JOSEPH A. ROUSE
WESTFIELD- The Board of Health approved a local anti-choke regulation which will require any establishment serving food for on premises consumption to have a person certified in choke-saving procedures.
The new local regulation becomes effective in June. Health Department inspectors will require proof of certified training of employees when performing food service inspections.
Health Director Joseph A. Rouse said that he requested the Health Board to approve a stricter local regulation than the current state law which only requires restaurants with a seating capacity of 25 or more patrons to have trained staff.
“Under the existing state law, food establishments with 25 or more seats have to have a person certified in anti-choke training,” Rouse said. “Under the local regulation amendment all on-premise food serving establishments would be required to have staff certified. The board approved the local regulation, which goes into effect on June 1, 2014, at its Jan. 8th meeting.”
The Massachusetts Department of Health approves the procedures, known as the Heimlich Maneuver and the Sequence of Obstructed Airway Maneuvers, as recommended by the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences under 105 CMR 605.
Rouse said the choke prevention issue is “something I had been considering bringing to the Board (of Health) for several years, but that got accelerated when a resident called to relate an incident in a restaurant where a patron was choking and no one employed by the restaurant was able to perform choke-saving procedures.”
Rouse said that state legislature is now considering an amendment to state law, sponsored by Rep Ruth Balser (D) of Newton, to strike the seating capacity requirements.
Currently the state law (MGL, Chapter 94, Section 305-D) reads:
“Section 305D. Each restaurant, having a seating capacity of twenty-five persons or more, shall have on its premises a device approved by the department of public health that is designed and intended for use in removing food which may become lodged in a person’s throat or each such restaurant shall have on its premises, when food is being served, an employee trained in manual procedures approved by the department of public health to remove food so lodged in a person’s throat. The department of public health shall adopt regulations listing all approved devices and manual procedures which it determines may be used effectively to remove food lodged in a person’s throat. Each such restaurant shall make adequate provisions for insurance to cover employees trained in rendering such assistance. Any person, or employee of any person who, in good faith, volunteers to remove or attempts to remove such food in an emergency shall not be liable for any civil damages as a result of any acts or omissions by such person or employee in rendering such emergency assistance.”
Rouse said the amendment sponsored by Balser “is very similar to what we did.”
Balser’s bill would amend Chapter 94 of the General Laws is by striking out section 305D and inserting the following section:-
“Section 305D. Each restaurant shall have on its premises, when food is being served, an employee trained in manual procedures approved by the department of public health to remove food lodged in a person’s throat. The department of public health shall adopt regulations listing all approved manual procedures which it determines may be used effectively to remove food lodged in a person’s throat. Each such restaurant shall make adequate provisions for insurance to cover employees trained in rendering such assistance. Any person, or employee of any person who, in good faith, volunteers to remove or attempts to remove such food in an emergency shall not be liable for any civil damages as a result of any acts or omissions by such person or employee in rendering such emergency assistance. Take-out only restaurants, so-called, with no customer seating on the premises, shall not be subject to this section.”
