 Welcome everybody to the December 8th Board of Health meeting and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 this meeting of the Amherst Board of Health we will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so by following the instructions on the board of health posted agenda. It can be done via zoom or the posted telephone number, which is on the agenda. No in person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means zoom. In the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts, we will post on the board of health website a recording of the proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. Board of Health minutes are also posted on our website after they are approved by the board. I will now open the board of health meeting with a roll call. So, Nancy Gilbert, I'm here. Maureen Miller. Present. Here. Here. Okay, and we have Jennifer Brown representing the health department. So our first action is to review and receive the minutes from the November 10 meeting. I'm not eligible to vote on this as I was away and didn't attend that meeting. So, I'd like anyone to make comments. I read them. I also watched the meeting. I read them. I thought they represented the meeting. I didn't find any problems or concerns. Anyone else. Okay, if no one else can I have a motion to accept the meetings at minutes has presented. Yeah, I can make a motion to accept the minutes of November 10 2022. May have it seconded. I'll second. All in favor. Okay, Maureen. And Tim. Thank you. And now we have public comment. So residents are welcome to express their views on the agenda topics for up to two minutes at the discretion of the chair. Based on the number of people who wish to speak. The board members will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during this public comments. There will be another. Public comment period after the director's update. During the public comment time, the chair or the health director will recognize members of the public. When called on unmute yourself. Identify yourself by stating your full name and your address. And your comments will be timed. So, let's see. I don't see any hands up. Okay. Oh, we did. We do have one person. There is one. All right, Maria. If you can unmute yourself, pronounce your name correctly and where you live. Two minutes. Thank you so much. My name is Maria. I live in South Amherst. I am a now retired obstetrician gynecologist. And I've worked as a case investigator and outbreak specialist during COVID. And I'd like to make comment about your addressing artificial turf. First of all, thank you very much to the board of health for taking up this topic. And, and laying in on it. I really appreciate that. I have spoken with. At your meeting before expressing my very serious concerns about the use of this material, both for the health and safety of humans and other living things and also the environment. And as you come into this discussion today, I just want to remind us all, you all know this, but for anyone who doesn't know, I just want to remind us all you all know this, but for anyone else who might be watching to that, we should be employing the precautionary principle here, which is has several different components. But one of them is that you should take preventative action in the face of uncertainty. So primary prevention, public health, basic tenant. We should shift the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity and an action should not be taken when there is significant, when there is, I'm sorry, scientific uncertainty about its potential impact. I would argue that there's not really a lot of uncertainty and that the independent professional scientific literature that is not guided, that is not conducted by industry is pretty clear about the harms that we should explore a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions. In this case, we have a very viable alternative action to artificial turf and that we should increase public participation in decision making and that's just a good rule for pretty much anything in government. So once again, thank you for taking this up. I have come to the conclusion that artificial turf is a very bad idea for us and that we should not only go with a grass field option but we should very importantly support our students and ourselves who use these fields to make us take a strong stand to say that the town really has to do a better job and improve these fields for the safety of all participants. Thank you very much. Thank you. And you were within your two minutes. Any, I don't see any other hands. Okay. So our next item of business is toxic chemical, our toxic chemical regulations and I want to thank Tim and Lauren for their extensive work and their as complete up to date references as they could possibly have. Little did I know that at our October 21st meeting when I added review and revision of our oldest regulations recombinant DNA and toxic chemicals along with our review of refuse collection and mandatory recycling to our workload that two of these would become hot topics. I recently attended the American Public Health Association meetings last month and spent time going to the environmental health sessions where I learned that the EPA developed a PFAS strategic roadmap for 2021 into 2024. I did not know about this in the past. The three goals of this roadmap are one research to increase scientific knowledge and understanding of PFAS exposures and toxicity to restriction to develop a comprehensive approach to prevent PFAS from entering the air, land and water and three remediation to increase cleanup of PFAS sites and develop funding sources for these cleanups. In addition, the roadmap takes a life cycle approach. It will hold polluters accountable and it will assist in increasing effective based decision making. In 2003, there will be 10 virtual community engagement events on PFAS. I have already signed up for one, although the dates have not been released and once they are, I will share it with other board members. The EPA will be reviewing PFAS under the Toxic Substance Control Act and will be releasing 30 scientific papers in the next year. As I said earlier, I want to thank Tim and Lauren for their excellent work and their work on revising our 2001 toxic chemical regulations. But I think we need more time to see what research is coming out. I have also asked the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards for their work on toxic chemical regulations. And I welcome other board members' comments. Thank you again, Tim and Lauren. Comments? Sure. I have a comment. Can you hear me? Yes. My technology is really bad. I just would say that you think this many times and I just want to say all I think I have been doing this for a long time. I know that Tim was up a few research items, but Tim really did the both of the updating the regulations. And I think for me, it's always the question. Well, not always the question, but I've always been concerned about the water quality and in Amherst. And how they get into our water. That's, I think it all ties in together. So I just want to recognize that Tim did most of the work. And research a few things. Thank you, Lauren. Tim, what are your thoughts? Well, I think PFAS has been in the research for a long time, but increasingly the public is getting aware of it. So many of the, I mean, it will be surprised to see many commodities we accept it as normal has PFAS. For example, water uplands, fire retardants, and a lot of, a lot of things we enjoy, I would say, in a commodity, you know, we don't want, you know, we want water replanting properties in our shoes and our curtains, which don't catch fire and a lot of interesting things. But now we are starting to realize the ones that enters and it's, every PFAS is everywhere. And we are constantly getting exposed to soil, water, air and, and, and, you know, we have some toxicology studies, which are clear, but thing is in any type of research like this, you know, there's, there's going to be more and more confirmation of the exposure and toxic, toxic nature of things. So I think I'm so glad that we are bringing the, bringing these elements to the forefront into the discussion. And I think so one thing is I would like to recognize what Maria was mentioning before in the open discussion, which is primarily precautionary principle. So we might be having so much of uncertainty, so much of, I would say fuzziness people will bring out in research, but main thing is our concern is if we don't know, if we have a lot of uncertainty in something, we have to be precautionary in terms of preventing it because once if it's exposed, it becomes more cumulative and so that those are some of my observations. So do you think putting further discussion off? I've been trying and I called Cheryl Sabara to see what the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards is doing because they in the past have often provided templates for our regulations built on research that they do and they have lawyers and all kinds of public health professionals working on those. Would you like me to see if I can get any more information from her? I called today and left a message, nobody called me back. I called her, her cell phone last week and she didn't call me back. I don't know. Do you think that's worth waiting to get any more input from the Massachusetts Board of, Boards of Health and or do you, I looked at this whole PFAS EPA roadmap, were you aware of that? Until I talked to someone from environmental and EPA, I didn't know that existed and I don't know if you had a time to look at it and also the EPA is going to be having these community engagement events that we could ask questions at. Do you think it's worth waiting for those? I think waiting to have a good document will be worth it but also in collaborating with the Massachusetts Board of Health, I think it will expand the applicability of it because if we can collaborate and they provide the templates and we develop this content and share it and many towns will also adapt this one. I think it has a much more broader impact of waiting in a cell. Okay. Also, I think we have to get Jim Nelson, a representative from the fire department involved because they've got a lot of PFAS running around here. Okay. So we will put this on our January agenda and see if I can get more of the Mass Association of Health Boards. Okay. Any other comments before we move on? I guess I'm wondering if there was any input from Jeremiah that was a plan to talk with him or the fire department and I don't know if that was able to happen. Yeah. So I've had a few interactions and discussions with them, but we haven't really gotten in on the regulations that I was wanting to. So I didn't want to postpone it down the road. So I asked Nancy, I think this is broader than what I expected. I don't know if people can really hear what's being said. Is there any way we can try and clear up the data? Oh, thank you. That might be it. I think that's it. That was it. Thank you, Lauren. That did it. Thanks. So, okay. Yeah, yeah. I think that's her location. Right. So they're definitely, they will be included in the future, but I just didn't have anything at this. Okay. Just wondering. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Okay. So we'll put that back on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. January and give updates. Next. Ed, the geothermal well applications. We have one that is ready for review tonight. We've got four in hand. Two of them got state too late for me to make a site visit before this meeting. And the other one had some wetlands considerations. And they were. This. These are all I believe coming from dandelion energy and they were happy to be able to go to January. So the one today is 219 Lincoln Avenue. Yeah. It's. Seems to be one of the more straightforward things yet. It's a very flat. Level one. Two boreholes situated behind the house. The setbacks are observed on all sides. So. So. The end of the line has given us. A thorough packet of materials. To apply for the, the various permits that, that go with the system like this. So. I've given. Material to you. I think you've already received. If you have any questions. No, even pictures of the basement. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So. That actually helps a lot. Or, you know, how are they going to fit a whole new eating system in that case? They've got a lot of space to work with. Anyone have any comments or questions? I don't. Aaron. Did weigh in on this one. And there were no wetlands considerations. For the sighting. So. Given that may have a motion to accept the. The request for the motion to accept the motion. The motion to accept the motion to accept the motion. Thank you. I'm just going to go to Lincoln. Can I have a new. Will someone make a motion? Yeah, I can make a motion for. Approving the application of for. Geothermal wells in 2019 Lincoln Avenue. I must. They have a second. Second that. Okay. So it's been moved and seconded. So all. We have the votes. Maureen. Yes. Hi. Tim. Hi. I'm just abstaining. I think I've given my reasons before. Okay, yes. Okay, so it was approved. And before you leave, I'm not sure how to do this. I've talked a little bit with Jen, but I would like to see if we can have a process to streamline the geothermal applications and application and approval, although today's went very smooth and we just did it quickly. So if we can figure out a way because we're going to be having more and more of these, and the more I read about them, they have limited environmental effects unless they're located right smack dab above an aquifer, and they're not at a depth that really interferes with underground water from my readings. And what we really need to know is where they're located and are they being installed appropriately? Do I have that correct, Ed? I think so. You know, we have, there are certainly some different scales of projects. I know I mentioned in a previous meeting that the new school will have a field with, I think it was 180 to 200 wells. I mean, you know, vastly different than these one to two, I think we've had maybe one, three more whole residential installation. These are being put in, in some cases, by the local well drillers with a full size well that they would drill rig. But many of them, the ones that Dandelion all of you are done with a smaller drilling unit, which is like you see doing test war holes where various projects are being produced and engineers are gathering data. And the impact in regard is much tighter. There's a little effect. There are some questions on the very large projects about whether the ground temperature is affected over time. Yeah, but I read that, too. And the article that I read said there was very limited temperature change in the ground and it's not an environmental concern yet. Have you read anything else? No, I haven't. Okay. But I mean, I haven't made a study of this. We do have some expertise available from the state. And I did talk to Jen a little bit about making a checklist. The nasty supplies to Palpatine, a very detailed review form that I use, a checklist that, you know, question for question, but both sections are cited so that we can make the same system of two or septic systems over and over. And we could do something like that ourselves. I could work on that. Okay. I want to make it as appropriately and as smooth as possible because these are coming in more frequently. And with all the environmental changes and economy changes of oil and gas, we'll be seeing more and more. Yeah. And, you know, it's the kind of community that can where many residents can afford to and are interested in projects like this. So I think it will continue. We'll see a lot of interest. Okay. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Have a nice holiday. I do have a question. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I did hear and I'm sorry. When I, something that I remember important, sometimes I don't remember the resource or the reference, but I just wanted to know, are the owners using the geothermal wells for electricity as well? I know it can store like renewable energy. So is it just for heating and cooling or are they going to use it for electricity as well? Just for heating and cooling that I've seen, many of the houses, well, sometimes we've had a few houses who are having a complete redo and I mean, you know, they're also doing solar on the blue and the geothermal for heating and cooling. So it's all of that same line that's interested in, you know, greener energy for use in residential settings, but nobody that I know is doing anything with electrical harvesting. I had one comment. I, when I was looking at this, I looked at the state site and I think it had required permits for all of the different kinds of geothermal wells some time ago. But as of 2017, anything with fewer than five wars that are just connected, you know, not open, they no longer required that permit. So that might be a threshold for us to think about when we need to get more serious, similar to what the state has decided to kind of goes along with that. And I agree with making these a little more streamlined because there's not that much to be concerned about on these one or two more drilling holes. So that would be good. Thank you for that research Maureen. That was from a couple months ago. I was reading this document that said, oh, it needs a permit. I actually have a geothermal system. I don't remember getting a permit, but we did a different kind of thing, a field, like field one, it's a horizontal. But anyway, I was thinking there was no talk of state permits, but there it was in this regulation and then I could read later that they said they changed that. So that's stuck in my mind. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I could make a suggestion on this. I know that we don't have environmental impacts when it's small scale, less dense, but I think it would be good to have the process streamlined to have a checklist. Say for example, if there is a proposal coming with an open loop or a closed loop type of systems, closed loop doesn't have much of impacts. Open loop means it will have impacts. And then the type of installation and the other one is density of installation. So how many wells, how dense? Even though with less dense ones, we may not have much impact, but more dense, more large scale operations might have some sort of implications, but we don't know because there's an uncertainty about temperature changes, soil microbes, any type of a groundwater flows and everything. And then the other trigger element is if a installation comes, which is very close to a water body within the 200 feet buffer, those are the ones I think we could review it. If everything is complied, I think it can go ahead and just move with routine type of low density ones. So just make the process simpler. Thank you, Tim. And maybe Ed can reach out to you for some of your great ideas. Thank you. I made a list of those. Thank you. Anything else before we move on to artificial turf? Thank you, Tim. Thank you. Thank you all. So we have artificial turf playing field discussion. And I wrote a little introduction because this is such a hot topic in town right now. At the October 18th regular finance committee meeting and special meetings of the town council, a request for an opinion on artificial turf from the Board of Health was made. This was a verbal request and the Board of Health did not receive a written request. Given that there were two federal holidays and open meeting laws, there was no time to post a special meeting and hold it in the timeframe given the Board. I as chair and discussed with Jen as the health director decided not to have a special meeting. And I attended the American Public Health Association meetings for five days in early November. And thus it was put on our December 8th agenda. We are now going to discuss artificial turf from a public health consideration. And the Board of Health under Massachusetts general laws is responsible for the protection of public health, the control of disease and the promotion of sanitary living conditions and protection of the environment from damage and pollution. So I want to stress that this discussion will focus on the protection and promotion of public health and the environment. We are to provide the town council with our opinion on funding for the artificial turf on one of the athletic fields at the high school. There are numerous other fields at the high school and we have other fields at the junior high at Mill River, Groft Park, Stanley Street has playing fields and Potline has soccer playing fields. So there will be coming up lots of other discussions on fields. So I now invite Board members to begin the discussion. Comments, thoughts? I want to make my time useful. So I will begin to share my thoughts. I had to look up what PFAS means. And so I don't know if everyone in the audience knows it stands for her and Pauley for oral substances, which have been known. This is, again, I should have my references together, but this is an article based on some issues that are going on in New Hampshire, Portsmouth, New Hampshire and their discussions of putting PFAS or artificial turf in their field. So I want to just, I just wanted to find out what it actually, what the term was. And I did watch the town council. Finally, I got through the whole meeting. And it seems like the town council members, they've done their research. I was removed by the youth, the athletes and the coaches. And when we had discussed this a little bit in the last meeting, I had brought up the question of cost. And I think, you know, cost is a value statement. And it's also part of public health where we put our dollars. So I'm still trying to talk low because I'm in the library. But I think that the cost of the artificial turf is a big factor. But also hearing what the athletes and the coaches said they needed was also important for me. And I'm sorry if I've gotten off the public health framing of it. But if the turf is what the athletes need, then I think that should be considered. Because as we said, we don't want to add toxins to the environment, but athleticism and movement and health and letting athletes play at their highest level is also important for maintaining health in young people. And so I know that that's kind of what's been on my mind. So I'll stop there. Thank you, Lauren. Tim or Maureen? I think I echo what Tim said and I guess, Maria, is that I think people are aware that the artificial turf had some issues and especially was focused on the infill, the way it's made. It has like some substrate and then like a big sheet of plastic and with little grass, fake grass thing. But then there's this infill that kind of holds the grass up. And that has been traditionally, you know, made from crumb rubber, ground up tires. And so a lot of the research that was done here in the US and in Europe had to do with the crumb rubber part of things. It wasn't until like 2019 where people became aware of the fact that those little grass, plastic grass pieces contain end up containing PFAS through their manufacturing process. And so that put another, you know, chemical concern into the mix. I feel very strongly supportive of athletes in this town. You know, my children all did some kind of athletic things every trimester for four years. And I think the field from what I understand is not serviceable really right now. And it really needs to be upgraded. But I'm not sure that that artificial turf is critical to upgrading the field substantially to a very serviceable field. I really thought the resource that was quite helpful was from one of our UMass campuses, the Toxic Use Reduction Institute at UMass Lowell. It seems to be known nationally if, you know, I've seen it cited by people from across the country. And they have an excellent resource concerning athletic fields. And they bring up the fact that there are some organic grass fields in Springfield and marble several different sites across the state that are functioning very, very well. So given the fact that we don't, we know that there's, I don't think there's a question that there are these chemicals that are part of the grass part of this field. We know that they can leach out from certain at least anecdotal studies that where they've sampled runoff from the fields in different parts of Connecticut and other places. It seems to be a mistake to do this right now. You know, maybe in the next cycle we'll know more or we'll have other options or it might be improved. But to put like tons of this, these materials onto this field and then have to, which only last eight to 10 years and then have to remove them and dispose of them seems to be a big concern in terms of the, for me in terms of having like thinking ahead and preventing something, you know, that we're not 100% sure of, but we might be making a big mistake to go in that direction. Also other towns have really considered this deeply. And I think maybe in part because like on the untuck it and Martha's Vineyard, they have a single source water supply of the aquifer. And if they pollute that they're really in trouble. I mean, I think if we pollute things we're still in trouble too, but there is more more direct and more grave for those islands. But to really have experts in these subjects come and review the situation and in this specific application would would be critical in making this decision. Thank you. Tim. I think we discussed a PFAS related to the artificial turf. But more important is also plastics. So some of the plastic, you know, micro micro plastics and a lot of wash off these rubber compounds, all these are going to actually have potential impacts, not in the initial stages, but as your installations start to deteriorate or in terms of lifespan as it gets, you will start to see more emissions of heavy metals coming out when the turf get warmed up. You know, more volatile organic compounds emerge in emissions. And and also these are toxins often carcinogens causing health threats. So beyond that, there are a couple of other things I want to mention is the substitution of or at least preventing the potential carbon sequestration. That means natural lawn has carbon sequestration. Now you're actually substituting with those which are not, you know, which cannot sequester carbon. So there is some climate implications to it. Biodiversity losses. These artificial plastic lawns probably cannot have any pollinators. So these are some sort of ecological dimensions of it. And others, you know, during the summertime, that's when we use this a lot. But, you know, you have heated surfaces, especially this artificial lawn gets heated up much more warmer, creating more injuries probably to the athletes. And so these are other indirect effects. Often, I think, should be considered when we make a decision, because these are all health related and injuries, the volatile organic compounds, the the emissions which are coming out because of pure heat increase, as it gets heated, you know, you just it's evaporates a lot of these compounds, you know, which are used in the manufacture. So thank you. Okay, so I have been living, breathing and dying artificial turf for the past three and a half weeks. I had a son who did track and field on the brand new field and an exchange son who played soccer on the new field in the early 2000s. So what I want to say, and I wrote down my comments so that I could be sustained succinct. We can all agree that the existing playing field inside the track at the Amherst Regional High School is in poor condition. And we can all agree that something has to be done for the health and safety of our youth. The board has received many letters about athletic field, the athletic field, both pros and cons of artificial turf. And if you've, and I've watched the town council meetings and heard the 90 minutes of town residents and Pelham and Leverett residents talking to and against artificial turf. But I am basing my remarks on scientific studies, materials from webinars on artificial turf that I've attended three of them in the past three weeks, the work of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, which Maureen referred to in their Toxic Use and Reduction Institute. Specifically, they have a report on athletic playing fields choosing safer options for health and environment. And both educational sessions and discussions I had at the American Public Health Association meetings that I mentioned I went to last month, which was attended by over 10,000 public health professionals. So this wasn't a small little conference. And I talked to environmental people and I talked to school nurses. So for me, there are three areas of concern. One is the safety and health for our players. Two, the environmental protection and three, maintenance and disposal of artificial turf. Most of my comments will focus on the safety. In a 2019 study by James, Dr. James Vorce, who's chair of the University Hospital Squidlin Medical Center and professor at Case Western Reserve University Medical School, in the studies titled which playing surface is safer for playing high school sports. In this study, Dr. Vu's analyzed data collected by 26 athletic trainers during the 2017-18 athletic seasons at Ohio High Schools. It was found that athletes were 58% more likely to sustain an injury during athletic activity on artificial turf. Specifically, of the 953 reported injuries, 585 occurred on synthetic turf and 368 on natural grass. In subgroup analysis, it was found that injuries in upper and lower extremities and torso occurred more frequently on artificial turf than on grass. In the analysis of sports, it was found that girls and boys soccer, football, men's lacrosse, and rugby had higher rates of injuries than other sports. Dr. Vu's wants to do further research, but it has been delayed because of the COVID pandemic and lack of playing seasons. There was a study published in 2019 in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. It's the higher rates of lower extremity injury rates on synthetic turf compared with natural turf among NFL athletes. Granted, we don't have NFL athletes here, but what is important in this study, researchers found that playing on synthetic turf in the NFL resulted in 16% increase in lower body injuries, foot, knee, and ankle. And the NFL artificial turf upkeep is premium. So we know they're playing on the best possible turf that's kept up. And these injuries were compared to the same injuries on natural grass. The results were from the 2012-2016 studies. And the study concluded that synthetic turf does have an impact on injuries to lower body parts in NFL players. And ironically, Friday night, I am looking through the New York Times, and there was an article presented, and I cannot remember the name of the NFL player, but that NFL player and other NFL players are suing the NFL due to injuries on artificial turf and want artificial turf removed. So does the women's soccer from the soccer league finally argued and are getting artificial turf removed. There was also a California study that found a two to three-fold increase in skin abrasions per player hour on artificial turf compared to natural grass. And when I talked to school nurses, they said their biggest concern was the skin abrasions. And then some kids got deeper infections, and deeper infections can lead to more serious injury. So with many of individuals at other meetings and our board members have spoken about the health and environmental effects of PFAS, artificial turf may also contain lead and hormone disrupting chemicals. And there's research being done on the effect of teenage athletes whose reproductive system is undergoing growth. And at present, there are no federal requirements for safety and testing of artificial turf. Just as there were no safety testing of Agent Orange in the 1960s, nor on smoking in the 1940s and 50s, and smoking was even encouraged. I want to mention that artificial turf, as has been noted, is not maintenance free. It requires annual testing, fluffing, redistribution and replacement at landfill, periodic disinfection, seam repair, watering to lower the temperatures on hot days. And as Tim talked about these heat islands created by synthetics and the school nurses are very concerned about these heat islands and the effect on kids playing on them. And there are many issues in high cost with disposal of materials at the end of the life cycle, which is estimated to be eight to 10 years. Also, I'm concerned about, as Tim mentioned, biodiversity and pollinators. And as Tim referred to, and everybody else has referred to, I'm closing with my comment as a public health professional, I rely on precautionary principle. The precautionary principle states that it is that if a product, an action or a policy has suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, protective action should be supported before there is complete scientific proof of a risk. So those are my comments. Further discussion. I've gotten the sense from Maureen and Tim and myself that our opinion is not to support funding of artificial turf at the Amherst High School athletic field at the present time. Is that other people's understanding from our discussion? I don't support it at this time. You know, that could change in 10 years, but it's not, right now, I feel like we don't, it looks like it's a problem. And the infill with crumb rubber seems to be a big problem. And we don't know that much about the other options. They haven't really been studied very well. And that aside, the actual grass itself has the microplastics and the PFAS and other chemicals that are exposing children and also runoff. And like people, you take this home with you, that one of the things they say about these fields is you shouldn't sit on them. You wouldn't go there and have a picnic. You shouldn't wash your hands. You should go home. You should shake out your clothes outside and then wash them because you shouldn't bring this stuff into your house. It just seems like, is that telling you something about this material that they're warning signs outside on placards and some of these fields in Connecticut about how to, what you can and can't do on them and what you should do when you stop, when you leave the field. It just seems like going, it seems like we're at this cusp. I think they've been very popular and they've been quote, state of the art. And I think people are just now, kind of the choir seems to be turning and it just seems like you don't want to jump on that bandwagon when it's going to run in off the cliff. And it seems like we should hold back, get a, with the money, I'm not thinking about this with money, but with the money that it would take to do the artificial turf. You could do a lot of drainage work and maintenance and whatever to have a really, it seems like a successful grass field. Yes, Maureen. And two things. One is, I forgot to mention earlier, I looked up because I knew of this, but UMass has a turf science department. They are consulted all over. They have their turf fields up in Sunderland. You may have gone across the river. Why we don't contact them to see if they would take this on as a project. Then I had heard in one of the town council public comment meetings that they're looking at the coconut infill. So I looked up the coconut infill and that has a lot of problems. And if it floods, which we now know that if you've listened to the town council, that field has a lot of water problems. The coconut stuff rises up. It has to be taken off. Then you have to evaluate the surface because it will be not even. And then you have to put more infill in. So coconut might not contain as much PFAS or whatever, but it's also treated. So that I think might have problems. And my third thing is my grandson's play at roots soccer fields in Westfield. And I never thought of this and I'm sitting in a chair and I'm moving my hand through their artificial turf and all the stuff is bouncing out all over. And then I noticed that all the goalies, even when it's very hot, are wearing long pants. So I said some because my grandson put long pants on over his uniform shorts. And I said, oh, how can we do that? She goes, well, if you're goalie and you die for a ball, you're going to get cuts. So I'll just add that to my other comments. So I do not support artificial turf at this point. I support doing something to help the students that. And as noted, this is one field. We need to address the other fields there and the other fields in town. Tim, any more comments? Well, I agree with your observations that we wanted to provide all these facilities for encouraging sports and everything. But with caution, if the enjoyment is at the cost of more exposure to volatile compounds or injuries or even, I think you were mentioning, I think the plastics is something big one, we have everywhere. And so I think the timeliness, now we are getting more aware of, that's what used to happen in before, in 60s, 1960s, where we were accepting DDT and very heavy. And the awareness was not there. And I think there were a few observations about their impacts on health and now it was banned and everything. So I'm just saying that awareness is a key. And I think at this stage, we are actually becoming more aware. Research is informing us. And so I think having that caution in our decision making, I think it's really important. Lauren, do you have any other comments? Yeah, I could just say I like all of your comments, Nancy. But again, I just, I think when it comes to athleticism and decisions, the people who are going to be playing on the field and the coaches and athletes should have some say, and I'm not saying that that a turf or artificial field is the right way to go. And maybe they haven't considered all of the research and the information that you shared tonight. But I just think that injuries, you know, some injuries are preventable and some are not. And so I just think that the voices of the people who are going to be playing on the turf should be considered. That's pretty much all I have to say. Do we want further discussion or do we want to make a motion? Exactly what we would be saying. I mean, are we in a position to decide this or just make a recommendation? No, the motion would be they ask for our opinion and our opinion to protect the public health and protect the environment from damage and pollution that the Board of Health does not recommend the installation of artificial turf at the one Amherst Regional High School playing field. I believe that would be our motion. They ask for our opinion. Okay. So we're not saying do it or don't do it. We're just giving our opinion on because we are charged with the protection of public health. The control of disease and when I was talking to the public health nurses and they said some of these kids get scraped and then they don't care of the scrape and then they have infections and some of them are worried, especially if they have other comorbidities that they're going to have serious infections and end up on IV antibiotics in the hospital. That was from school nurses at the American Public Health Association. And one of the things that is part of the maintenance is periodically disinfecting the field. Yes. And I found out that the disinfectant that is generally used has been not been denied by the FDA to be put into antibacterial soaps. So I mean it's not research based. I read it. I'm not sure where I read it, but I just said, oh, okay. So there are a lot of issues. Seems like if you scratch the surface, there are a lot of issues and a lot of issues around upkeep that I think are minimized when people think, oh, you just put this out there and you don't have to mow it. And it's a good, it'll be good forever. And it doesn't need to be the case. There is a cost, but if you look at the long-term cost of artificial fields with their disposal and there's only one plant being built in Pennsylvania that will take this and this thing weighs like a half a ton. And we're not even allowed to put cloth and shoes into our trash anymore as of November of this year by the state. I don't know how that's being enforced. So it really is focusing on the protection of public health and the protection of the environment from damage and pollution that we would base our opinion on, because that's under Massachusetts general laws, that is what we are responsible for. So I could form a motion that given the Board of Health's responsibilities for the protection of public health and the protection of the environment from damage pollution, the Board at this time gives the opinion that we do not support the installation of artificial field at the Amherst Regional Track. Does what do people think of that motion? Sounds reasonable. Then can I have a second? I can second it. Okay, so we'll vote on it. Tim? Aye. Maureen? Aye. Lauren? I'll say aye. And Nancy? Aye. Well, thank you. Okay, we can move on. Nancy, Sergeant, will you email me the motion when you're done so we can get it into the minutes? Okay. After the meeting. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so the next on the agenda is mental health awareness. And I know this is very important to Maureen and she's been taking excellent steps in organizing things at butternut farms, looking at health and mental health and crest. And I do want to say, whoops, can people hear me? There's back. On December 7, 2001, VTEC Murthy, our U.S. Surgeon General, issued an advisory on youth mental health crisis that was further exposed by COVID-19 pandemic. And then just recently, another advisory was issued on mental health in the workplace. So these are very important issues. But I want to say as a board, we can't develop programs, we can't do anything. That is the health department's role. So we can make people aware of this issue. And the health department, because of the present infrastructure, which is Jen as the director, Olivia as the public health nurse, Nancy Schroeder as a 12 hour a week administrative assistant. And thank you for all you do, Nancy. And we have a vacant right now position. And I believe it's 30 hours a week. I'm not sure, Jen. And it's from the American Rescue Act money. And that ends in, I believe, 18 months. Am I correct, Jen? 30 hours ends 2024. Yes. So with our given infrastructure, we can identify this need, but we don't have the infrastructure staff or ability to fund or act on this. I don't know what other people think. And I don't want to push it under the carpet because it is a significant issue and it's growing by leaps and bounds. So I'm putting it out for further discussion. So we're aware and what else should we do? Are there any collaborative efforts through in the Pioneer Valley or any grant based programs through the state that people could tap into? I know that's another thing that takes time and energy to just even find or apply for or? I think at this point, one of our biggest resources in town is CREFs. I read in the newspaper that they were chosen to go to some special training. So I think there are biggest resource right now. I know if you talk to the staff at Craig's Doors, mental health, it's not new, but mental health is a big issue there. And wherever you go, but identifying grants, applying for grants, and administering grants. It takes time. In infrastructure. Yeah. So, yeah. Lauren. Oh, yeah. This is a huge conundrum. An important conundrum. And I'm still trying to figure out the funding because I know from funding CREFs, it got funding through a grant from the public health department, and I'm not sure if that's the Massachusetts Health Department or locally. But for me, I think how I would like to approach mental health research and like establish some kind of conversation, continual conversation in the community is one. If this is a concern, which it is a concern, of a concern. And there is an aspect of volunteerism of just doing things because they need to be done. But I think that there definitely is money through grants. And the amount of time that we spend on different health topics, and debates, and so forth, I think we could use that time better to research and to find grant funding. And so I would just hope that maybe if we want to stick with this topic, just an awareness topic, or the Board of Health to bring to the community, I can share some facts, my ongoing journey of not necessarily trying to give advice, but just saying facts and what I've, you know, experienced and what I've, you know, have found in my own journey of what mental health is. So I don't know if you would like me to share that now or I had a few facts that I wanted to share. Tim, do you have any comments? I think it's a very important and as well as it's becoming to the forefront, you know, in many universities, colleges, and the youth and everything. I think this was being recognized as a very critical need. But it's also has to be multiple collaborators involved, because it's an issue which has much more broader implications, cutting across, you know, health, you know, the behavioral, but also recognition and awareness and what to do about some sort of an options. And so I think I'm glad that it's being brought to the forefront for discussions, but also looking at some of the existing resources and who might be the collaborators and partners we could tap into and collaborate with, you know. And and I think it's nationally and as well as within the state and it has been on the forefront, you know, in UMass, we talk about this a lot. It's a huge issue among students. And having that type of a discussion, but also having resources needed, the creation of awareness, early recognition of any problems, all those things become extremely important. And so thank you. And I agree. And then with students living not in dorms and they live in town, some of their mental health issues roll over to neighborhoods and downtown and whatnot. So I agree with everything, but I don't know if any of you have applied for grants. I'm sure you have, Tim, but applying identifying and applying for grants is a very complex process. And it needs it needs staff to do that, which means we need funding, which means we need more infrastructure. I think at this point, one of our best options would be to talk with Cress and see what they can find because they are charged with more of that. And as I said, as a board, we can write letters and we can support, but our role is not to develop an intervention and implement it. That is the health department's role because we have a health department. And at this point, we don't have the infrastructure or the funding for the health department to take this on right now. We might in six months or something. So my thought would be, and we could make a motion to once again get Cress here and talk with them about can they identify any grants or any funding or what can they do and how can we support them through letter writing or if and I've looked at the budget, but that's not in the health department's budget. They have to buy immunizations and they have a lot of things that their money is earmarked for plus the salary for our two and two positions plus 12 hours because the art money is paying for the other 30-hour position. So I don't know if we want to make a motion to explore this more with Cress or ask the town council if they can provide funding to improve the health department's infrastructure to start addressing some of these very important health issues because it's mental health that's increasing and coming to the forefront, as Tim had said. So I'm open for whatever you'd like to do. So there is an institution called SAMHSA. Yeah, that's for substance abuse. No, it has mental health services too in that and it has a lot of grants. They have a forecast of in 2023 grants, which include a lot of topics including mental health awareness, training awareness, healthy transition especially for serious mental disorders. And so there are some these types of grants coming up. So maybe we can propose saying that we can actually have some resources so that someone could actually apply for these grants and have the partner agencies to be involved in implementing. So some of them are awareness training, early recognition training, and what type of treatment are available or what type of sources. I mean, these are grants we could declare. These are forecasted grants, you know, so we need funding. Yeah. So while I was at the American Public Health Associations, I found out that the town of Milton, south of Boston is doing community assessment. So I talked with them. Well, they got $30,000 to do their community assessment. And the coordinator of the community assessment, i.e. what I'm doing is getting paid $100 an hour. So we need money. So that's what I'm talking about, the infrastructure, because Lauren, and I honor volunteerism and I'm volunteering, but it gets expensive to volunteer. And this would be a tremendous, if we had a closer alliance with the School of Public Health or the School of Nursing, there might be a graduate student who could start examining this and apply, but we don't have those linkages. And Jen, as the director of the Health Department, what are your thoughts? One thing I can offer is that Lauren can join me with a monthly meeting that Cress has, which is the Cress Social Service Policy Meeting. So that's once a month. And it used to be called the Amherst Human Service Network, where all the social services and organizations came together. And it was really instrumental. I know we've talked about it, really important COVID when things we needed to get resources to people. Who would we turn into? So we knew all the players, because we were meeting family outreach of Amherst and, you know, all Amherst Survival Center. But how Cress has really sort of taken this over and breathed new life into it. We met yesterday and it's just dynamic amount of people that come in. And they really represent many of the services that you're talking about now. I think it's a really great place to start. Everyone's going to be in the room and really supportive. So that's an option. I think it would just be incredible anyway. But I think it would really would open up some doors. That's what I would suggest. The second thing is I'd say Lauren and I, Lauren worked really hard. It was great working with you, Lauren, going to Butternut Farm. But we definitely can do something like that again. But you and I can talk about that separately. But that's just sort of these one individual events. But I'm definitely would support you again and have my team there as well. But I love the Cress Social Service Policy Meeting. I think it's a great start. That is. And then it's important when you're applying for grants to show that you've built alliances and coalitions as you start applying for grants. So that would be an excellent place to start. Lauren. Yeah, Lauren has your hand up. I know we lost your video. Okay, so Lauren. Oh, see, I don't even see her. Oh, her hand up. Oh, there it is on your attendees. Yeah, she's okay. Okay. Okay. So, okay, Lauren. I was looking under panel. You can unmute and say something. You know what, I apologize. I just promoted her to panelist. So there might be a little lag. Okay. Okay, Lauren. Sorry, Lauren. I was trying to move fast. She's muted, it looks like. I can ask her to unmute, but I can't unmute her myself. Lauren, can you unmute? Lauren, can you hear us? Here she comes. Oh, great. Lauren, can you unmute? Looks like muted. Lauren, can you hear us? Can you speak? Okay. Well, if she can come in, we can hear from her. So I don't think this needs a motion. I think that Jen, you with Lauren can explore building an alliance with Cress to see how we can move mental health forward. Yeah, that's a great, great idea. Okay. Great. So one other idea is, you know, some of the grants they are pursuing, you know, we could always collaborate with other health departments, you know, in the region in the pioneer valley and everything, maybe starting the conversation with other health directors and see how many are interested in that. And then if there is some sort of a regional interest, you know, there might be now possibilities of pooling all the resources for applying for larger grants and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, Tim, that's a great idea because we're part of the Public Health Excellence Grant with Northampton. And yeah, so I think that's just that's you knock the ball out of the park, let me get in touch with them. They have a great team there. And they share the same concerns. And together, we can have these joined resources. That's super. And that fits with the 2019 blueprint for Public Health Excellence in Massachusetts. Great. Okay. So next on the agenda is Board of Health Communications. So Jen and I have talked about this because, you know, the town council asked us for an opinion. And then I'm reading in articles that the Board of Health is not giving their opinion about artificial turf. So I'm thinking, okay, and Jen gets emails, I get emails. I get calls, Jen gets calls. Do you want to take the sofa, Jen? Yeah, yeah. So, so thank you. This was, yeah, our joint idea to put this on to the agenda. And there are two things that just come to mind that I want to talk about is the agenda, and then emails and letters and how to provide them to the Board. So just sort of general knowledge that the agenda we start working on, already I have a draft in my January 12th folder. And it's just a rough template. It's an outline. And I start putting things in. So I know from what we have now and the minutes, what will go on to the next agenda. But Nancy and I speak throughout the month and we'll update. This is on the agenda, what needs to be moved on. The agenda can only hold so much. And sometimes things need to be pushed off. For example, on the agenda tonight, we had said last time that we'd have firearm safety. So the police and Scott Livingstone graciously said they'll be back in January. So anyhow, I just want to let people know that there's scheduled things on the event on the agenda. But when new issues come up, for example, PFAS at the playing field, I'll get a call or an email. And then I immediately speak to Nancy about it. And we talk about what goes on, what the timing is. So it's a real, I don't want to say it's a living document, but there's a lot of back and forth about the appropriateness of that. And I think we're very, very efficient and timely with it, Nancy. We have a good communication with that. So that's one thing I want to say how the agenda is formed. Would you agree with that, Nancy? Yes. And it's no small thing. It's something I take pride in because it's really this document that has to have some precision to it. Then the other thing, and I wanted to ask the board, when we get emails in the health department, for example, what's coming to mind the mass mandate, we got a high volume of emails pro con. And what I did was, I think in the beginning, I may have been like, oh, here's a batch and I send them to you. But then there's another one that pops up. I don't want to email it to you again. So what I started doing was taking all of the emails and Nancy Schroeder helps me and putting them onto a document. And then I can send you a document so you have it all at once. Now, sometimes there's some judgment in there, and I feel like you really need to know things right away. But for the most part, do you have a sense of how you want to receive your emails? Like, for example, the PFAS emails, I sent them all to you when the packet went out last week. I'm trying to think how I did Friday. But Monday, there was a flurry of new emails. So those went onto a document and sent them to you. But I think there may have been emails that came in this morning, and I'm not able to process them. I was in a clinic all day. But I want to hear what works for you guys. Hi, Lauren. I don't think it can be standardized. Again, I think there's some judgment. But I don't want to inmate you. I think looping them like that is really helpful, so they're not individual forwarded emails that makes a difference to me. Yeah. And then, you know, so Jen sent them to me, and then I send them out to all of you. And then also, because of open meeting laws, we can't talk about anything. And that's also because of open meeting laws, as I was doing some of my ongoing research on artificial turf, I just send it out to you. I don't know if the links helpful. But I figured, well, whatever I find, I'll share with all of you. Nancy, do you want me putting them onto a word doc and sending to you, and then you send out a word? How did you send them out to me? Because, you know, I'm working with these students. I'm an old person. I do have computer skills. But all this new stuff, and Google Docs this and this, and that, I sometimes miss things. I'm very old fashioned with, okay, send me this email. I know how to forward it. If it relates to Google Docs, I have trouble dealing with that. But if I just put it in on a document, you know, PDF or something. Yeah, no, that's no problem. And then I have a very, a very old computer that's very slow. I bought a new computer, but I don't like it. They're both Apple. So I'm using this very ancient where I get that little ball that goes in circles. So that's frustrating, too. I don't want to sound like I'm a curmudgeon, but, you know, I did what I had to do for my dissertation. Now I want to take the easy road. So sending them on a PDF document, and I send them out, I read them and send them out. That's great. And then we have to make sure we're doing all that open meeting law, which means we don't communicate back and forth at all. No, I agree that there's no. Especially on a topic. We can communicate a little about something. Well, if you thought of this, have you seen this fine, but oh, you know, like artificial turf, we could not talk about any of that over the internet. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I hope I didn't imply that. No, no, no. But I just want to make sure that that I emphasize that to all board members. I think, you know, people shared some links or documents that was helpful that, you know, okay. Okay. So you'll send me a doc and I'll send it. I'll send it out. I'm a nurse, so I'll send it out. All right. Thank you. No pun intended. Okay. Oh, before we adjourn, I'm sorry. You're not adjourning. Okay. We're moving on. We're moving on to the director's update. Did you have something, Lauren? Yeah, I just because my phone shut down. But I just, I wanted to share going back to the mental health awareness if we could possibly, I know we're going to talk offline. But I just wanted to share with the board that that mental health is, we shouldn't make any assumptions. I think for myself, and like I said, on a two year journey post COVID and I know that's going to be the next topic of the day. But I think the idea of who has mental health issues is, it needs to be erased because I learned the term high functioning depression, which I never heard before. And it's also called smiling depression. And I think a lot of us think that that depression just looks one way. But people can still be functioning and and and coping, but still have depression. And also, you know, with the high student population, I think, as Tim said that, you know, you master specialists a lot that students, they they have to function at a high level. And a lot is asked of them. And even though they they function on a high level, again, that doesn't mean that they're not going to depression. So I would just like for starters, just to have just as we have a COVID update to maybe have a mental health update, and then continue the conversation about like grant funding and so forth. That's just what I want to share. We are putting the mental health on our January agenda. What would you like in a mental health update? Can you hear us, Lauren? You're you're muted, Lauren. Can you unmute? Yes, I could get into specifics, because I have been as I as I mentioned at the the community conversations meeting at what an affirm that I really would like to see some after school support for the youth there. And, you know, young people are resolvable and that's part of their maturing and getting to find their strengths and all that. And and so as as we get older, sometimes we're like put off by, you know, the loudness or, you know, all the activity and all the stuff, you know, all the things that they're doing. And and so I I'm just saying that to say that there is a need that has not been filled that needs to continue to be addressed and again, yes, funded. And so I just would like to put on the agenda like how to get to learn how to get organized play, how to get so healthy. I don't want to interrupt you and that's very important, but that is not the charge of the Board of Health. That is really more for the Health Department or the Cres because the Board we basically do regulations and variances. And so there's the action was what you need and which is very, very important. It's not under the jurisdiction of the Board. It's under the jurisdiction of other departments or agencies in town. And that's why Jen very nicely succinctly put the Cres group. So that would be the group to meet with. And then if you meet with them monthly, you can just give us, you know, a two minute update on what they're doing. So we can't fund anything. We can't provide all of those most needed activities and services. So that's why you're being the linkage to Cres and then reporting and asking them, are you getting funding? And then you can say, oh, Cres is doing this. We have the funding or this is a gap and we need to find other funders. Does that make sense to you? Yes, it makes sense. And all I'm saying is that Cres is, I don't think it's the only way to find these other linkages or avenues because, like I said, there's a lot of incidents that are going around with the youth that Cres, I don't think has been able to address. And I don't want to, you know, say anything more. I'm just saying that. So if you can identify who the other linkages are, we can start working from there because that's the important part. We acknowledge it, but our purview is regulations and variances. And then the action part is we have to identify who's going to do that action and how they can do, you know, they have the funding. So that will be the important link there. Does that make sense? Does that make sense to other board members? Well, I guess I had a question about the meeting that Jennifer was alluding to. It sounds like it's run by Cres, but it's not just Cres present in the room. Yeah, so that's what I think that's a really good point. So it's called the Cres Social Service Policy Meeting. And again, it's the Amherst Human Service Networks are retooled. So there are the all these other providers and people of different organizations meeting together. And we go around the room, you know, I've only been to one meeting, I think there's been three. And we introduce ourselves. And it's like, whoa, I didn't know you were here. That's so cool. So people are exchanging cards and talking about what they did do and what they provide. And a few people say, you know, I don't do this, but I know so and so let's all link together. And it was really just this incredible meeting. I just I just felt so energized, really proud of the community. Everyone come in. So I think it's a good link for us to say, hey, we're talking about adult behavioral health, mental health, but I'm really interested in younger people. Does anyone have a recommendation where I can go? Yeah. So that'll it seems like it'll be helpful in identifying groups that might be able to actually do things and figuring out, you know, I mean, if we're talking about collaborating and getting grants, you need people on the ground who actually do things. So that seems to be a good place to talk about those issues. And it's not just Amherst, someone from Holyoke Hospital came up and said, hey, there's a new behavioral health wing that we're going to be opening soon. You know, so we're getting tidbits from around the community. I think I know that the applied aspect is some sort of important, but in order to recognize mental health, just like we have some sort of information on our website and the Board of Health website about racism, you know, public indoor usage, I think having some resources there. They are there on the website. Oh, okay. We could work on a statement about awareness of mental health. But Tim, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but it's just, it's like a link. So I apologize, I interrupted you. Oh, no, I might have not seen that, but maybe that could come out more clearly. So what I mean is when people wanted to know more about it, it's a some sort of an important health issue. And what type of resources they have, what type of training they could actually take or where they could contact. And those types of information can be brought into prominence. They don't want to search for it. So we provide some sort of a COVID information right away up front. And so the one thing is might be something that there's a lot of resources available, but compiling some sort of information for schools to use that in terms of mental health training, where they could reach out to their own educators and other other institutions, you know, they could use that type of resources, you know, to get some information about recognition, where to get, who are the practitioners you are mentioning, how to how to early recognize some symptoms and some sort of a treatment or whatever it is. So I think that type of information on our site more clearly establishes that we catapult it. That's what I mean. Yeah. If I look at it, I mean, it does have some local resources and some general information. It's down a little bit on the page, but it's kind of in a same size boxes, other other topics on the mental health. Yeah. Yeah. Lillian did that. She did. Yeah. We move that up, but we still have the elephant in the room. I know COVID. That's a top four. And actually the second, the third one, the next right below those is the suicide and crisis hotline information. So that that's a prominent piece. You know, I think it's nice to have things on your website. It doesn't get to a lot of people. You know, it's just the way I mean, as a when I worked at Mount Holyoke, we had a great website. Did anyone go there? Parents, occasional outsiders. I don't think the students went there very much is what I would say. So I think it's really important to be there, but there may be different ways of getting it off the website and into the world. Yeah. No, I agree with you. I think one thing, it does help me get organized when I put this information up. Yeah. I think it's great. I mean, it's important. It needs to be there. But it's a question of how to make it more alive, if you know how to get it, get people to know where it is or know that they can look there or you know, just to be more awareness of what's available. Okay. Okay. We're going to move on to the director's update. Okay. So we're heading into our third winter of COVID. And I think people are experts are beginning to say that we have enough community protection that we're not going to see a repeat of what we had last year with Omicron. We post the daily numbers and I think I forgot to send them to you or maybe I did. And I do have to give a shout out to Joseph Fosso. He's one of our employees. He's a contact trace on ARPA money. So he's contacted many of you with contact tracing and case management. And he does these numbers. We're just seeing a few numbers come in nightly three overnight. We're at a total of 10,450 total cases. But we know that we have decreased surveillance. We've been talking about that for a while. PCRs are down and antigen tests are not reported. But our numbers are low here and we're happy. We do have numbers because they are showing that there is an uptake, uptick in COVID cases and hospitalizations. Nationally, a little post Thanksgiving holiday uptick. So we still have the surveillance. I do want to talk about influenza like illness, ILL, ILI surveillance. We have that. We do not have surveillance as far as I know for RSV. So that's just something to think about. As far as variants, just I think it's interesting to follow the CDC and the now cast. Right now in the U.S., the BQ11 is most dominant and it is here in region one. We also have an XBB in our region, which is not predominant nationally. But it's interesting to look at September 3rd, 85% of the infections were from the BA5 and now we are here with its grandchild that is more dominant. So BA5 is 85% and now it's 1.8% of infections. So I just think that's interesting that people want to follow the different variants. One thing I do want to say, I just thought it was interesting, but I heard someone talking about PCR testing and not talking about COVID testing. Because the first time I heard PCR testing and Maureen, you can help me, the polymerase chain reaction, it was pertussis. But this is a pretty normal way of amplifying nucleic acids or DNA in bacteria and viruses for many different infectious diseases. Is that right? That's correct. That's correct. So it's very sensitive. It's pretty very accurate and very quick. You know, instead of in the old days, you'd have to look under the microscope and see what you could see and then culture it, which may take a few days to grow and weeks sometimes. So that's a very widely used type of testing. So something to keep in mind as we go on to all these different normal viruses that we did before, your provider may be saying you need a PCR and don't just think it's for Omicron. So anyhow, that's just something I'm throwing in there. But these different viruses that are circulating now, about two weeks ago, I could see that it was really taking over some of our hospital beds and it doesn't seem that way now anymore. So the information I have from November 15th is that Cooley Dickinson Hospital was at 86% capacity. Now it's 76. So it's down. The beds aren't as full to November 15th. The ICU occupancy at Cooley Dickinson was 92% occupied. Now it's 63%. And I had heard from somebody in the emergency room that they were just being inundated with respiratory viruses and mental health issues. So that's something. Yeah. So just sort of another sort of shout out that I would say to people, make sure that you have a good provider, that you have a trusted provider, and that one that you know, because we're talking about flu, RSV, and COVID. And it's very hard to tell the difference. But I think people shouldn't be passing this off as just like, oh, it's one of those. I won't worry. But I think it's really great to get tested. You don't know how fast these things can decline. But you can be treated. You can be treated if you have COVID. You can be treated if you have the flu. There's still antivirals. So I think it's really good to be checking in with your provider. And I know my provider is very quick to respond with the portal. So I recommend that. Then we have to make a comment about providers. I've just talked to two older people in town who called me asking me. Both have lost their providers because they left. One through a series and is going to finally meet with a nurse practitioner, but isn't sure if that is the right match for him as his primary care provider. And the other one, physician retired, got an appointment with a new physician, had the appointment six months later, and then it was canceled because that physician was leaving town. So getting a primary care provider right now is very difficult. It's really discouraging. And I'll just say, anyone that is having trouble getting provider or health insurance, please call the health department and we can hook you in. And another shout out to the Neusanti Health Center. I can see it right now. And I see people going down there, families going down. Very great practitioners. They have a relatively new physician down there. Jessica Bossi's there now. But that is, they are taking patients. But Nancy, I agree. I want to talk about testing. We have antigen tests in the health department here. We still have enough to be giving out to many of our partners and to the residents. Please come in, let us know if you need any. They expire the end of January. And there's no plan from DPH to distribute more of these antigen tests. So that'll be sad that we don't get another shipment. I know you guys have heard me talk about how I think they're just wonderful. If you think you've had an exposure, if you're asking the question, am I infectious? They're really great to have. So we'll be sunsetting that program. Vaccines continue. Thank you to everyone that supported us at the COVID clinic this past Monday here at the banks. It was supported by the Department of Public Health. Their team came in and provided vaccine. They call it a family friendly vaccine. So six months and older, you could get your first shot, second bivalent booster. We did 463 people. Everyone received a $75 gift card. And we didn't know until they rolled up that it was to stop and shop. So I was really happy. Yeah, I know. So a family of four, I saw a family of four. And the mom said this was just enough to get us in. And you know, they had $300. It meant she could take some time off her work or whatever it was. But we were so happy. I think we vaccinated people that may have been just on the edge. And this was a great incentive. I'm just so proud. Really happy to see everyone. And another shout out to Cress. We usually have the MRC Medical Reserve Corps help with line management. But Cress was there. And they were dynamos and great to work with. There are more family friendly clinics. The Amherst Survival Center has one coming up December 16th, 12 to 2.30. And if you go to, again, I think it's family friendly Massachusetts vaccine. If you Google that, you'll get close to it. There are many other of these clinics in Springfield. Not the most convenient for all of us or if you don't have a car. The clinics in the Banks Community Center continue every Thursday, 12 to 2. We do a small volume. But while they're giving us vaccines for free, we're going to keep on vaccinating people. So come on by if you want to talk about boosters. We're there. We don't know what will happen with the vaccine in the next few months if the federal supply will dry up. But I know DPH is trying to continue funding us for that. One, two other things. Just another thank you to the Department of Public Works for providing the water samples to Biobot. Those go off to the state to make a plain lab and then they get processed by Biobot. We post them on our web page. We can see the trends. Again, these stats aren't analyzed in the same fashion as some of our other things. We really do look at trends. It's been pretty low. But I have to say the past two samples, we're beginning to see it creep up again. Not unexpected after Thanksgiving, but we'll keep an eye on that. It's really good information. There's two new dashboards on the Massachusetts Department of Public Health web page. They now have a new wastewater dashboard and they have a weekly flu dashboard. If you go to those, it's really great to see where we are. And then just, I know I talked about flu, but just to let people know, Massachusetts-wise, we're at high severity range for influenza-like illnesses. The hospitalizations with flu are at 1.2 percent of all hospitalizations are influenza-like illness. Last week it was 0.6, and this is higher than the last three seasons. So anyhow, that's all from the new DPH website. That's what I have. Okay, thank you. I just want to read the motion that I'm going to send to you. And then should I send a letter to the town council about our motion that was made in the past? I think coming from you sounds appropriate. Yeah, and if you can send it to us just so we have that word. I just want to read it again to make sure this reflects the board members. Given the responsibility of the Amherst Board of Health under Massachusetts General Law for the protection of the public's health and the protection of environment from damage and pollution, we are using the precautionary principle that if a product, an action, or a product, an action or a policy has suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, protective action should be supported before there is a complete scientific proof of risk. Therefore, we do not support the installation of artificial turf at the high school's track field at this time. Does that reflect everybody? Yes? Yes. Okay. And then I will send this tonight to you and then also to the town council. That's good. Okay, thank you. So I don't have anything else. I just, because you asked me to write it and then I had my all different notes here, but I wanted to just clarify it and make sure that was it. So we do now have any other public comments. We have three attendees. If you want to speak and comment, raise your hand. They are not. I do not have any other topics anticipated. So I would like a motion to adjourn and our next schedule meeting is January 12th, 2023. Happy New Year, everybody. And thank you, everybody, for all your work over this past year. I know everybody has done a yeoman's job of research, writing, and I greatly appreciate it on behalf of the board and the town. Thank you, Nancy. May have a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion to adjourn this meeting December 8th. You have a second? I second. It's been moved and seconded that we are adjourning. Maureen? I. Tim? I. Maureen? I. And Nancy, I. Well, thank you and have a wonderful holiday season for whatever holidays you do or do not celebrate. See you, see you next year. Bye. Bye, everyone.