WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Board of Health on Tuesday approved final language for a local bylaw restricting the sale of nitrous oxide and asked the town's health inspector to start enforcing a ban on smoking tobacco products in apartments that was passed at last year's annual town meeting.

 

The N2O bylaw was developed by the board this year in response to testimony from resident Danielle Luchi. Luchi informed the board in December that the compound, often referred to as laughing gas, was being sold without regulation in town and likely was being used for recreational purposes prohibited by state law.

 

Luchi recommended — and the board agreed — that the town enact regulation modeled on an ordinance enacted in the city of Northampton last year.

 

The language reviewed by the board limits nitrous oxide sales in town to "kitchen supply stores" or "medical supply stores." Currently, the town has no businesses operating in those categories.

 

Anyone else selling N2O would be subject to fines for the first two offenses and potential criminal prosecution on a third offense.

 

At Tuesday morning's meeting, a noticed public hearing on the proposed regulation, the board made a couple of changes to the draft bylaw it developed with Health Inspector Ruth Russell.

 

Acting on feedback from town counsel, the Board of Health agreed to amend the fine structure for the N2O regulation to bring it in line with existing penalties in, for example, the section of town code dealing with tobacco sales.

 

In the original draft, the nitrous oxide bylaw set fines of $300 for the first and second offenses. As amended on Tuesday, those fines will be $100 for a first offense and $200 for a second offense.

 

"In the case of 3 or more violations or repeated, egregious violations of any section of this regulation, the selling of nitrous oxide will be reported as a criminal offense," the draft bylaw reads.

 

The board instructed Russell to make the amendments it discussed and bring the bylaw back for enactment at the body's April 27 meeting.

 

The board Tuesday also reversed its earlier decision on phasing in implementation of the anti-smoking bylaw town meeting approved last May.

 

In February, the board instructed Russell to let a public information and education plan play out before moving into an enforcement phase that would begin on May 1.

 

William Raymond, who drafted the ban on smoking and vaping in apartment houses with more than four units and submitted it to town meeting via citizens' petition, was back before the board on Tuesday morning.

 

Raymond said he was told by the town clerk that the new bylaw was actionable as soon as it was posted in the town code, a move that was made this winter, following a lengthy review by the Attorney General's Office in Boston.

 

Board of Health Chair Devan Bartels told Raymond that the panel at its February meeting decided to target May 1 for the start of implementation. Bartels reminded Raymond that he attended that February meeting.

 

"The intent of having a grace period was that tenants and management companies would have a chance to internalize this and make behavioral change," Bartels said. "By giving people a chance to understand the regulation and respond appropriately … we would have a large impact.

 

"If that is not effective, enforcement begins. And that begins in about a month."

 

Raymond, who repeatedly cited his disputes with his Stratton Road neighbor in last year's discussion about a proposed townwide bylaw, again brought that neighbor into the conversation on Tuesday. This time, he made assertions about the neighbor's health that normally would be out of bounds in a public meeting in making the argument that said neighbor, who was not named, would not stop smoking without enforcement of the bylaw.

 

"This is a chronic problem," Raymond said. "It's not going to go away without repeated fines, probably. … I'm just asking you guys to say, 'Hey, we realize this is a tricky problem.'

 

"I'm hoping there can be, with incisive, crisp focus, the quickest way to get this matter resolved so it doesn't drag on for months."

 

Bartels recognized that Raymond had been patient as the bylaw process — and later state review — played out. But after Russell confirmed that the ordinance is enforceable, Bartels agreed the time had come to take action.

 

"Just to finalize the enforcement piece and when we should begin that — I don't want to be in violation of the law," Bartels said. "If the code, when it's published, becomes the time that it's enforced, I think that's appropriate. I didn't know that. So the spirit of this, 'persuading people through information and education' … maybe we should just move into enforcement."

 

"I say go for it," board member Wendy McWeeny added.

 

Without taking a new vote, the other board members tacitly agreed with the approach of implementing enforcement immediately.

 

In other business on Tuesday, the board heard that five town-owned air-quality sensors are running and providing data from sites around town and got an update from Russell on an enforcement action on a four-unit condominium on White Oaks Road.

 

The Department of Public Works shut off water at the structure a little more than a year ago because of burst pipes, and the town is looking into condemnation but has had trouble serving notice on the owners of the units, Russell said.

 

Russell also announced that for the second year, the town will have five air-conditioning units available to income-qualified seniors through a grant from the New England Rural Health Association.

 

"I think April 13 I was going to formally get the applications out," Russell said. "It will go live on both [the Board of Health and Council on Aging] websites so people can apply. It likely will be first-come, first-served again."