Welcome to the City of Newton, Massachusetts

The mission of the Newton Health Department is to promote physical and mental health and to prevent disease, injury, and disability in the City of Newton. We will accomplish this through leadership in assessing health status, promoting health education and disease prevention services, controlling health risks, coordinating community resources, and advocating for a healthy community. We value providing responsive, professional service to the city.

The role of public health departments across the nation changed in October of 2001 when anthrax spores coursed through the nation’s mail. Health departments had been preparing for a hypothetical bioterrorism occurrence, however the events of 2001 made these preparations real. The Newton Health Department strengthened its close relationships with the city’s public safety departments and the Newton-Wellesley Hospital. The department also drew upon its well-established relationships with health departments from surrounding communities to create a regional bioterrorism task force. Much of the groundwork for biological and terrorism preparedness that began in FY02 will carry into FY 03 and well beyond. The department is responding to the call to improve the nation’s public health infrastructure.

The health department worked with the city’s Integrated Pest Management Committee and the East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project to develop an environmentally sound mosquito control program to prevent West Nile virus. Street catch basins were treated with a bacterial larvacide, Vectolex, which survives only when mosquito larvae are present. No mosquito spraying took place in FY 02. The department worked with the Metro-West Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) to conduct an education campaign to promote using repellents, maintaining screens, and eliminating breeding sites around the house. A similar response is planned for FY 03, unless there is a change in the prevalence of the virus.

Rabid skunks, raccoons, and bats were found in Newton during FY 02. The department worked with the Police Department’s Animal Control Division to control the spread of rabies from wildlife to people and pets. The department also conducted rabies immunization clinics for dogs and cats in cooperation with local veterinarians and the Brookline Health Department. Nearly 300 pets were immunized in the clinics held in FY 02.

The Newton Health Department provides school health services in the Newton Public Schools. In FY 02, the school health rooms saw 112,996 student and 2,071 staff visits. FY 02 also marked the third year of an Enhanced School Health Services grant funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The grant paid for nurses and health room equipment for both public and non-public schools.

The grant also funded the purchase of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) for the two high schools. AEDs were placed at Newton North in the spring and are anticipated at Newton South in the upcoming school year. The health department coordinated this project with the school staff, emergency medical services providers, and others to address the essential components of a public AED program, such as training and EMS integration.

Massachusetts’s law requires that students be properly immunized in order to enter public school. In FY 02, the department’s school physician worked with the pediatrics department of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital to formalize a mechanism that connects students, who do not have a pediatrician and are not properly immunized, with a health care provider. The hospital also enrolls eligible families in the Children’s Medical Security Plan. The purpose of this program is to reduce the amount of lost school time.

The health department took a leading role in responding to indoor air quality (IAQ) concerns in FY02. Department personnel investigated IAQ matters in three elementary schools and two municipal buildings. The department oversaw the remediation of problems in two schools. The department also actively participated in construction planning for the two high schools in order to prevent IAQ or other health problems. The department hopes to hire a graduate student in FY 03 to conduct IAQ surveys in the schools as well as assist with training faculty and staff in preventing IAQ problems.

The department’s environmental health division responded to 151 housing complaints in FY 02 and conducted 25 lead paint inspections. Department staff also reviewed plans and monitored construction of a housing development. It will explore developing regulations to regulate power sanding of lead paint for FY 03.

FY 02 was the first year that the expanded state food code was in full effect. This code specifies the number of times a restaurant or market is inspected, which is based on the level of risk. For example, restaurants that prepare large quantities of food from raw products are in the highest risk category and need to be inspected four times each year. The environmental health division staff inspected food service establishments in accordance with the new state regulations in FY 02. The new code also required all establishments to have employees formally trained in safe food handling by October 2001. The department sponsored a series of training seminars to assist establishments in meeting this requirement.

 

The health department participates in the SmokeFree Communities Project, which is a collaboration of five area communities that share staff to develop and enforce tobacco control regulations. This project conducted quarterly compliance checks of tobacco merchants. The stores in Newton had over ninety- percent compliance with city ordinances regulating tobacco sales. The project is working with neighboring communities in a campaign entitled "Clean Air Works!" Participating communities will have municipal ordinances or by-laws to protect workers from second hand smoke in the workplace.

Emergency preparedness, especially for a biological event, will be a major focus for the department in FY 03. The national effort to improve local public health infrastructure will take many years and will have lasting benefit to those served by the Newton Health Department. Indoor air quality concerns will continue to arise as environmental science improves and the city’s buildings age. West Nile virus prevention will be an on-going public health issue of controlling the mosquitoes that carry the virus with the least impact on human health and the environment. Funding for the state health department was cut drastically for FY 03 and the cuts will have an impact on the demands on and the resources available to the Newton Health Department.

The performance measurements the department has set for FY 03 are: planning for infrastructure development and bioterrorism preparedness, tracking food service inspections, developing school health data management applications, and tracking staff training and education needs.

 

J. David Naparstek

Commissioner of Health