GRAND FORKS BOARD OF HEALTH MINUTES Thursday, July 10, 2008 I. Call Meeting to Order The Grand Forks Board of Health meeting was called to order at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, July 10, 2008, in the Mosquito Control conference room of the new Public Safety Training Center building, in the Industrial Park. Judy DeMers called the meeting to order. Members present: Judy DeMers (Chairperson), Arvin Kvasager, Don Shields, Dr. James Hargreaves, Dr. James O’Connell, and Mike McNamara. Others present: Debbie Swanson, Wally Helland, Theresa Knox, Haley Thorson, and Keith Westerfield. II. Approval of Minutes of Regular Meeting, January 10, 2008 There weren’t any minutes in April, because there was not a meeting, due to no quorum existed. However, a motion was made by Arvin K. and seconded by Dr. Hargreaves to approve the January minutes as submitted. All approved and the motion passed. III. Old Business A. ND DoH Immunization “PROtect ND Kids”: Debbie S. briefed that the implementation is pretty much compete. - There were a number of administrative issues that we needed to deal with to make this transition complete. There is still a lot of provider education to do; we’ve added administrative burden, and increased costs to patients. We’ll need to work closely with providers in the community so that we are referring appropriately, back and forth, to keep access seamless. Now the big thing will be to monitor immunization rates over the next several months to see what happens. We are a little concerned on how we reach special populations; immigrant health, and children in schools. - How to do Flu shots is a big unknown for this fall, so we’ll have to keep working at the administrative issues with immunizations. Public Health implemented usage of credit cards because people are paying more out-of-pocket expenses (some have to pay for the vaccine and administrative fee, which increased). - We will want to monitor immunization rates, so we don’t see the re-emergence of diseases that are vaccine-preventable (due to financial changes). We are seeing more families that want to vaccinate their children differently that how we recommend; one vaccine per visit (instead of all they need at once). IV. New Business A. North Dakota Lead Exposure Study – Wild Game: Don S. recapped the study – A doctor from Bismarck in Mar 08, took 95 packages of wild game that were donated to food shelters, x-rayed them, and found that 53 of them had evidence of lead (most likely came from lead bullet fragments). - As a result of that, the ND Department of Health put out a warning to the public, and pulled the meat off the shelves. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other states have also done the same. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) was investigating, and in May came to ND to do a study. A team visited six areas of ND; Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown, Bismarck, Dickinson, and Minot. They wanted to collect 680 blood samples; half from people who had consumed venison, and half from those who haven’t. They collected about 740 samples (they had a harder time finding people who did not consumed venison). The CDC will be analyzing them, and sending the results back directly to the individuals, and the study’s results will be published in 8-10 months. - Don complimented the Public Health staff for not only participating in the study, but also helping with the interviewing (8 pages of questions!). - There didn’t seem to be any negative reaction from hunters (that venison is harmful), but some people participated because they said they were not sure they believe this is true and wanted to be tested. They were respectful though, interested, and curious. Board of Health Minutes July 10, 2008 Page 2 B. Tobacco Control Initiated Measure – Debbie S. briefed that this was mentioned in an article in the Grand Forks Herald recently. One of many Initiated Measures that may be on the ballot this fall. If passed, it would give ND Public Health community some new tools in tobacco prevention. - The measure places the new Tobacco Settlement Funding (TSF), called the Strategic Contribution Fund (SCF), into a special tobacco trust fund, that would initiate and implement CDC-based programming. Right now, our state does not fund this at the CDC recommended funding level. The SCF received its first payment in April (about $14.5M), and that amount went to the split that currently exists for our Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and the TSF, which 45% goes to (state) Water Projects, 45% to Education, and 10% to Public Health (80% of Public Health’s is spent on tobacco programs.). With the SCF, it would not change the existing allocation on the original TSF (what we call the MSA). It would specifically allocate that of the new SCF, $9M of it would be dedicated to tobacco, because that is what the CDC recommends our state should be paying. Heidi Highcamp was the initiator of this. She was the Attorney General at the time that the MSA occurred in 1998. Because of her involvement with negotiating the settlement, smaller states received additional funding for their role in it (ND was one of those small states). This is a separate pool of money that would be available, and rather than splitting it, as it been thus far, this would be a unique opportunity to place it more strategically into tobacco control activities. Where it’s at right now, is in the petition/collection phase of this process, and the petitions (that volunteers are collecting signatures for, in evenings and on weekends) are due about the 21st of July. Judy D. complimented Theresa K., who was at the Art Sale, collecting signatures (they were needing 12,000, currently have 13,000, and hoping to get 16,000 by due date). - The basis of the lawsuit (and settlement) was to pay for the state’s Medicaid expenditures in the past. However, once the money was allocated to the states, the states had the responsibility to spend it how they wished, and many states have not spent it on prevention. The SCF does not represent payment to our state for Medicaid expenditures; it represents our state’s involvement in negotiating the settlement. C. Smoke-Free Ordinance: Debbie S. – This issue was brought up at the October 2007 Board of Health meeting. - Since then, Minnesota has fully implemented their smoke-free law, which is stronger than ND’s law; and most recently, Fargo and West Fargo passed ballet-initiatives that provide for 100% smoke-free workplaces. In order to get a state-wide smoke-free law passed, you need to have some major cities/communities/ counties pass laws before legislature will consider the matter. Last time around, all ND’s major cities were considering smoke-free laws, even though they exempted bars. The national trend now is to enact smoke- free laws that protect all workers, not just some. The Tobacco Coalition wanted to come to the BOH; revisit the topic, provide additional information, answer questions, and ask for the BOH’s support and leadership. There was a lot of inquires from the media and a few residents, after Fargo passed theirs, as to what the plan was for Grand Forks. - Discussion followed, with the BOH deciding to review a past resolution (attached) supporting this subject before making further decisions. D. Todd Hanson gave a tour of the Mosquito Control facility, and the Police and Fire Department Training Center. Board of Health Minutes July 10, 2008 Page 3 V. Next Regularly Scheduled Meeting – 4:15 p.m., Thursday, October 9, 2008, at Public Health conference room. VI. Other – None VII. Adjournment – A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 5:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, James Hargreaves, MD, Secretary by: Keith Westerfield Office Specialist, Senior Public Health Department Attachments: - Smoke-Free Fargo Billboard - BOH Resolution Supporting Smoke-Free Workplaces, April 14, 2005