Health Director Shaun McAuliffe told the Board of Health on Monday night that his department is prepared to adopt new regulations on purchasing nicotine products.

“My proposal is to adopt or update our existing tobacco regulation to include the Nicotine-Free Generation,” said McAuliffe.

McAuliffe referenced the proposed Nicotine-Free Generation (NFG) bill, which would introduce a birth cutoff date to the sale of tobacco and nicotine products. The regulations the Health Department looks to enact, if adopted, would set the cutoff date at Jan. 1, 2005.

The NFG initiative is one of McAuliffe’s priorities for fiscal year 2025. His department is focused on reducing the use of nicotine products by teenagers and younger children. Long term, the Health Department looks to use this regulation and other measures to restrict access to a number of nicotine products.

It also hopes to “reduce the sale of lozenges and other nicotine products that are not sold under prescription,” McAuliffe added.

The regulation, which still is in development, would follow other measures on nicotine products in town in recent years. In 2022, the Health Department amended its policies on violations for selling tobacco or vaping products to minors.

The board’s discussion on Monday provided a brief overview of the regulation and the process required to adopt it. According to McAuliffe, a public hearing would be required before the board could put the matter to a vote, provided there were “no issues.”

McAuliffe appeared optimistic about implementing the regulation.

“I think this really puts Hopkinton in a good place,” he said, as it “continues our efforts to reduce nicotine use [in town].”

He noted that tobacco use by minors has dropped in town. A report shared with the Independent that was compiled by the MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey shows that from 2006-23, tobacco use dropped from above 30% to below 10%. Cigarette smoking is close to zero, while electronic vapor product use has fallen to around 6-7%.

In a follow-up interview, McAuliffe attributed these drops to a mix of programming and monitoring in the school system. Technology such as vape detectors in the high school bathrooms is helping to curb use by students.

Board members agreed to review the proposed regulations and come back to McAuliffe with questions or concerns at the next meeting.

Health Department, schools ‘moving forward’ on illness reporting

McAuliffe reported to the Board of Health that his department and the School Department have been working together to stay on top of reporting student illnesses.

“We’re all moving forward,” he said.

McAuliffe’s report to the board follows concerns over outbreak reporting in the Hopkinton Public School system. This prompted a response from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, McAuliffe claimed. The state agency recently has conducted webinars and released new reporting forms to streamline the illness reporting process.

The School Department has cited lack of adequate reporting by parents of sick children and limited access to certain diagnostic tools and databases in any compliance gaps with MDPH nursing requirements. Both HPS and the Health Department highlight communication as an issue.

McAuliffe said some communication issues have been smoothed out over recent weeks. “Everybody’s been communicating better,” he said.

“It’s really important for us to be working closely with our municipal partners to get an idea of what’s going on in the schools and the community at large so we can implement programming,” McAuliffe added. “I think we’ve accomplished that and are all moving forward in a positive direction.”