TCC Minutes
Thursday, February 11th, 2011
9:30 AM, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, 4th Floor

I. Refreshments, Welcome, and Introductions

II. Massachusetts Health Council, Susan Servais
• A private organization that aids in helping communities with prevention education for illness and improving general health literacy. It studied childhood obesity in the state, the studies contributing to the creation of a bill to ban junk food sales in schools in Massachusetts.
• Distributed a guide on the trends in the preventable determinants of health, of which there is a two page executive summary of social, economic, environmental, and health risk behavior indicators in the state. Current issues include: access to care, alcohol, asthma, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitus C, education, obesity/overweightness, oral health, poverty, tobacco, and violence.
• Website is www.mahealthcouncil.org

III. Tufts/ACDC Asthma Project Report, Alex Zhang and May Chin
• Reported that 25% of the Quincy School has been reported to have asthma, either by the school nurse or parents, in comparison to rates of 12-34% in other Boston schools and 11% statewide.
• Issues include older housing stock, air pollution, and smoking/second hand smoke.
• Established an asthma prevention and management initative by being a resource to clinicians, performing direct community outreach, health fairs, and staff development workshops.
• A home visit program was initiated for qualifying participants.
• Future improvement could be in community engagement and establishing requirements of affordable housing.

IV. Asian YES Smoking Cessation Project
• A program of providing free nicotine patches by distributing ‘buckslips’ that have information, bilingually in Chinese/English to those who want to quit smoking and qualify for the program.
• A number of ‘buckslips’ were distributed at the meeting to attendees for distribution in the community.

V. Asian Health Initiative, Sherry Dong
• Distributed form detailing grantees for 2011 for Tufts Medical Center’s Asian Health Initiative.

VI. Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health, Doug Brugge
• An organization that assesses the particulate count in the air of areas near highways.
• Completed a study of Somerville, presently studying in Dorchester/South Boston, and will be starting in Chinatown in June.
• Surveys will be performed and there will be clinics for collecting biodata. There will also be a van for collecting particulate count.

VII. Boston Tree Party, Lisa Gross
• Barbara Rubel presented in lieu of Lisa Gross. Boston Tree Party is a non-profit program that involves planting pairs of apple trees to create stronger future generations of trees as a form of education and greening communities. For more information, visit: http://www.bostontreeparty.org/

VIII. Announcements, Updates, and Kaffeeklatsch

Preview of next meeting’s topics

CNC Safety Committee Report, Barbara Rubel

Next Meeting: Thursday, March 10th, 9:30 AM @ BCNC 4th floor Conference Room