Newtown Health District Director of Health Donna Culbert has announced new regulations that will be adopted this year.

“We have worked on this for a while,” Culbert said this week. “We started preliminarily and then the pandemic took a front seat to our efforts.”

The Health District implements and enforces the CT Public Health Code and the Newtown Sanitary Code to protect and promote the public health and the environment.

“Our existing codes are a bit outdated now; they were a strong line in the sand for us in the early days of our work when the CT Public Health Code didn’t have the level of detail it does now,” Culbert said.

Health District staffers Laurel Shaw, director of environmental health; Suzette LeBlanc, food service inspector; and Maureen Schaedler, administrative assistant, worked on the regulations, getting them in shape and form for public review and ultimate adoption. The proposed regulations update the codes the Health District had previously adopted and also include important newer areas that require regulation.

Two of the regulations are updates and codify existing codes: the Newtown Sanitary Code and the Food Code. The others are new; they establish the requirements defined in the CT Public Health Code and how they are to be administered locally.

Sanitary Regulation: This regulation is an update from the Sanitary Code that was originally adopted in 1983 and revised in 1995. Its regulatory focus is private water supply and wastewater disposal.

Food Establishment Regulations: This regulation is an update from the Food Code that was originally adopted in 1995. Its regulatory focus is restaurants, food service establishments, mobile food establishments and temporary food events.

Personal Care and Cosmetology Establishment Regulation: This is a new regulation for the Newtown Health District. Its regulatory focus is on hair salons, barbershops, nail salons, massage establishments, and esthetics.

Public Pools: This is a new regulation for the Newtown Health District. Its regulatory focus is on pools at public facilities.

Tatoo and Body Piercing Establishments: This is a new regulation with focus on tattooing, body piercing and sanitation and health and safety.

The draft regulations can be viewed at the Newtown Health District website. Visit newtown-ct.gov/newtown-health-district, then click on Proposed Newtown Health District Regulations (top blue button along the left side of the page).

Tanning Facilities:

This is a new regulation with a focus on sanitation, health, and safety.

The Health District will be communicating directly with the establishments and entities affected by the new regulations, sharing the posting publicly, and receiving questions and comments through January 19.

Questions and comments should be submitted to health.district@newtown-ct.gov. They will then be forwarded to the appropriate staff.