Letter: Change in Tobacco Sales June 1, 2020

To the Editor:

I want to remind people that starting June 1, 2020, flavored tobacco, including menthol cigarettes like Kools and Newports will no longer be sold in Massachusetts.

Last fall, the Fight All Flavors campaign and many supporting partners worked to build grassroots understanding of and support for a proposed flavored tobacco restriction with an explicit focus on building youth leadership and calling out the tobacco and nicotine industry's targeting of menthol in communities of color.

The tobacco and vaping industries have targeted youth, LGBTQ populations and communities of color with their deadly products, causing many health consequences for these populations specifically. Flavors, like mint and menthol, are a leading reason that young people start vaping and using tobacco.

The law, which goes into effect on June 1, 2020, means that:

• Menthol cigarettes and all other flavored tobacco products like flavored cigars, flavored chewing tobacco, and flavored e-cigarettes and nicotine vaping products will no longer be widely available in Massachusetts.
• E-cigarettes and nicotine vaping products will increase in price.

I'm excited to see that No Menthol Know Why is an extension of that work; they are working with community-based organizations, youth advocates, public health and health care partners, local health departments, churches, regional Tobacco-Free Community Partnership programs, and more to reach out to and support the communities most impacted by the new law. I want to build awareness about the law and provide information about the resources available to help people quit smoking.

You can help spread the word in your community. Visit NoMentholKnowWhy.org to learn more, to share your menthol story and to find tools and resource to share.

For information about how the law will be enforced visit mass.gov/NewTobaccoLaw. Help for those who want to quit vaping, smoking or using other tobacco products is available for FREE at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) and KeepTryingMA.org.

Contact Joyce Brewer by email at jbrewer@berkshireahec.org to learn more about the law, how you can support people in quitting and to find out how you can partner with us.

Joyce Brewer is the program manager for the Berkshire Tobacco-Free Community Partnership, a program of the Berkshire Area Health Education Center headquartered in Dalton. Contact her at 413-842-5160 or at jbrewer@berkshireahec.

North Adams Hopes to Transform Y Into Community Recreation Center

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Thursday, May 02, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey updates members of the former YMCA on the status of the roof project and plans for reopening. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has plans to keep the former YMCA as a community center.

 

"The city of North Adams is very committed to having a recreation center not only for our youth but our young at heart," Mayor Jennifer Macksey said to the applause of some 50 or more YMCA members on Wednesday. "So we are really working hard and making sure we can have all those touch points."

 

The fate of the facility attached to Brayton School has been in limbo since the closure of the pool last year because of structural issues and the departure of the Berkshire Family YMCA in March.

 

The mayor said the city will run some programming over the summer until an operator can be found to take over the facility. It will also need a new name. 

 

"The YMCA, as you know, has departed from our facilities and will not return to our facility in the form that we had," she said to the crowd in Council Chambers. "And that's been mostly a decision on their part. The city of North Adams wanted to really keep our relationship with the Y, certainly, but they wanted to be a Y without borders, and we're going a different direction."

 

The pool was closed in March 2023 after the roof failed a structural inspection. Kyle Lamb, owner of Geary Builders, the contractor on the roof project, said the condition of the laminated beams was far worse than expected. 

 

"When we first went into the Y to do an inspection, we certainly found a lot more than we anticipated. The beams were actually rotted themselves on the bottom where they have to sit on the walls structurally," he said. "The beams actually, from the weight of snow and other things, actually crushed themselves eight to 11 inches. They were actually falling apart. ...