SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Board of Health is currently looking at their town regulations regarding nicotine delivery products.
Currently, Southwick’s regulation states you have to be at least 18 years old to purchase a nicotine delivery product. Since the Massachusetts Tobacco Control considers vaporizers to be a nicotine delivery product, and have to be at least 21 years old to purchase it, the Southwick Board of Health wants to make sure that their regulations are matched up with vendors in town who sell nicotine delivery products.
Board of Health Director Tom FitzGerald. (WNG File Photo)
“We need to make sure that our present regulations have caught up with what vendors are doing,” said Board of Health Director Tom FitzGerald.
According to FitzGerald, he’s continuing to engage in discussions with the state’s tobacco control to get guidance from them. The Board of Health will also be working with the vendors in Southwick to make sure they’re aware of the current regulations.
In an effort to try and help prevent underage individuals purchasing nicotine delivery products from retail stores, FitzGerald has signed off on a tobacco control grant. Applying for the grant with the communities of West Springfield, Agawam, and Longmeadow, the grant would allow the board to have someone do compliance checks on vendors in town. The compliance checks include an undercover buy inspection where the retailer is unaware of the inspection that involves a minor and an inspector.
With compliance checks being administered by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), they monitor retailers, manufacturers, importers, and distributors of tobacco. If a tobacco product retailer fails a compliance check for their first time, they’ll receive a warning. If retailers fail multiple inspections, fees will start to rise for every failed inspection within a certain timeframe.
FitzGerald added that he should be getting a response very shortly on whether their application for the grant has been accepted or not.
