After multiple board discussions and an ongoing public hearing process, the Board of Health stands poised to add Needham to the growing list of communities in Massachusetts that have instituted a generational tobacco ban.
The board indicated at its Oct. 8 meeting that, once it has fully vetted the language, it is likely to pass a regulation at its November meeting that would ban the sale of tobacco and vapor products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2004.
Tim McDonald, Needham’s director of health and human services, said there are six retailers, all convenience stores or gas stations, that would be affected by the regulation.
It was 21 years ago that Needham, through the Board of Health, became the first municipality in the country to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 years old. That 2003 regulation spurred the Tobacco 21 movement that has made the 21-year age minimum a national standard.
In 2020, Brookline took the lead on an even more aggressive anti-tobacco measure. It is an “age-gated” approach that originated in New Zealand and has been gaining traction in Massachusetts with impetus provided by the Tobacco-Free Generation movement. Brookline’s regulation bars the sale of tobacco and vapor products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2000.
The draft regulation cites multiple reasons for enactment. It includes a litany of statistics on the negative health impacts of tobacco smoking and adds an emphasis on the need for steps to prevent youths from adopting smoking and becoming addicted before their brains have fully developed.
The board had discussed the merits of the policy at three of its meetings this year before opening a public hearing at its Sept. 5 meeting. That hearing featured testimony from multiple proponents of the policy and a lone dissenter. The board also received written comments both before and after the hearing.
Several medical doctors offered testimony, including pediatricians Jonathan Winickoff and Needham resident Lester Hartman. Winickoff, a Harvard Medical School faculty member who practices at Massachusetts General Hospital, read from a letter they submitted to the board.
“We’ve treated many hundreds of young patients suffering from tobacco use disorder that negatively affects their developing brains and robs them of their agency and too often the opportunity to enjoy the natural vitality of youth,” it read.
“If a young person makes it to the age of 26 tobacco-free, they have a less than a 1% chance of ever getting trapped by their tobacco addiction,” Winickoff said of the importance of restricting access to tobacco products.
Alex Weatherall, a Sherborn convenience store owner and president of the New England Convenience Stores and Energy Marketers Association, made a personal liberty argument and noted the negative impact on local businesses.
He warned that the regulation would move the products from the regulated open market to unregulated black and gray markets where product quality and safety could not be guaranteed. He also questioned the efficacy of the regulation in reducing youth smoking.
The public hearing was continued to the Oct. 8 meeting, where the board once again heard a preponderance of testimony on behalf of the regulation. Proponents included Maureen Buzby, Melrose’s regional tobacco inspection coordinator. Communities in Buzby’s region —Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield and Winchester — all have adopted an age-gated policy.
Regulations are also being considered in Concord, Peabody, Lexington, Northampton, Belmont, Marlborough, Somerville, Townsend and Belchertown.
Buzby alleged that tobacco companies target youth and have shifted tobacco-delivery mechanisms away from traditional cigarettes and toward other electronic nicotine-delivery systems (vape pens, e-cigarettes). She also offered examples of non-tobacco nicotine products such as pouches that are consumed by placing a pouch of powdered tobacco leaves or powdered non-tobacco plant fibers under the lip for nicotine to be absorbed.
The board also heard from Mark Gottlieb, executive director of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern Law School, who successfully represented Brookline before the state Supreme Judicial Court when a group of local store owners appealed the Brookline regulation.
That SJC ruling affirmed the authority of local boards of health, saying the right “to engage in business must yield to the paramount right of government to protect public health by any rational means.”
“We believe that this policy creates healthier communities by gradually ending the sale of tobacco products without affecting a single retail customer who can be sold tobacco products today,” Gottlieb said.
The board will reopen the hearing at its Nov. 22 meeting, when it is expected to vote on its adoption.
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