INSPECTION OF DAIRIES.

During the month of June, 1907, 232 dairies were examined in the following places:

Total number of dairies examined, .

Number found to be free from objectionable conditions,

Number to which letters were sent,

Total number of conditions to which attention was called, .

Percentage of dairies which passed inspection,

The names of the owners of the dairies found to be worthy of com

HEALTH DISTRICTS AND STATE INSPECTORS OF HEALTH.

The Legislature of 1907 passed the following act:

[CHAPTER 537.]

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HEALTH DISTRICTS AND THE APPOINTMENT OF INSPECTORS OF HEALTH.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1. The state board of health shall, as soon as may be after the passage of this act, divide the Commonwealth into not more than fifteen districts, to be known as health districts, in such manner as it may deem necessary or proper for carrying out the purposes of this act.

SECTION 2. After the division aforesaid has been made, the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall appoint in each health district one practical and discreet person, learned in the science of medicine and hygiene, to be state inspector of health in that district. Every nomination for such office shall be made at least seven days prior to the appointment. The said state inspectors of health shall hold their offices for a period of five years from the time of their respective appointments, but shall be liable to removal from office by the governor and council at any time.

SECTION 3. Every state inspector of health shall inform himself respecting the sanitary condition of his district and concerning all influences dangerous to the public health or threatening to affect the same; he shall gather all information possible concerning the prevalence of tuberculosis and other diseases dangerous to the public health within his district, shall disseminate knowledge as to the best methods of preventing the spread of such diseases, and shall take such steps as, after consultation with the state board of health and the local state1 authorities, shall be deemed advisable for their eradication; he shall inform himself concerning the health of all minors employed in factories within his district, and, whenever he may deem it advisable or necessary, he shall call the ill health or physical unfitness of any minor to the attention of his or her parents or employers and of the state board of health. SECTION 4. The state inspectors of health shall be under the general supervision of the state board of health and shall perform such duties other than those hereby imposed upon them as the said board from time to time shall determine. They shall keep a record of their proceedings and observations, shall annually make a report of the same to said board on or before the thirty-first day of October, shall from time to time furnish said board with such information as it may require touching circumstances affecting the public health in their respective districts, and shall in every instance where

1 This is the phraseology of the bill as enacted. In its original form, the expression used was "local health authorities" (House Bill 1408), but in its next form the word state was substituted, probably through inadvertence.

written suggestions are made by them to the local authorities send copies of such suggestions to said board.

SECTION 5. The state inspectors of health shall, under the direction of the state board of health and in place of the inspection department of the district police, enforce the provisions of section forty-one of chapter one hundred and four of the Revised Laws so far as said section provides that factories shall be well ventilated and kept clean, sections forty-one, forty-four and forty-seven to sixty-one, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and six of the Revised Laws, chapter three hundred and twenty-two of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and two, chapter four hundred and seventy-five of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and three, chapter two hundred and thirtyeight of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and five, and chapter two hundred and fifty of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six; and the powers and duties heretofore conferred and imposed upon the members of said inspection department of the district police by section eight of chapter one hundred and eight of the Revised Laws in respect to the foregoing sections and acts, and in respect to all acts in amendment thereof or in addition thereto, and in respect to any other laws, are hereby conferred and imposed upon said state inspectors of health or such other officers as the state board of health may from time to time appoint: provided, however, that neither said board of health nor any inspector thereof shall have authority to require structural alterations to be made in buildings, but shall report the necessity therefor to the inspection department of the district police. Wherever in said provisions of law the words "inspector" or inspectors of factories and public buildings", "inspection department of the district police", "inspector" or "inspectors of the district police ", "district police", "factory inspector or "inspectors", and member" or members of the district police" occur, they shall be taken to mean state inspector or inspectors of health. Wherever the words "chief of the district police" occur, they shall be taken to mean the state board of health.

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SECTION 6. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, shall establish the salaries of said state inspectors of health, having regard in each district to the extent of territory, the number of inhabitants, the character of the business there carried on, and the amount of time likely to be required for the proper discharge of the duties. The salaries thus established shall be paid from the treasury of the Commonwealth monthly.

SECTION 7. There may be expended out of the treasury of the Commonwealth annually, for the purposes specified in this act, for salaries, a sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, and for other expenses, a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars.

SECTION 8. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act the state board of health may employ from time to time experts in sanitation. SECTION 9. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved June 19, 1907.

The chapters and sections referred to in section 5 are presented below in their amended form:

RELATIVE TO LIGHTING, VENTILATION AND CLEANLINESS OF FACTORIES. Revised Laws, Chapter 104, Section 41 ("so far as said section provides that factories shall be well lighted and kept clean "), as amended by Section 2 of Chapter 503 of the Acts of 1907.

All factories and workshops shall be well lighted, well ventilated and kept clean.

Revised Laws, Chapter 106, Sections 51–53.

(Factories and workshops shall be adequately ventilated, and, if necessary, mechanical appliances therefor shall be installed.)

SECTION 51. A factory in which five or more persons and a workshop in which five or more women or young persons are employed shall, while work is carried on therein, be so ventilated that the air shall not become so impure as to be injurious to the health of the persons employed therein and so that all gases, vapors, dust or other impurities injurious to health, which are generated in the course of the manufacturing process or handicraft carried on therein shall, so far as practicable, be rendered harmless.

SECTION 52. If, in a workshop or factory which is within the provisions of the preceding section, any process is carried on by which dust is caused which may be inhaled to an injurious extent by the persons employed therein, and it appears to a state inspector of health that such inhalation would be substantially diminished without unreasonable expense by the use of a fan or by other mechanical means, such fan or other mechanical means, if he so directs, shall be provided, maintained and used.

SECTION 53. A criminal prosecution shall not be instituted for any violation of the provisions of the two preceding sections unless such employer neglects, for four weeks after the receipt of a notice in writing, to make such changes in his factory or workshop as shall be ordered by a state inspector of health.

Acts of 1903, Chapter 475.

(Emery wheels and belts and buffing wheels and belts shall be provided with hoods, suction pipes and fans or blowers, for the protection of employees against dust.)

SECTION 1. Any person, firm or corporation operating a factory or workshop in which emery wheels or belts or buffing wheels or belts injurious to the health of employees are used shall, within three months after this act takes effect, provide such wheels and belts with a hood or hopper connected with suction pipes, and with fans or blowers, in accordance with the provisions hereinafter contained, which apparatus shall be placed and operated in such a manner as to protect any person or persons using any such wheel or belt from the particles or dust produced by the operation thereof, and to convey the said particles or dust either outside of the building or to some receptacle so placed as to receive and confine the said particles or dust.