SBOH - Environmental Health Committee
(September 14, 2020)

Monday September 14, 2020 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Washington State Board of Health (SBOH) Logo

The Washington State Board of Health (SBOH) was established by the state constitution in 1889 to provide leadership and advance public health practices that protect and improve the public’s health. It is a separate entity from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) although the Secretary of Health sits on the Board and the SBOH leverages DOH facilities.

https://sboh.wa.gov/Meetings/MeetingInformation

Observations

Committee members learned that “health burdens related to tobacco and vapor products” would remain one of the agency’s top four legislative priorities for the next two years.

  • Washington State Board of Health (SBOH) Executive Director Michelle Davis spoke about progress drafting the agency’s biannual State Health Report (audio - 5m), a description of “proposed priorities for the Governor for the upcoming legislative session.” Davis expected to have a draft of the report for board members to review prior to their October 13th meeting.
  • The second priority was “a focus on health burdens related to tobacco and vapor products, which has also been a focus of past reports.”
    • The 2018 report section on “Improving Health By Decreasing Use of Tobacco and Vapor Products” stated: “With the changes in smoking options, the Board has begun using the generic term ‘smoking’ to include exposure to all forms of inhaled products, including tobacco, vaporized products with electronic devices, and marijuana smoking. This more comprehensive terminology is important because all sources of inhaled substances have an adverse effect on health, which worsens with long-term use.”
  • Following approval by the Board, the Report would be submitted to the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) “for its review and approval, and once we have that we’ll submit it for publication.”

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