The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-04-14
Bills to Come Up
Before Legislature
| For Protection of
Public Health
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH HAS A
NUMBER OF MEASURES THAT
SHOULD BE ENACTED INTO
LAWS

Tallahassee, Fla, April 1.-THE
State Board of Health will
ask from the present legislature the
enactment of several laws for the
protection Of public health in Flor
ida and to aid the splendid cam
paign of education concerning sani-
tation and hygienic matters.
The drafts of these bills have
been placed in the hands of the pre-
siding officers of the two branches
Of the legislature, with the request
that they be referred to the proper
committees for consideration and ac-
tion. They are the following:
A bill requiring that every per-
son operating a hotel, boarding
house, restaurant or lunch counter,
shall keep all doors and windows
and all similar openings into din
ing rooms. kitchens and the passage
ways leading thereto, screened; re-
quiring that food which is to be
eaten without cooking, shall be
screened at meat and butcher shops,
markets, groceries, fruit stands,
bakeries or wherever such food is
exposed for sale, and that no dining
or buffet car shall be operated in
the state without being screened
in other words, that all food that
does not require to be cooked before
being eaten. shall be protected by
wire netting of a mesh sufficiently
small to prevent access by flies.
A bill requiring that all earth
closets, used for the deposit of hui
man excreta shall be screened and
shall be constructed and maintained
in conformity with plans approved
by the State Board of Health.
A bill requiring that all school
buildings, public or private, shall be
provided with adequate toilet facili-
ties. In rural Districts where sewer
age systems do not exist, all clos
cts shall be of fy-proof construction
in accordance with plans recon-
mended or approved by the State
Board Of Health.
A bill providing that 1t shall be
lawful for common carriers, includ-
ing railroads operating in Florida.
to grant free transportation to the
State Health Officer, the assistant
State Health Officers and all agents
and employees of the State Board Of
Health, when travelling in connec-
ton with the business Of the Board.
A bill authorizing the State Board
of Health to gather information
concerning the causes. nature and
extent Of communicable diseases, to
secure and equip q car or cars con-
tanning information by charts, mod
els or other exhibits relating to
public health sanitation, and n.y.
eiene, and permitting railway COM
panies to furnish and transport
such car or cars without charge for
the purpose, and to permit the
Board Of Health to receive from in
dividuals, counties, cities and towns
contributions to further the pur-
poses Of such education.
A bill creating Bureau of Vital
Statistics and providing for the reg
istration of birth and death; pro-
viding for the appointment of a
State Registrar with local registrars
and deputies, fixing their duties and
compensatoins: providing that the
State Board of Health have the pow.
er to accept, publish and enforce
rules relating to the notification Of
sickness and of statistics of mar.
riages and divorces. and requiring
reports of vital statistics from ply.
sicians, mdwives, underthkers and
lothers.
A bill authorizing the State Board
of Health to purchase or. at its dis
erection, to establish a plant for the
protection of hog cholera serum
which is to be furnished at cost t.
farmers and swine owners in Flor
ida. 1t will be noted that one o.
these bills, when it becomes a law
will call for cent Of appropriation
from state funds. The expenses en-
= tailed in the preparation and opera
tion of the Health Train" outsid,
of the transportation proposed to b
furnished by the railroad companies
and that of the hog cholera serum
plant, are to be met from the fund
Of the State Board, which, by Law
are already provided by one-hal
mill tax on all assessible property il
the State.
The first three of these bills pro
vide for the enforcement in publ,
places Of ordinary rules of cleanli
ness. which every careful and wis
housekeeper insists upon in her owl
home. When 1t is realized that one
half Of the rural schools of tn,
state are not provided with toile
facilities of any description, al
good Floridians blush with sham
and cease to wonder why hookworn
affects nearly three-quarters Of tn
pupils in these schools.
The two bills next mentioned ar
intended to facilitate the work O
the state Board of Health. As law
actually rpon the statute books o