Letter: Raising Age for Nicotine Access Save Lives

Letter to the Editor12:30PM / Monday, July 07, 2025Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

Nicotine Free Generation (NFG) is a statewide proposal to very, very slowly raise the age that licensed nicotine dealers are permitted to sell to young people. For example, a town might change the minimum age from 21 to "those born before January 1, 2026." My own town successfully adopted NFG in December. Over 500,000 Massachusetts residents already live in NFG municipalities.

I spoke last week in support of NFG, and pointed out the seamless implementation in my community. My 14-year-old grandson said about one-third of his peers smoke or vape or suck on addictive nicotine pouches. For all of them, their distribution is illegal. Widespread breaking of the law is obviously a bad lesson for our young people.

Boards of health need to weigh a tiny reduction in nicotine sales to the near-certainty that enacting NFG will save many lives. For most of us, protecting public health is the reason we serve.

Ken Elstein
Belchertown, Mass.

Elstein is a member of the Belchertown Board of Health. Belchertown was the first community in Western Massachusetts to adopt nicotine-free generation regulations last year. The Pittsfield Board of Health has been considering NFG regulations.

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EPA, GE Conducting Vernal Pool Study on Housatonic River

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
11:44AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A pilot study will determine the best way to remediate PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, from vernal pools in the Housatonic River.

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric held an open house for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border. Despite the rain, several people attended the event at the Berkshire Athenaeum.

EPA project manager Josh Fontaine explained that it is an evaluation of which remediation method to use for the remaining vernal pools in Reach 5A.

"We're going to be testing two different methods. One is an excavation method, which we already know has been very successful with another vernal pool cleaned up much earlier in the project," he said.

"And then the other is the application of two different carbon amendments. It would be the application of powdered activated carbon and the application of granulated activated carbon."

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned using these methods: five with excavation and five with active carbon; seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

Fontaine said there is no frontrunner for methodology.

"We know the excavation method is effective, but we would like to see if the less invasive method of using the amendment will be as effective for potential use," he said.

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