##VIDEO ID:5JCtqmEMCtc## uh good afternoon and welcome to the Westport Board of Health August 5th 2024 meeting which I'm calling to order um under Mass General Law chapter 30A section 20f this meeting is being recorded um and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance fles stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice I will note today for the record that Donna Amaral is absent so just be Phil Weinberg and myself Tanya Ryon um and we're going to start right off the bat with a presentation from the public health nurse Linda Pierce on healthy eyes take it away afternoon I'm the public health nurse Linda Pierce from the town of Westport and this month I'm doing healthy Vision tips eat right to protect your eyes eat a well balanced diet including those rich in vitamin A green leafy vegetables taale spinach coll greens Swiss chai sweet potatoes carrots pumpkin mangoes papayas fish liver eggs and milk it can help to prevent Immaculate degeneration and cataracts it helps filter out powerful w r that cause free radicals damage to the eyes have you ever seen a bunny wear get moving exercise giv you a healthier body weight which can help to prevent diabetes that can lead to vision problems speak up if your vision changes has your vision become blurry do you squint a lot wear your glasses they help your vision especially when they are clean and free from smudges and store them properly when they can are not used to prevent scratching in lenses keep germs away wash your hands when touching your eyes or putting in or removing your contact lenses wear protective eye gear when playing sports mowing the lawn or using any chemicals many eye injuries can be prevented with better safety habits we area sunglasses that block out 99 to 100% of both UVA and UVB never look directly at the Sonic give your eyes a break do you spend a lot of looking at the computer the phone or the TV screen give your eyes a rest every 20 minutes for about 20 seconds say no to smoking it can lead to blindness does anyone in your family have issues with their eyes talking about Eye Health with your family can help you all stay healthy then the next things I have is about ticks and mosquitoes so summer time is tix and mosquitoes Triple E and West n are out there it's been reported in Asbury grov land alifax Kingston Edington Middleboro weam Whitman Rochester Bridgewater Lakeville and pl mosquitoes are out there from D to Dawn when temperatures are above 50° humidity and contains with water are Source from thees to lay their eggs wear long sleeves and on pants with socks and spray your body with a repellant that contains deep signs and symptoms of West M are fever headache body aches n vomiting rash swollen lymph nose and sometimes it takes four to 10 days after the bite Triple E can have fever stiff neck headache fatigue swelling of the brain and it can be fail when you're out in the yard or hiking wear long pants with socks long sleeve shirts when working outside spray yourself with any type of repellent check your body for ticks when you're checking your body for ticks look under your arms in and around your ears inside your belly button back of the knees in and around the hair line between the legs and around the waist if you're taking your dog for a walk make sure you tuck your dog you know ticks can get on us we don't even realize it they drop off and all of a sudden they're climbing into our bedroom so examine the pets um if you have a black dog sometimes it's a little bit hard luckily I have a white dog so it would show right up and and you should also be giving them tick repellent um to keep them safe shower with hours from coming indoors and it has shown that it can reduce the risk of getting Lyme disease it may affect the disease there's also inline disease you have your borella you have your babsia and you have your um anaplasmosis which if not treated can really affect some of your organs so it's very important you feel that you have any signs and symptoms at all seek out medical help has anybody got any questions well the the one comment I wanted to know is or get feedback on is the use of is it Permethrin to spray on your clothes yes and they also have clothing with that on it it will take a couple of times that you can wash them and another thing is if you do come from outside throw your clothes in the dryer for a good 10 minutes the will kill T that oh okay that's that's good to know yeah I didn't know that yeah because it's really hard in this temperature to like to put your socks over your pant EGS and all those things you're supposed to do so I'd rather be able to spray something on them just keep them away yes you know but I mean it it's just you know it's Common Sense again and and you could be cognizant of what's around you um this humidity is really bringing in the mosquitoes and and the ticks and you know yard the deer have been eating and the bunnies have been eating everything which I don't care about but they also bring ticks and so um you know have to keep safe um there's so many things when I do do any inspections with the different PLS of the lime disease people sometimes poo poo it and they don't go to the doctor till two weeks well you're already two weeks that you should have been getting some medication because it can affect your H you can go into a fib it it it's so many things that can happen that people don't take into account that can really be something they'll carry for the rest of their Liv so yeah so then my next blood drive is on August 29th at Whit of Westport it's going to be from 2m to 7 p.m. if you want to donate please register online at the American Red Cross and thank you for listening and I hope that some lens thank you very much slenda always appreciate it um do you want you want to do all M or you want to do your report first I can do my report first okay just one go ahead um okay so um just an update that uh the uh dph reported 15 Triple E positive mosquito samples uh from bille and Plymouth counties risk levels in the region are now elevated um dph also reported 48 West Nile Virus mosquito samples collected uh this season personal protection measures are recommended due uh due to the early season uh abov virus detections and above average mosquito Vector populations across the state all this humidity and rain that believe God it just really um increased the population of mosquitoes and the ticks so with the FY 25 state budget which was signed by the governor on July 29th the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection will finally have um dedicated funding to explore how best to ensure safe drinking water from private Wells the agency will receive $100,000 to conduct a study and make recommendations for for a Statewide program to ensure that drinking water from private Wells is safe to consume this study represents an important step forward in developing a Statewide drinking water program for private Wells to ensure that all Massachusetts residents have access to Safe Water and there's a full press release that can be viewed at www whatsin yourwell water.org for SL private dwells d study- press- relase for slash uh as Linda mentioned the blood drives are scheduled for the summer they will be held at Whit at Westport from 2: p.m. to 7:00 p.m. the next one being August 29th and the one after that for September 19 and um August 31st 2024 is international overdose awareness day which I will hand off to Olive to speak about thanks Matt hi everyone um I'm Olive wersi I'm the shared services coordinator for the South Coast Public Health collaborative um so some more information about International overdose day just for everyone's awareness um it was started in 2001 in Australia and it's the world's largest campaign to end overdose remember without stigma those who have passed away and acknowledge the grief of the and friends that are left behind um so really they want to provide an opportunity for people to publicly mourn loved ones in a safe environment some for the first time without feeling guilt or shame to provide information about the issue of fatal and non-fatal overdose to send a strong message to current and former people who use drugs that they are valued and to inform people around the world about the risk of Overdose um so there are EV happening all throughout the world all throughout the country all throughout the state of Massachusetts um the ones that are closest to us here in Westport are there's an event on in Dartmouth