A Letter from the City Engineer’s Office to the Chairman of the Board of Health concerning public health and the need for municipal sanitation
City Engineer’s Office
Halifax, NS
Nov. 28 1893
Chairman,
Board of Health.
Sir,
In compliance with your request, I gave as much attention as possible during my recent absence to the different problem of Municipal Sanitation which your Honorable Board are called upon to solve.
The most important question now before the Board is house drainage and Plumbing. The importance of sewers in relation to the health of the City cannot be contested. It is generally concluded that a system [illegible] […] necessitates a system of drainage and that sanitation is important. It is also a well-known fact that disease often follows sewer construction to districts where it has never broken out before. Investigations almost invariably show defects in the plumbing work, the most important part of the drainage system. The business of the plumber is of as vital importance to the family as that of the Physician, and more so, as the plumber’s work when properly done is preventative while the physician’s is curative. Householders call in their physician when disease breaks out and obey his instructions trusting him implicitly because they can see the direct consequences of such a course. The same may arise in reference to domestic sanitation, yet he [the plumber] is not believed because it is human nature to doubt everything but the evidence of one’s own senses. Some sanitary conditions are within the control of private citizens, but if they neglect to protect themselves and their neighbours all conditions should be within the scope of the Board whose paramount duty is to [protect] public health. In all Towns and cities in America [illegible] […] regulations have been or are being adopted and [pg 2 overleaf] health laws are introduced regulating the practice of house sanitation. The introduction of such regulation has been opposed in Halifax principally by the Landlords [.] […] [illegible]
Of 182 houses inspected last year on complaints, not a single one was found in a Sanitary condition and nearly every one was dangerous to health. With one or two exceptions, the City plumbers favor the introduction of rigid regulations and are willing and ready to do good work in accordance with our requirements. The principle objection of those who opposed the adoption of the rules recommended by the Board was that the weight of the pipe required was much greater than there was any necessity for, and that our weights were copied from Boston and New York where the conditions were not the same. I obtained a copy of the rules from each Health Department and find on comparison that every City and Town visited has adopted the same standard known as extra heavy. It is the same as in the large cities. The following statement shows the weight as specified in the Halifax rules compared with that required in Boston, Newton, Cambridge, Lowell, New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, and other cities and Towns all over the United States. […] [pg 3] The plumbing rules now before the Council provide for the removal of all closets which cannot be placed in a sanitary condition, but do not require the removal of all hopper closets, as is generally supposed. There is a hopper closet in my own house, and I consider it as good, if not better, than some of the improved closets. The use of pan closets is prohibited everywhere. The following clause is copied from the plumbing regulations of Osweg, New York State, a town of 22, 000 population. ‘Pan closets and all closets having mechanical or moving parts which come in contact with filth are strictly prohibited.”
There are similar clauses in the ‘Sanitary Codes’ of every City and Town adopting plumbing and the clause given below is taken from the Ordinances of Washington.
‘All water closets and privies connected with any house, building or premises within the District of Columbia, in and upon which people live or assemble or any kind of business is done, kept in an uncleanly and foul condition, and from which offensive smells and noxious gases arise, and all water closets located within and being a part [pg 4] of any such house or building not provided with proper sewage traps so as to prevent the return and escape of noxious gases and of offensive odors from any public or private sewer connected therewith, are hereby declared to be a nuisance injurious to health; and any person granting, keeping or maintaining such nuisance after due notice served upon him by this Board to abate the same within 24 hours or within such reasonable time as may be determined by this Board, shall upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars and may be fined five dollars for each and every day such nuisance is allowed to continue unabated.
It would be advisable to add to this clause to our Sanitary Code as it just fits several cases which we have not been able to reach.
[…]
In most Cities a Section of the ‘Sanitary Code’ provides that ‘No privy vault will be allowed on premises where there is a main sewer in the street.” Section 508 of our City Charter empowers the City Health Board to abolish these receptacles of filth where ever there is a [page 5 blank although it looks as though it might once have contained text as a few words still appear and the text does not follow a logical sequence on page 6. Document this. ]
[pg 6]
Already the efforts of the City Health Board are being endorsed by the tenant, and persons about to rent a house apply to the Department for a report on the sanitary conditions of the premises before taking it. A house to house inspection should be made and a record kept at the Health Office of detailed reports of the results covering the condition of every sink, water closet and other fixture, plumbing, cellar, cesspit and conditions and methods of disposal of garbage and refuse. In the City Engineer’s Office we are keeping plans showing all house connections and records of all permits. The plumbing permits and plans will show, therefore, the character of the work done and the date.
All this work could be referred to in the record kept in the Health Office and any particular information required could readily be turned up if properly filed. The public would soon awaken to the value of such a record open to inspection in a public office, and the result would more than justify the extra time and work necessary to accomplish it. A copy of the rules and regulations of the Health Department of the City of New York is attached hereto. It contains the regulations and instructions for inspectors and also shows the system of filing reports, complaints and other documents which may be of some service.
[***Subsequent pages of the letter deal with garbage etc. and its disposal. Some of this material has been rendered largely illegible. Ends on page 9]
Respectfully submitted, F.W.W. Doane.
