Board of Health: FDA Tobacco Marketing Granted Orders Enforcement - 2026-04-21

AI-generated summary. Written by gemini-3.6-flash from the transcript below, which is the record. It may be incomplete or wrong; it does not report votes. Every item links to the moment it began.

The Medford Board of Health reviewed food safety and housing code violations, updated local heating season dates, and voted to maintain a May 1st enforcement deadline for tobacco products lacking FDA marketing granted orders.

2:06 Lighthouse Cafe Food Safety Compliance — The board reviewed repeated food safety violations at Lighthouse Cafe and recommended the business retain a food safety consultant to assist with staff certification and operational procedures.
6:13 Property Complaint - 552 Main Street — Health department staff reviewed rodent and bird-feeding complaints at 552 Main Street, where the homeowner explained the property is currently listed for sale and agreed to comply with local wildlife feeding rules.
13:18 Approval of Minutes — Approved the March 2026 meeting minutes.
14:41 Heating Season Designation — Approved designating the annual heating season to end no earlier than May 15th and resume no later than September 30th.
16:46 Housing Code Violations - 57 Edward Street — The board reviewed an order to correct citing 31 housing code violations and directed health inspectors to conduct an updated safety inspection of the unit before deciding whether to issue an order to vacate.
26:36 Communicable Disease Report — The board received an update on April communicable disease trends and noted that Alpha-gal syndrome has officially become a reportable condition in Massachusetts.
29:16 FDA Tobacco Marketing Granted Orders Enforcement — Local tobacco retailers and industry representatives requested an extension on enforcement against selling vapes and nicotine pouches without FDA marketing granted orders, but the board voted to keep the May 1st deadline intact.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, so unfortunately, it doesn't look like we have, I just texted Kathy, so we'll see if she's able to respond. So we won't be able to, if only Dr. Platowicz is here, we can do some hearings, but we really won't be able to make any, though.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Oh yeah, that's why I see you now. So, yeah, I mean, we could just do some discussion. I wanted to do a discussion morning and we're able to adopt the minutes on the site without the board member, at least one more board member. So. And we also want to talk about the heating season, like we did last year. ending it May 15th and delaying the start date no later than September 30th. We'll have to wait, I guess, again till next month to take a vote on that.

[MCM00001784_SPEAKER_07]: Do you have to let Deanna into the meeting? I don't know. I didn't vote.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: You know, you have to let people in. There's someone in the waiting room that says,

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So we won't be able to take a vote on the heating season unfortunately until next month, which Maybe after May 15th, actually. Do we have folks from the Lighthouse Cafe here? You can unmute yourself. Anyone here from the Lighthouse Cafe?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right. We do have Ms. Whitaker here from 552 Main Street. Dr. Platt, we asked Ms. Whitaker to join us as we've had some ongoing issues. We're going to turn it over to Raven, let her give a little background maybe. And then let's wait to speak.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: No worries. No worries. OK. Let's back it up then. Lighthouse Cafe.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So we asked you to join because there's been a couple of repeated and significant violations that were happening, a little bit of issue getting corrected. I'm wondering what steps you're trying to take or have taken at this point.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I think we have been on the force for the inspection. We are trying to get more of our staffs and our partners to get the license. The certified food manager. Yes, ma'am. Currently, we have like three of our partners who already have a certification and then we are just trying to our goal is like to get all of our members in the process for the exam process. We have assigned staff to handle food labeling and regular checkup for the expiration date as well.

Due to the time, still within this week, we will have more of our staffs and members to get the certificate.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: That's great. That's a good first step. What we're wondering is if you'd be willing and we can provide you with a list of folks. They're called food safety consultants.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: And I think you could benefit by having a food safety consultant come into your establishment and kind of help you through some of the procedures and policies. If that's something you'd be willing to do, we would greatly appreciate that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sure, we'll be really appreciate that and we'll do that soon. Okay.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right. All right. We'll be providing you with a list. that you can choose a consultant you wish to work with, okay?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: And please make continued efforts, and thank you for getting your staff certified. Appreciate it.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Dr. Platowicz, any questions? Nope, I'm fine. Okay. All right, thanks. All right. Next, we'll move on to 552 Main Street.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Can you adjust Josh's camera so we can see? Yeah, let me go do it. I'm having some technical difficulties today. Yes, yes. Okay. Great. Thank you.

[Raven]: Okay. Apologize for that. Yeah, I can provide just a little bit of some background on the complaints for 552 Main Street. They date as far back as I believe, 2020 in our digital system. And then our most recent 1 is from. February of this year, late February, and I did. I did an inspection March 10th. The nature of the complaint is for bird feeding in the sense of putting the bird. bird food on the ground and rodents coming up to eat it.

Last year, I believe I went out with our city solicitor who isn't here anymore, but I went out with him. I was met with Ms. Whitaker and her attorney at the time, so we could do an assessment of the property to see if there was any evidence of rodent activity. Um, there were burrow holes and at that time, Miss Whitaker did allow Yankee pests to come and do an assessment and do some treatments of her property.

But now it seems we're back to, um. the bird feeding as of March 10, 2026. So we're mostly just asking, and we do have an ordinance in the city of Medford for no feeding of the wildlife. You can feed the birds if you have, if it's in a feeder and there's a catch basin under the feeder, So that way the feed cannot fall on the ground. And that's mostly what we're just asking Ms. Whitaker to comply with. But I have photos if that needs to be shared from March 10th of food on the ground and the front entryway and then on the driveway. Yeah, that's pretty much it on my end, Marianne, I think.

[SPEAKER_07]: Hi, this is Deborah Whitaker, and I just want to say that we are currently up for sale. There's a sign in front of the house. We expect to be out of here shortly. We've lived here for 25 years. Every about 13 of them have brought all their property from this original owner. And I've been to court several times and every judge said this was a clear case of yard envy. And Allison Cornboy, who I know is no longer here, but she was for 20 years after me, said that I should be left alone and she should go after the other people whose yards look terrible. And they are covered with food. And the pitchers that come into my yard from Dexter Street have to overlook tons of trash. And when the Yankee control man was there, He also saw tons of trash in the other yard. So I don't know. We plan to be out of here shortly. We just want to be left alone. I'm putting grass seed down. I don't want the birds to eat it. Hopefully they're eating all the other trash in the neighborhood with all the Airbnb that leave all their trash out. There's open containers of food. People don't even walk their dogs across the street anymore. And the people hopefully will be leaving me alone. The birds will eat their stuff and leave my grassy alone so I can get the house sold and get out of Medford.

But I don't know what else you want from me. I've been to court many times. We've spent $50,000.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I think the last time we were at court, you agreed to stop feeding the birds.

[SPEAKER_07]: And I'm not feeding them. I just put grass seed down. I had grass seed down and the stuff she saw in the driveway was from woodpeckers. I have several woodpeckers that is leaving shavings all over the yard. And I put a little seed on the ground because I looked on the internet and it said if you want birds to leave your stuff alone, you have to distract them with some seed off to the side. That's all I did. I'm hoping the grass stops taking and we get the property sold.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, I think the next hearing was going to be on 57 Edward. We're going to have to. I don't know if Mr. Steven Lazzaro is here or not. Anthony, I see that you're here.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I think we're going to have to take a vote on this hearing, and I'll forward them. Oh, wait. Thanks, Catherine. Great.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: That's no worries, thank you. Okay, maybe we can go back now that we have a quorum with Dr. Platowicz and Kathy Schottmayer here. Can we do a review of the minutes and approval if no changes? We'll review the minutes for March 2026. Do I have a motion to approve?

[David Pladziewicz]: With the shitsamis that come down Mystic River into Mefford Square, I want to keep that a red button topic going in the future. just so we keep it on the table and keep it there because it's a big issue as you know and it's an ongoing thing we don't talk about it every time but I think it was a great presentation that we heard and a lot of stuff came out that I was unaware of and sort of shocked over so we had our work cut out for us and we should take a leading role on it going forward so just keep it on the docket going forward more to come

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you. And a second by Kathy second to second. We'll call Dr. Yes. Yes.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Uh, so next we wanted to do a designation of the healing season We do every year, so we don't have to have folks coming in front of us for appearances. The housing code now allows us to- Are we doing 57 Edwards Street still?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah, we're going back to the beginning of the meeting now that I have my second board member.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I apologize. No worries. So as far as the heating season goes, we would like to vote to end it no earlier than May 15th. and delay the start date to no later than September 30th. And by doing so, we'll post a notice on the municipality's website. And then again, we will not be required to have a provision for granting variances that we formerly used to do. So if I could get a vote to define the heating season as ending no earlier than May 15th and delaying the start date No later than September 30th. So May 15th for the ending and September 30th for the beginning of the heating season.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you. Okay. Good roll call. Yes. Yes. Thank you. That'll be posted on the city's website. Uh, we did the lighthouse cafe. Okay. 550 to me. And we don't, I don't believe we have the owner with us.

[Raven]: No, that was dead Marianne. Thank you. I don't think the property owner. He's here.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah. Stephen Lozario would be the owner. Correct. I don't believe the owners had access to the apartment to look at the violations that were cited in the notice? order to correct, is that correct? He has not been to the apartment or in the apartment.

[SPEAKER_09]: So he has been to the apartment to retrieve his mail, but I have video evidence saying that if the apartment's not safe, I shouldn't be living there. He's using this to like, kind of, I don't know.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. So I think what we need to do is, uh, get a hearing with the owner and, uh, yourself, because I believe we need to leave a little bit more, um, time, uh, since he hasn't been in the apartment, we need to give them a little more time to make the corrections. Um, I'd actually like to vote on doing that. Um, so.

[SPEAKER_09]: Like this has been going on for a while. Like I just, all right, so we're going to, we're going to, we're going to extend it. We're not. So am I going to get a notice to vacate today? I guess is what I'm saying.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: No, that's what we're voting to delay that for 30 days until he has an option to get in there and do some repairs. Um, I believe so. This inspection was just April 1st. Um, So I'd like to take a vote, if you don't mind, Dr. Platts and Kathy Chabonier to extend the time frame for compliance to 30 days.

[SPEAKER_09]: There's several violations. There's 31 of them, 21 of them are dangerous to one's health. One of them being a heating, right? There was no heat in there for several seasons. And there appears to be asbestos-linked materials in the floor.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So that's the issue. We don't know that the heating system hasn't worked for several seasons. We haven't had an opportunity to have them go in there and see.

[SPEAKER_09]: We don't know if that's a... I mean, so I have a letter that I forwarded from Stone on Fuel from the owner, Anthony, saying that the structural integrity of the tank was substandard. I also gave that to Josh and that the heating system needed to be replaced. With saying that, During the inspection, you know, 31 violations, 21 of them being dangerous to oneself, you know, that should be taken pretty serious, especially with the structural integrity of both of the ingress, egresses, front and rear stairs. I just wanted to, so there's one thing I do want to be, Um, I did not do none of that damage. That damage has been done for years, right? Like over the years, like way before I moved in there. But, um, like it's, the conditions are serious, including lack of heat and other like documented hability issues. I did not cause these conditions. The property was inspected in an order to correct what's issued. Right. Um,

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Right, and you need to have the landlord have access to your apartment to be able to go in and look at those corrections and get them done.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Well, I think you need to be there when he's there and allow him access.

[SPEAKER_09]: I've been on the hood for a while now, and I mean, every time he does come there, he creates a scene where the police have to get involved. The police have been at my house twice after the order to correct issue has been, and for him trying to forcefully evict me. Yeah, so I mean, he's not gonna do anything with the violations. He laughs about the city all the time Like no, I'm not worried about it does that because I guess he beat you guys last time or whatever, right? He thinks it's like some big game and that's why he's trying to freeze me out and just so you know There is a gas leak in the house as well. Like I smelt it. My cousin smelt it the other day as well There is it so it's not just a heating issue. Do you call anybody about that? I So, I did make it aware to Josh, right?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: When he was doing a gas leak, you need to call if you smell gas, you need to call the fire department. So, okay, if you smell gas, you don't call the health department. You call 911. Okay.

[SPEAKER_09]: Well, I'll be sure to do that as well. But yeah. So. I think, uh, I think, uh, I think a notice of habitability should be determined today. All right. On the ground reports that I also do have, um, yeah, I'm also faced with an eviction and my eviction is going to be solely based on my ability case. Right. And, um, he is using that so he can, um, well, he's, he's actually not trying to show up so he can prolong this so he can prove that the place was habitable for me to not be able to pay for me to be responsible for whatever monies he thinks is old.

[David Pladziewicz]: With the 31 violations, was the status of habitability addressed in the inspection? I'm not asking you, I'm asking Mary Ann, sorry. In order to correct the sense of the landlord to... And none of it's been done, so... None of it's been done. Can the property be inspected now for safety? Yes. Why don't we do that and update it? If it's unsafe, then he needs to vacate the premises.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, we can schedule another inspection to go out and see what's going on.

[David Pladziewicz]: And then if it is safe for 30 days, we can wait 30 days and give a... until he has 30 more days to address the problems. But I think it's maybe important right now, can he stay in the apartment or not, from what he's telling me. And if the answer is no, then he has to be, I guess, put up in a different place, right? Yeah. While the repair has happened. So I think it's important to know if it's safe enough for him to stay where he is. We're going to answer that question soon.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So we'll have, we'll schedule another inspection, um, later this week. That's all right, Anthony.

[Raven]: Marianne, Marianne, I know Josh is out a lot this week for training, but if maybe Deanna and I can go, if somebody will go with us.

[David Pladziewicz]: Yeah. Yeah. And we're looking for, uh, violations that make it unsafe for the renter to be in the apartment. That's what we got to known.

[SPEAKER_09]: So, I mean, if it's not, if you look at the front and the risk is alone, right. Josh was there. If you look at the order to correct his pictures.

[David Pladziewicz]: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just got to, we got to up to date with a current inspection.

[SPEAKER_09]: All right. And I mean, yeah, if you could, um, that that would be greatly appreciated. I mean, I did start making, so I thought there was going to be an order to vacate today. So I did move essential things, but I do have property still left in the house. And I just, so I just don't want it to be that I'm abandoning anything or anything else like that. I'm not giving up possession of the property.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Yeah, okay, so we can reach out to you, Anthony, and schedule something with possibly Raven in Indiana towards the end of the week.

[David Pladziewicz]: Yeah, you might want to invite the landlord, too. Not that he would come, but with a group of people there, it'll be less likely confrontational, I would think. More people. Maybe not. Hopefully.

[SPEAKER_09]: But no, any help you guys could give, it would be greatly appreciated. So a little back story. I am a person with disabilities. My uncle did let me live with him under the assumption that I would be working for him. I ended up becoming his indigent servant. Right? And I did not want to work for him no more. I got a job selling cars, things like that. I was doing well for myself. And then, you know, things started coming up with, like, no heat and everything else like that, right? Because I was giving him monies, right? And, like, he wanted me to use space heaters as such, right? He said he didn't want to put no money into the thing. He even told Anthony, the owner of Stone on Fuel, that he's selling the property. He's not putting no money into it. That's why there's no tank or furnace in it.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Anthony, we don't need the back history that much. We're just going to take care of what we need to take care of. But so we'll be in touch and I appreciate you being here.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah. Monthly reportable disease updates. Unfortunately, Jill couldn't be with us today, but she was kind enough to write up a summary report of April's communicable disease update. So Jill states that we continue to have fewer hepatitis B and hepatitis C cases this year to date compared to the previous five year average. We've also seen fewer overall enteric diseases, which is good. And those that we have seen are mostly neurovirus. We've seen slightly more influenza cases this year to date, but significantly fewer COVID. Obviously, COVID's not reportable with self-testing anymore. Flu cases continue to be predominantly in children, with 54% occurring in those under the age of 18. Flu cases have spread relatively evenly across genders, 52% with cases being female, 48% male.

where 68% of the COVID cases that were reported have been female versus 32% male. But there could be a testing bias at play there as well. Update on communicable disease reporting. Alpha-gal syndrome has become a reportable disease in Massachusetts as of April 1st of this year. Alpha-gal syndrome is a serious, potentially life-threatening allergy, which can develop after a tick bite, usually the lone star tick. Alpha-gal is a molecule found in most mammals, but not people. People with AGS, alpha-gal syndrome, can have an allergic reaction after eating red meat or being exposed to products containing alpha-gal. Historically, the Lone Star tick is found more in the southern states, but has been spreading north. This new reporting requirement will hopefully help us to better understand the disease burden of AGS in Massachusetts. So just a big reminder out there to folks as we are during tick season. that it is very important that folks protect themselves. And we are seeing more and more of the Lone Star tick here in Massachusetts, particularly the Cape area, and now creeping northwards. So any questions?

We'll be doing some more education about that. and tick protection in general to the community moving forward. Okay, so as you can see, we have a lot of folks here in the meeting today, and I'm predicting that most of them are convenience store owners who had submitted a letter asking to be heard about the FDA marketing granted orders. believe it was January or February, the board voted to send notice to convenience stores, particularly tobacco permit owners or holders, I should say, about the FDA marketing granted orders and that only products that contain FDA or have FDA marketing-granted orders are products that can be sold. So if you have a product in your establishment that is not on the list, the FDA website, or have marketing-granted orders, they are currently illegal. Now, that's an FDA rule. That's not a Medford Board of Health rule. That's nothing we can do to change that.

So I understand you wanted to be heard, and that's why you're here today. But what we were doing basically is giving you a heads up that if you have these products in your store currently, they are illegal in the United States. And in Massachusetts, if any of those approved products on the FDA list have flavors, then in Massachusetts, they are not allowed because Massachusetts has the flavor ban. So even though they're on the marketing granted order list, they'll still be not allowed in Massachusetts. Again, what you were sent by the Board of Health was that there was a decision made that as of May, we gave you a few months, so that as of May 1st, if these products were found in your store, we have been instructed by the FDA to report. We were giving you till May 1st to get those products out of your stores, because we are required, and this is a heads up we were giving you through that notice, that we are required, if we go into your store and find these products that are not listed on the FDA Marketing Granted Orders List, that we are required to report you.

So, with that said, I'm not sure who wants to be the spokesperson. for the retailers here. I know the Daily Mart owner is the merchant that sent me the letter listing folks. So do you have one spokesperson or somebody want to just speak up?

[SPEAKER_05]: I think there may be a couple of people speaking if that's okay. Sure.

[SPEAKER_05]: So my name's Sakshi. I actually work for ITG Brands, but I'm just trying to help out my fellow friends here while just doing the talking for them, if that's okay.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Sure. Can you tell us what companies that you represent?

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I work for ITG Brands. It's just one of the cigarette companies that produces like backwoods, crowns, and some nicotine pouches, and my blue vapes and stuff.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I'll get started. So you mentioned that you're supposed to report it to the FDA. So clearly these are FDA guidelines. Town has their own guidelines. State has their own guidelines. So I'm wondering, is this something that Town is going to fine them for or is it just going to get reported? Because it's FDA's business. They have their own inspectors. They have their own inspectors. And like you mentioned, you're saying these things are illegal, but at the same time, if you go to any convenience store, gas station, all over America, these products are there. The problem with FDA is I'm not sure what items in the store are even FDA approved. And the only thing they have approved so far is just a couple of Juul and Vuze, obviously owned by big companies. There's actually a list of 41 vapes on the FDA website. So, but here's the thing. A lot of them are actually mental and they cannot be sold in Massachusetts to begin with. Right. So if you think about it, jewel and views owned by big companies, because people are not smoking cigarettes at this point. So, so here's my concern.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Like there's nothing we could do to change that. We're not going to change federal law here.

[Raven]: No, it's like really muted and muffled. No, Sakshi, can you just mute yourself really quick to see if, sorry. And then, yeah, sorry. Try now, Marianne. No, yeah, I don't know what happened.

[Jason Stone]: Try muting yourself and then unmuting yourself. Might be a glitch in the matrix.

[Raven]: Sorry about it. No. Do you know where your microphone is? Like in your?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right, David, do you want to come in here? Do you want to take it over? You know where I was going?

[Raven]: Okay. Yeah. I'll you come use my computer and I'll see if I can fix yours.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, great. Um, so if I can continue, yeah. Yes. Anyways, anyways, these products have been in the market almost for 15 plus years at this point. And I know when the Massachusetts did a flavor ban, um, The state has been collecting excise taxes on these products from day one. All the retailers have the letters from the manufacturers mentioning that not flavored and whatnot, right? So the thing with FDA is they're taking way too long. We don't know when the next product is going to be approved. And the way things are going, 70 or 80% of the sales in these stores comes from like these specific products. So it's very obvious, you ban this thing, all the smoke shops in Medford and all these convenience stores, they do not have a future. They go down. And right now it's a very serious thing because they strictly rely on this. Now think about it. If you have a smoke shop that you're running in Medford, you take out these products. What are you, what are you going to sell every day? Are you going to sell cigarettes?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Do we know how much specific products are you referring to that FDA marketing orders?

[SPEAKER_05]: So there is there's products called Aries. There is products called Crave. There's products called Brex's. There is a bunch of products like these. This is what and they're like fresh tobacco, California tobacco. It's not that these people are selling flavors. State is collecting excise taxes. How can state collect excise tax if these products are illegal in the U.S.? Right. These are guidelines coming from the FDA.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Right. So the fact that states collecting excise taxes and the FDA has these rules There's nothing that the Medford Local Board of Health can do. If you want to continue to sell these products, what we're telling you is that if we go into the store, we will be reporting the way we were asked to do.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So in order for us to permit these establishments, they sign off on a statement saying that they are going to follow all federal and state rules. So unfortunately, if they're not following all federal and state rules, we will not be reissuing them a permit.

[SPEAKER_05]: But here's the thing about the federal, like there is only, I don't know which states are following, like that's a whole separate issue about what's FDA approved. So now tell me sugar and like all the drinks are in the store, right? They're not FDA approved. So I'm just confused at like how federally, like we are allowed to sell that, but people die from smoking, right? So how is like these products getting FDA approval? They're getting approval

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: They're not getting approved. There's a statement on the FDA website saying that they do not approve of tobacco products because they know tobacco products are harmful, but they are doing, this is called marketing granted orders. It's just a list of products that they're allowing to be sold. So how are you process? I don't know. I'm not, I don't work for the FDA and I don't know. I don't know. Um, both, you know, uh, both.

[David Pladziewicz]: So one clarification, uh, I don't think we're going to sit idly by and let people not implement this and not find that more threatening a license to sell tobacco products. So that's not going to happen. I think we're going to be very proactive. And, uh, well, we, we looked at this as a safety issue. This came up during a ban, all nicotine products, which we decided not to do. Uh, these, this subsection of the market, we had agreed for multiple regions to, to ban that. And we're, we plan on doing so. Uh, if the store owners choose not to comply, Uh, I don't think we're going to sit by and not do anything about that. And that includes fines.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, they're, like I said, like by the time FDA is done with their stuff, there would be no stores left in Redford to begin with.

[David Pladziewicz]: So, well, I don't know about that. Cause a lot of us around in communities being nicotine outright. And, uh, so a lot of these products can't even be sold in, uh, at least 10 surrounding communities.

[SPEAKER_05]: There's no town that has banned all nicotine pouches completely. Sure, they have banned from convenience stores, but they have let smoke shops sell the nicotine pouches. Even Somerville has the same regime.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I think Dr. Platt-Woods is referring to the nicotine-free generation rules. that the surrounding stores have put in place, and that Medford chose not to do. But I will tell you that in our last round of compliance checks, we had six stores that violated the sale to minors. Six. True.

[SPEAKER_05]: So here's another thing. Obviously, like minor is minor things are the problem. But for the most part, I think the stores are doing a good job of hiding people, making sure it doesn't get under 21. Sure. Sometimes violations happen. I'm not denying it. But how are you going to stop online sales? So like these people are still going to get these products at home. So how is it fair to these people who are paying taxes, who have leases? They have built equity in their business. But. You order this stuff online and it just gets into anyone in Medford. So, why is somebody that's doing their job correctly? Like, following the regulation, they're always getting hit with this.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So, again, this is not regulation, which is. you know, charged to enforce.

[SPEAKER_05]: But you need, okay I get it, but you need to like rethink about this because like I said these businesses are, the smoke shops will close. This is their bread and butter. They will 100% close if they're not able to sell these.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: What about the rest of the products that they can sell?

[SPEAKER_05]: So tell me in the smoke shop, right, you're selling cigarettes for example, right? heavily taxed in Massachusetts, you make a dollar or two on a single pack, you're paying employees $17 an hour, your rent's high, you're paying workers comp, you're paying electricity. I do not know what is the way for these smoke shops to survive. It's just not going to happen. They will close. So I'm wondering, if they do end up closing, is the town going to reimburse them for their leases that they have signed? Or like, how is that going to work?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: There are products. You're making it sound like there are no products that they can sell. There are products that they can sell. Dr. Plattowitz, I'll yield to you.

[David Pladziewicz]: Oh, yeah. You know, I understand it's unfortunate. I understand his argument, say. Again, it's not our... jurisdiction to go against the federal EDAC law. If anything we can we can take them even further. For multiple of reasons we discussed this previously about the nicotine ban. These products we looked at and we don't consider them safe at all. So we're not going to allow these products to be sold in Mefford by anybody period.

[SPEAKER_05]: And for those reasons, how do you consider cigarettes safe in Medford?

[David Pladziewicz]: We're not talking about cigarettes. We're just talking about these products that, uh, outside of the cigarettes due to various strengths of ingredients and lack of, uh, metrics, uh, unlike some of the more federally regulated products, we've deemed them unsafe and by the powers and authority that's invested in the local board of health, they're not going to be sold in Medford anymore. Come May. and that's the way it's gonna be.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, I mean, if you have already made up your mind, then that's one thing, but- Yeah, we already did.

[SPEAKER_05]: Was there a public hearing on it when this decision was made, or you just decided without a public meeting that we're just gonna ban it?

[David Pladziewicz]: I don't recall, but we had plenty of public meetings that are perinicotine ban, and I'm sure that topic came up within that. And if we had banned the nicotine, all nicotine products, then, oh, this would be a mood issue. Some of these products have nicotine. They'd be off anyway.

[SPEAKER_05]: Is there any way, because we were all hoping to have a public meeting, but I'm just hoping if this May 1st meeting can be extended.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: It's not a method regulation, so we didn't need to have a public hearing. We're not creating a new regulation. We're just telling you that this exists, and we're giving you the heads up that we've been told that we need to.

[SPEAKER_06]: Hey, this is Vimal here. I work in Medford and the reason for I'm jumping the meeting and middle of this thing, are you guys aware of the federal regulation? But are you guys aware of like, you know, Iowa, a state of Alabama, Ohio, then Virginia, they was trying to implement the federal regulation and the court put the state order on it. They said, like, if you Google it, you will see they said like, you know, state cannot forcefully apply the federal law. If you see there is a statement just came like in the end of the 2025. The court literally stopped those states.

The same thing they was doing it. And this is what happened. So because if this is what happened, I would suggest all the stores owner who are losing their bread and butter, like, you know, getting in the debt, they should file for injection.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: That is, you're talking states, this is a local municipality.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Then you are free to do what you think you need to do. And that's perfectly fine, we're just doing what we've been

[SPEAKER_06]: asked to do as far as regulators are concerned. Let me, let me, let me be clear. When you guys send the notice for the, you cannot sell the, what do you call that? Something like a deal, big cream dispensers, everything. Did you guys send those later to target and Walmart? Because they are still selling it.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: What about the people who never, anyone who has anyone who holds a tobacco permit in the city of Medford received a lettuce.

[SPEAKER_06]: So, In the tobacco, in the tobacco FDA list, there is no cigarettes coming in the list. There is no other products in the list besides the e-cigarettes. Are you going to ban all the products, all the nicotine products?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: No, there's actually looking, there should be a list of all nicotine pouches too that are approved and not approved.

[SPEAKER_06]: Only nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes are approved by FDA. There is no other products. So are you going to ban all the tobacco products in the city of Medford? That's the question I have.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: What are the other tobacco products you're talking about?

[SPEAKER_06]: There is cigarettes and tobacco products. There are loose tobacco products. There are tobacco products. There are so many tobacco products.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: This specifically deals with vapes and oral nicotine products. That's what FDA marketing granted orders is about. Yes.

[SPEAKER_06]: That's what I'm saying. Only two products is approved from FDA. There is no other product. So what are we going to do with other products?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Those are also already, this is different on the vaping issue, the marketing granted orders as well as the oral nicotine pouches. So the FDA has other mechanisms for approving the other tobacco products.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, since we had the public meeting like today, is there a way to extend this May 1st deadline?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I'd leave that to the board, Dr. Plattowitz and Kathy.

[MCM00001784_SPEAKER_07]: Can I ask what the surrounding cities are doing, Malden, Winchester?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: No restrictions there. They're doing the same thing. These letters are going out. Winchester has already sent theirs out. I believe Wakefield and Stoneham and Melrose, if they haven't already, they are doing it imminently.

[SPEAKER_05]: For example, City of Everett just had this thing where they did the same thing. There was a public hearing and the stuff reversed.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, cannabis is not legal by FDA. This is Nilesh Patel, by the way. Sorry to bother you.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm just wondering why can't FDA take action on it and why does town have to jump in? Town has their own regulations where everyone's following the town regulation, right? This is FDA matter. This should be something should be taken care by FDA. Yeah, they come in and then like they are willing to find They are coming willing to suspend or whatever it needs to be done. It needs to be done at the end of the day. Town regulation says do not sell any flavored products. Have the have like invoices and like make sure like we have paperwork for something that it says it's not flavored.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Again, I guess just to reiterate, and we're still on the May 1st extension if you want to go back to that, but I'll just reiterate that we've been asked by the FDA to notify and that retailers in Medford sign when they get their permit that they will follow all federal and state and local regulations.

[David Pladziewicz]: I think we already extended the deadline once, if I'm not mistaken. Did you just mention?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I think we're back on the May 1st extension if you wanted to continue that discussion.

[SPEAKER_05]: Did you just did you just say that FDA notified you to do this? Do you have paperwork for that? That where they reached out to you guys?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: They reached out to the state tobacco control program who then notified us.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's just one email that was shared between the tobacco control. It was just one email that was shared between Control Alliance and a person. There's nothing else. She just reached out to one person to send an email. I don't think that's sufficient.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: So do you want, do you want to continue the discussion around extend? I don't think there's anything else we can talk about it around. Well, we go round and round on this, but if you want to continue the discussion around extending the May 1st date, we can do that. I don't know if Kathy, Dr. Plattowitz had anything else.

[SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely. Ms. Beck, can I interrupt for a minute, please? Hi, my name is Jim Patel. Just quick question. I have a thing I want to say, but you just said that you can't go against state law regarding marijuana, but state law also allows us to sell these vapes. So why can you go against state law for vapes? I mean, but you can't.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I don't know that state law allows you to sell these vapes.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: imposing anything. This is imposed by the FDA. I'm sorry, I gotta get this through. This is like, we're going round and round on this. This is not our regulation. This is nothing we can change. This is an FDA regulation. This is not a Medford regulation. This Board of Health has its own regulatory authorities, but it does not extend to over uh the federal government so if you want to continue the discussion if you wanted to continue the discussion around the extension of the date we can do that now um i think we've covered this ground enough um so dr platowicz and kathy chabonnier i'll leave it to you for the extension if you if you feel uh so inclined yeah i think we've done it already so i i would vote no have the other towns extended where are they at do we know marianne are they I think they all had different dates. I'm not sure. Um, I think Winchester's was. May or April, maybe even, um, because they were, they did it before us.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: We're going to take a vote on whether or not we're going to extend the deadline to May 1st, beyond May 1st. Do I have a motion to extend the date or a motion not to?

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: For removing of all electronic cigarettes, vapes, nicotine pouches not listed in the FDA database. Correct.

[SPEAKER_06]: One more question, is the board is going to bring some kind of rules like, you know, you cannot sell it, but what about someone find consuming in the town? Let's work together. If you want to work that way, we care about the people health. Let's bring something for the people who bring out of the town, out of state. Let's do that way. That'd be fair to everybody. Can we work together like that?

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. So let's do something, you know, let's bring the deadline for both together, you know, like, you know, if there should be something because, you know, state does not bend. Town is bending. The next town is selling it. If you care about the people's health, let's work together because what's going to happen is if you shut down the business in the town, they're going to go to another town. They have it.

[SPEAKER_06]: like let's make a whole community like you know we cannot sell it no if someone find consume they should also get fine because they're gonna go to the next town the business and everything is going to other town because well that's that's that's what we find with the flavor ban for the state right yeah let's follow the state guidelines You know, let's follow the state guideline. You know, don't go town by town. Let's follow the state guideline. If state bend, let's bend it together. That's what happens.

[David Pladziewicz]: That's right. I think we should stay focused on the issue at hand and narrow the topic. Much as we can, this is all going on tangents, not.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I think we're going to move on to the next agenda item, which is basically any other business. Okay, so we have and I appreciate you all being here and I do appreciate your thoughts.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Thank you. I think we just had to give a little bit of assistance. Everyone's talking at the same time. So. Anything in the chat? One more question from JP. Who's JP?

[SPEAKER_08]: Hi, I'm sure a lot of us have many questions actually. We feel like we've barely gotten to speak in this public comment section. But with regards to the FDA marketing grant order list, have you alerted all retailers, Target, CVS, Walmart, of all the things they cannot sell due to them also not being FDA approved or marketing grant order list, including dietary supplements, cosmetics, personal care, general wellness, wearables and devices, homeopathic remedies, all those products remain available for sale despite not complying with FDA marketing grant orders similar to the vapes you guys are banning.

[David Pladziewicz]: We're talking about nicotine products. I don't see what any of that has to do with

[SPEAKER_08]: what we're talking about. The notice you sent us, the reason why you're complying with the FDA is because the nicotine products don't meet FDA marketing grant orders list, but neither do all those other items.

[David Pladziewicz]: Those other items are irrelevant to our conversation, so I don't even know why you're bringing it up.

[David Pladziewicz]: It's not being singled, we're just talking about specifically these type of products. They're not being singled out.

[SPEAKER_08]: But the nicotine ones have been, our legislature has allowed us to sell these.

[SPEAKER_08]: No, the Massachusetts state legislature does not say anything about FDA approval necessary.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: Again, why are we going against the- The local states typically work first, and then the state will follow. So that's typically the way it goes.

[David Pladziewicz]: We're not talking about marijuana. Why are you changing the subject? We're talking specifically- It's a vape. Who cares? We're talking about- You're staying on the topic. You keep on changing the subject. Okay. I don't want to hear anything that says tobacco products or tobacco like products. That's the topic at hand. Not marijuana.

[Director MaryAnn O'Connor]: I don't think that we can go round and round on this anymore. I think I think we need to close the public comment period because I don't think it's productive at this point. Other business, I have no other business at this time. The next meeting is scheduled for May 21st. Do I have a motion to adjourn?