Borough of Towanda, PA Health

Every physician who shall know that any person requiring his or her services professionally is suffering from any of the above-named diseases, shall forthwith make report in writing to the Board of Health upon blanks to be furnished for that purpose by the Board. In case of smallpox, in addition to the card report, the Secretary of the Board of Health shall be immediately notified and he shall immediately notify the State Department of Health. Houses from which case of variola or varioloid are reported shall be placarded as smallpox. Houses from which cases of membranous croup or diphtheritic croup are reported shall be placarded as diphtheria.

The report personally signed by the physician shall be dated, and shall state the occupation, country nativity, age, sex, color, street address of the patient, the disease from which the patient is suffering, the date of onset, the name and occupation of the householder, the number of schoolchildren living in the house and the school attended.

Whenever any householder knows that any person within his family or household has a communicable disease, dangerous to the public health, he shall immediately report the same to the Board of Health, giving the street and number, or location of the house.

Quarantine.

Upon receipt by the Board of Health of a report of the existence of any of the following diseases, one or more placards bearing the name of the disease shall be placed in a conspicuous place or places upon the premises within which the disease appears, viz: mumps, chicken pox, cholera, diphtheria, German measles, measles, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis (spotted fever), scarlet fever, typhoid fever and whooping cough.

In the case of hotels and lodging, boarding or tenement houses, in addition to the foregoing provisions, a placard shall be placed upon or near all entrances to the apartment in which the sick person is located.

Absolute quarantine.

(a)

The following diseases require absolute quarantine: Bubonic plague, cholera, leprosy, smallpox, and yellow fever, and quarantine shall be continued until raised by an authorized agent of the Board of Health.

(b)

Absolute quarantine includes, first, absolute prohibition of entrance to or exit from a building or conveyance except by officers or attendants authorized by the health authorities, and the placing of guards if necessary, to enforce this prohibition; second, the posting of a warning placard stating the name of the disease in a conspicuous place or places on the outside of the building or conveyance; third, the prohibition of the passing out of any object or material from the quarantined house or conveyance; fourth, provision for conveying the necessaries of life, under certain restrictions, to those in quarantine.

(4)

Modified quarantine.

(a)

The following diseases require modified quarantine: epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever and relapsing fever.

(b)

Modified quarantine includes, first, prohibition of entrance and exit, as in absolute quarantine, except against certain members of the family authorized by the health authorities to pass in and out under certain definite restrictions; second, the placing of a placard as before; third, isolation of patient and attendant; fourth, prohibition of the carrying out of any object or material unless the same shall have been thoroughly disinfected.

(c)

The wage-earner only is allowed, under modified quarantine to continue work, provided he at no time comes in contact with the patient, and that he has an outer room set apart where he can change his outer clothing and disinfect exposed surfaces.

(d)

In permitting householders and wage-earners to continue work when cases of diphtheria, scarlet fever, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis (spotted fever), measles and German measles appear on the premises, it shall be understood that such person shall not be employed in an establishment maintaining the production, sale or manufacture of fabrics, candy, food products, or cigars. If so employed, he shall have the privilege of leaving the premises after taking an antiseptic bath and having his clothes disinfected and shall thereafter remain away from the premises up to the time of the recovery of the last patient and the disinfection of the household.

(e)

Failure to observe the rules of modified quarantine will result in an absolute quarantine over the whole household.

(5)

Period of quarantine. The period of quarantine in cases of diphtheria shall be 21 days from onset, of scarlet fever 30 days from onset; but no case shall under any circumstances be released until the physician has certified in writing that desquamation has entirely ceased; of smallpox 30 days from onset, to which shall be added in each case such additional time as may be necessary in the opinion of the attending physician, for the complete recovery of the patient.

(6)

Additional quarantine regulations.

(a)

Members of any household in which chicken pox, mumps or whooping cough exist, shall abstain from attending places of public amusement, worship or education, and as far as possible from visiting other private houses.

(b)

The head of a family occupying any house, apartment or premises, or the proprietor of any hotel, boarding, or lodging or tenement house upon or near which placard or placards are placed, shall not remove, deface, cover up, or destroy such placard or placards, nor shall other persons unauthorized by the Board remove, deface, cover up, or destroy such placard or placards, and if through accident, atmospheric conditions or other agencies said placard or placards are destroyed, removed, or defaced, the householder or proprietor shall at once notify the Board of Health of the fact.

(c)

No person shall let or hire any house, or room in a house, in which a communicable disease, dangerous to the public health, has recently existed, until the room or house and premises therewith connected have been disinfected to the satisfaction of the Board of Health; and, for the purposes of this subsection, the keeper of a hotel, inn or other house for the reception of lodgers shall be deemed to let or hire part of a house to any person admitted as a guest into such hotel, inn or house.

(d)

Premises on which are located any of the following diseases will not be placarded or quarantined unless there are unusual conditions which require it for the protection of the public health, viz: erysipelas, hydrophobia, pneumonia, tuberculosis, puerperal fever, tetanus or trachoma.

(e)

Upon the removal to a hospital or other place or upon the discharge by recovery or death of any person or persons who have suffered from anthrax, bubonic plague, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis (spotted fever), cholera, diphtheria, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus fever, leprosy or tuberculosis, the premises where said disease existed, together with the bedding, clothing and other articles exposed to infection, shall be disinfected by the Board of Health.

(f)

No child or other person belonging to or residing with the family or any person residing in the same house in which any be located who is suffering from cholera, smallpox (variola or varioloid), scarlet fever, typhus fever, yellow fever, relapsing fever, diphtheria (diphtheritic croup, membranous croup) or leprosy shall be permitted to attend any public, private, parochial, Sunday or other school in said municipalities and all principals, Sunday-school superintendents or other persons in charge of such schools, are hereby required to exclude any and all such children and persons from said schools, such exclusion to continue for a period of 30 days following the discharge by recovery or death of the person last affected in said house or family, or his or her removal to a hospital, and the thorough disinfection of the premises, and all such children or other persons as aforesaid, before being permitted to attend or return to school, shall furnish to said principal or other person in charge of said schools a certificate signed by the medical attendant of said children or persons, or by a physician to be designated by the health authorities of said municipalities, setting forth that the 30 days mentioned in this subsection have fully expired; provided, however, that the health authorities may by rule or regulation provided that such certificate shall only be given by a person to be designated by such authorities and in such case no other certificate shall be recognized.

(g)

No child or other person who is suffering from epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis (spotted fever), whooping cough, measles, German measles, mumps or chicken pox shall be permitted to attend any public, private, parochial, Sunday or other school; and all principals, Sunday-school superintendents or other persons in charge of such schools are hereby required to exclude any and all such children and persons from said schools prior to the receipt of a certificate of disinfections issued by the Health Officers following the receipt of the physicians certificate of recovery and request for disinfection. Other persons living in households where the diseases mentioned in this subsection exist may be readmitted to school at the end of 21 days from the date of onset of the disease, if well, and if they have not been exposed to the sick for that length of time, provided they present a certificate of disinfection issued by the Health Officer.

(h)

Pupils actually affected with the following diseases shall be excluded from school during the existence of the disease and shall be readmitted upon the physicians certificate attesting to the recovery of the patient, viz: tonsilitis, scabies, pediculosis capitis, pediculosis, corporis, tinea circinata, impetigo contagiosa, favus, acute contagious conjunctivitis, trachoma and erysipelas.

Vaccination against smallpox.

All directors, principals, superintendents, teachers or other persons in charge of schools as aforesaid are hereby required to refuse admission of any child to school under their charge or supervision, except upon a certificate signed by a registered physician setting forth that such child has been successfully vaccinated or that it has previously had smallpox; provided, however, that where two unsuccessful attempts at vaccination have been made and certified to by a physician, the child before being admitted to school shall be vaccinated without cost, by or in the presence of the physician of the Board of Health or someone deputized by the Board for that purpose.

Following such an attempt, even though unsuccessful, an order shall be issued on vaccination form No. _____ by physician of the Board of Health or the deputy, requiring the admission of the child to school, such order to be valid for the period of one year only; provided, further, that in case the attending physician certifies that the physical condition of the child is such as would render the performance of vaccination injurious or unjustifiable, the physician of the Board of Health shall examine the child, and if in the opinion of the physician of the Board of Health vaccination is inadvisable, an order shall be issued by him on vaccination form No. _____, requiring the admission of the child to school, such order to be valid for the period of one year only.

§ 30-13 Burial.

The body of a person who has died of any of the diseases requiring absolute or modified quarantine[1] shall not remain unburied for a longer period of time than 36 hours after death, unless special permission be granted by the health authorities extending the time during which said body may remain unburied for special and satisfactory cause shown. The head of the family, and the person or persons having charge of the funeral of such body, shall be responsible for any violation of the provisions of this subsection.

[1]

Editor's Note: See § 30-16C(3) and (4) of this chapter.

All services held in connection with the funeral of the body of a person who has died of any of the diseases requiring absolute or modified quarantine, must be private, and the attendance thereat shall include only the immediate adult relatives of the deceased and the necessary number of adult pallbearers, and any advertisement of such funeral shall state the cause of death. The head of the family and the person or persons having charge of said funeral services shall be responsible for any violation of the provisions of this subsection.

Every undertaker or other person who may have charge of the funeral of any dead person shall procure a properly filled out certificate of the death and its probable cause, in accordance with the form prescribed by the State Department of Health; and shall file the same with the local registrar and obtain a burial or transit permit thereon, at least 24 hours before the time appointed for such funeral; and he shall not remove any dead body until such burial or transit permit shall have been procured.

Except by special permission from the State Department of Health, no interment of any human body shall be made in any public or private burial grounds unless the distance to the top of the box containing the coffin or casket shall be not less than four feet from the natural surface of the ground; and with the further exception that stillborn children and children less than four years of age, dead of any disease other than anthrax cholera, diphtheria, leprosy, smallpox, scarlet fever, tetanus, typhoid fever, typhus fever, or yellow fever, shall be buried at such a depth that the top of the box containing the coffin or casket be not less than 3 1/2 feet from the natural surface of the ground.

§ 30-14 Milk regulations.

No person or persons, firm or corporation, shall sell milk or cream in the Borough of Towanda without first, annually before the first day of June, making application to the Board of Health, which application shall set forth his, her or their names or name, together with the location of their route or place of business, and the name of the owner of and the location of the dairies from which they obtain said milk or cream, and such other information relating to the care of said dairy and the production and care of milk and cream as may be deemed necessary by said Board of Health, said application to constitute an agreement between the applicant and the Board of Health for faithful compliance with all the rules and regulations of said Board, and obtaining from the Board of Health a license to carry on such business, which license shall be issued without charge and shall be displayed in every store or wagon from which said milk or cream is sold.

Each and every person or persons peddling milk or cream in the Borough of Towanda shall have the wagon or other vehicle from which milk or cream is sold, enclosed, conspicuously marked, in plain letters not less than three inches high with his, or her or their name or names and the number of the license under which said milk or cream is sold.

No milk or cream shall be sold, offered for sale or distributed in the Borough of Towanda unless each and every animal in the herds from which said milk or cream is obtained shall have been examined within one year, by a regularly licensed veterinarian to the satisfaction of the Board of Health, and said veterinarian shall furnish to the owner or owners of said herds a certificate, on blanks to be furnished by the Board of Health, which certificate shall be sworn and subscribed to before a duly authorized Magisterial District Judge.

No person or persons, firm or corporation, shall offer or expose for sale, sell or have in their possession with intent to sell in the Borough of Towanda any milk or cream, buttermilk, or skimmed milk, to which has been added borax, boracic acid, salicylate of soda, benzoate of soda, formalin or formaldehyde, or any other chemical, compound or foreign substance whatsoever, including ice or water. The percentage of fats in milk is not to be less than 3% and that of cream not less than 15% and vessels or cans containing buttermilk or skimmed milk must be plainly labeled as such.

No milk shall be sold or handled by any person or persons in whose family or residence there is a case of smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis (spotted fever), measles or other communicable disease that may be disseminated by milk or its products, nor from any dairy or premises on which such diseases exists, except by permission of, and in the manner prescribed by, the Board of Health, and in accordance with the rules and regulations of the State Department of Health, and it shall be the duty of every person having charge or control of any premises upon which cows are kept to notify the Board of Health of any such disease on the premises.

No milk or cream shall be sold or exposed for sale in the Borough of Towanda except from cows kept in light, dry and well ventilated stables and in all other respects in conformity with the requirements set forth in the following rules:

Each cow shall have at least three feet in width of floor space, when fastened in stanchions, and in cases where no adequate artificial means for ventilation are provided, each animal shall have an air space of at least 500 cubic feet.

Milk drawn from cows fed on distillery waste or any substance in a state of fermentation or putrification or any unwholesome food shall not be kept, sold or offered for sale in the Borough of Towanda. This rule not applying to strictly first-class ensilage subject to approval of the Board of Health.

All stables for shelter of said cattle shall be provided with a tight, dry floor. The manure drop shall be watertight, and if constructed of wood shall be asphalted, tarred or otherwise made nonabsorbent.

(4)

The wall and ceilings of said stables shall be clean and free from dirt which might fall into the milk at the time of milking.

(5)

Manure shall not be allowed to accumulate in large quantities in stable yards, nor near the buildings where the cattle are kept, and when stored temporarily in such places it shall be removed, at least once a week, to a distance of at least 25 feet from said stable. The stable yards shall be drained and kept in a clean, dry condition, and no accumulation of household garbage, vegetable or other putrescible matter shall be allowed to remain or decay in said stable yards.

(6)

Cattle, especially their udders and flanks, shall at all times be kept in a clean condition, and the udders shall be wiped dry and clean with a clean, damp cloth before milking, at which time the foremilk shall be discarded.

(7)

No milk or cream shall be sold or offered for sale or distributed in the Borough of Towanda, obtained from any cow that has calved within five days, or from a cow which will calve within 21 days, or from a cow which has not been duly tested once every three years for bovine tuberculosis.

(8)

The icebox or cooling tank must be cleaned out at least twice a week.

No milk or cream shall be sold or exposed for sale in the Borough of Towanda except from cattle fed and watered under proper sanitary conditions and all food given shall be good and wholesome and the water supply pure and free from all contamination by stable or household drainage.

All milkers and other attendants employed in any dairy, the milk or cream from which is sold or offered for sale or delivered in the Borough of Towanda shall be personally clean and healthy, and before milking or caring for the milk or cream, their hands shall be washed and their clothes changed and a clean suit, to be used for this purpose only, shall be put on and worn during milking time.

All milk pails, cans and other receptacles used for the production and transportation of milk and cream shall be of some nonabsorbent material and shall, before each use, be thoroughly washed with water and soap, or soda, and then scalded with boiling water or live steam, thoroughly aired and kept upside down in a cool place, and they must not, under any circumstances, be rinsed with cold water, unless the same have been previously boiled before using.

No milk or cream shall be kept for sale or distributed or handled, transferred to or from cans and bottles, or stored, in any stables or similar places, or in any room used wholly or in part for domestic or sleeping purposes.

Milk or cream shall be stored or regularly mixed, cooled or poured from cans, only in a room not directly connected with a stable or stables, provided with a tight floor, and kept constantly neat and clean, the walls of the room being of such a nature as to allow easy and thorough cleaning, and the room being of such size and construction as to prevent probable contamination by dust, noxious gases, infections, organisms or anything liable to impair the quality of such milk or milk products.

No water closet or privy shall be in the aforesaid room nor in any room connected directly therewith, nor shall dogs or cats or other domestic animals be allowed in these rooms at any time.

Whenever milk or cream is filtered or strained, cooled, or stored in a room, said room shall be such as is described in Subsections J and K of this section.

No person or corporation shall deliver or bring into the Borough of Towanda for sale, any milk or cream, unless such milk or cream is contained in a can or container sealed with a metal seal by the shipper thereof and unless such can or container shall have such seal intact at the time it is brought into the Borough.

Milk or cream kept for sale in any store, shop, market, bakery, hotel, restaurant or other establishment shall be always kept in a covered cooler, box or refrigerator, properly drained and cared for and while therein shall be tightly covered or closed, and only in such location and under such conditions as shall be approved by the Board of Health.

All vehicles from which milk or cream is sold in this Borough shall, during the months of June, July, August and September, be equipped with iceboxes, which shall be of sufficient size and kept thoroughly clean, and when said vehicles are in use, shall be kept full of ice, and the temperature of said milk or cream shall at all times be kept at or below 50° F. during the whole year.

All cans, bottles or vessels of any sort used in the sale delivery or distribution of milk or cream to the consumer must be clean and must be sterilized, boiled, baked, scalded or steamed by the dealer before they are again used for the same purpose, and bottles must not be filled with milk or cream except at the dairy or milk depot from which distribution is made.

No metallic or permanent card tickets shall be used in connection with the sale or distribution of milk or cream in the Borough of Towanda, but instead thereof a coupon ticket shall be employed, and such ticket shall be cancelled and destroyed after being used once.

Under no circumstances shall a milk or cream dealer in the Borough of Towanda, or his or her employees, take from a house within which any of the diseases mentioned in Subsection E of this section exist any money, tickets, cans, bottles, etc., or enter such a house for any purpose whatsoever without written permission from the Board of Health.

Whenever any of the diseases mentioned in Subsection E of this section becomes epidemic in the Borough of Towanda, as adjudged by the health authorities, the use of milk bottles and such other containers as are left on consumers premises by milk dealers or their employees shall be discontinued within the Borough of Towanda until such time as existing health conditions warrant the permission of the health authorities to resume their use. Both the householder and the milk dealer will be held responsible for any violations of this regulation.

All previous rules and regulations of the Board of Health governing the production and sale of milk and cream are hereby repealed.

§ 30-15 Food regulations.

All fruits, fish, fowl and meats exposed for sale in this Borough shall be screened from flies.

No putrid or decaying vegetable, fruits, fish, shellfish, game, poultry or meat, or any meat that is unwholesome or otherwise unfit for human food, shall be sold or exposed for sale within this Borough.

No person shall within this Borough offer for sale or sell any article of food which is adulterated. The term "food" as used herein shall include all articles used for food or drink by man, whether simple, mixed or compound. An article of food shall be deemed to be adulterated within the meaning of this regulation:

If any substance has been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce, lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.

If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article.