Sudbury Board of Health adopts body works regulations with $600 permit fees

SUDBURY — November 19, 2023 — Sudbury Board of Health adopts body works regulations to close a trafficking enforcement gap. The board voted 3-0 Tuesday to adopt the regulation and set $600 permit fees for both individual practitioners and establishments, matching the town's existing body art fee structure. Police Chief Scott Nix told the board the department has worked two prior cases believed to involve sex trafficking and has a third active investigation, calling the facilities ones that "often go under the radar." Health Director Vivian Zhang added a Massachusetts-licensed physician's letter requirement after learning from Hudson and Waltham that trafficked workers had been cleared with New York physician letters under looser rules. Member Susan Sama prompted an edit replacing "fitness" with "appropriateness" in Section 5.12. Separately, Zhang reported four non-fatal overdoses since August, compared with seven for all of 2022.