the Cambridge Health Alliance, offered statistics on the negative impacts of tobacco on human health, and spoke of the disconnect between tobacco products and a pharmacy, said program director Jean Granick.
© Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
SO WE HAVE A FOOT DR. WHO KNOWS CONTROL SMOKING, THINK I WILL FIND A NEW FOOT DR. |
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Heisenberg
Member
64 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2010 : 11:36:09 PM
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I'm really sick and tired of this administration and their little power grabs. No one can question DeMaria, because he's given jobs to people or people's relatives, and now this. Where does it end????
How about this for a health initiative: Anyone who's overweight or obese can't work in city hall until they have a normal weight? How about that? Can we institute that?
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Heisenberg
Member
64 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2010 : 11:39:51 PM
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| Actually now that I think about it, how about Everett doesn't take any money from the state. The state gets money from tobacco sales, and if it's wrong to sell tobacco products, I guess it's wrong to take money from the sale of tobacco. |
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waterboy
Senior Member
101 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2010 : 3:26:00 PM
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| I was in mckinnons today and they now have loaded up on their ciggaretts cause they know they are going to make a mint. good for them |
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When did this happen, I live in Russia now
