The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1917-12-03
EAST CHICAGO HEALTH BOARD
HEAD MAKES A REPORT

The following article by President j.
r Mcouaid. of the East Chicago board
or health was read before the city
sanitation meeting of the East Chi
caso chamber OF commerce. held at the
Phillips hotel, last Wednesday noon
In view OF the present agitation in
regard TO our situation ana the atti-
tuds of the state board of health rela-
tive thereto, the statements contained
in this erticle are Of timely interest.
Mr.. McQuade spoke as follows
Housing.
in the past week the board of health
has made brief investigation of
housing in East Chicago. In this in
vestigation the technical points of the
housing statutes are overlooked and
violations considering only overcrowd-
ing and living in cellars were consid-
ered. Every tenement that was in
spected with the state hoard of health
two weeks ago and termed as bad by
them has been included.
Practically every instance OF viola
ton of the housing law has been where
adults have been crowded into sleep
ing rooms. Thus twelve beds in one
room doing service day and night is not
unusual Tenements occupied by
families with perhaps a roomer or two
d1tions than the regular rooming houses
but rarely ever violate the housing law.
1T was found that in IL tenments
not violating the housing law but in
which ignorance as to the rules of ny
eiene was prevalent there have been 20
deaths in the last four years only of
which were adults.
In tenements which are in viola
ton of the housing law and occupied
chiefly by adults there were 7 deaths
IN the last four years 5 of which were
adults. An analysts of this data shows
that a tenement house not overcrowded
according 20 the housing law and in
which children predominant has almost
twice as many deaths per tenement
house than the average tenement house
inyiolation of the housing law which
is populated by adults at a ratio of
approximately 10 or 90 adults to one
child.
aour adult death rate in East Chi
oago is 5.ss per 1000 population against
9.76 per 1000 for the registered area
of the L. s. Our infant death rate is
II per 1000 population whereas that
for the registered area is 50 per LOCO /
.Faoss such as the above help us in
setting at the base of the faults in our /
housing and the relative weight they
carry from q public health viewpoint. I
Infant Mortality.
Although the greater part of our
milk in East Chicago is SO called pas
teurized milk. nevertheless we face the
fact that a great deal OF the pasteuri- |.
zation is makeshift and as We now
stand the most of our milk supply IS
rHakeshift pasteurized and unpasteur /
ized The chief reason for having good
milk IS because it is, the universal food ]
he he va-
triotic duty of every board of health |
TO institute campaigns to save the baby. |
Increasing casualty lists have made the !
European nations take up this problem !
on a scale never before dreamed of. 1
ANY proposed action with regard to-
saving babies has double force in East
Chicago where little ones have
chances out Of OF reaching year of |
age instead OF . out Of 10 as the rest
Of the country averages. In the year
Of 1916 2Ss babies died before they |
reached the age Of one year. This
amounts to As per cent Of all our deaths |
in that year. ISL babies died before !
they reached the age of years Vu,cfi
was So per cent Of our deaths, for that !
YEAR. In other words considerably over 1
one-half of our deaths in East Chi |
cago are babies under years of age.
Water
I'm the annual report of this depart !
nent for the year Of 1915 il was esti-
mated that in the previous six and one |
half years typhoid fever had cost the
citizens of East Chicago S471,ooe. In !
this time there were $50 non fatal cases
and 10 deaths. In the year of 1916
alone there we're 214 non fatal cases
reported and g deaths giving cost
IF sf420 900 TO the afflicted community
not including the cost of water.
In an epidemic of typhoid fever
throughout the months of December of
1915 and January and February of 1917
there occurred 81 cases Of typhoid few
er. or these IS were investigated by
the department * Of these patients
used tap water admittedly. had had
cases of typhoid in family within one
year. II of the cases were housed I'M
der unsanitary conditions such as de-
fective plumbing or dirty houses. 10,
including the above seven had had
cases or typhoid in family previously
THE distribution of cases among the
dairies was uniform enough to place
no blame upon any or the milk
dealers.
Although four Of these cases would
not admit the use of tap water the fact
remains that it was used for cooking
purposes. washing vegetables. brushing
the teeth and so forth.
Further evidence along the same
Tine was obtained during the month Of
April when the former epidemic had
entirely cleared up. From approx
niately April 9th to the 10th Lake
Michigan was visited by one Of the
worst storms in its history and the
water as pumped into the mains con-
tanned an amount of filth which no
reasonable amount of chlorine could
dlsinfect. Exactly two weeks later re-
ports of cases Of typhoid started com
ing in until a total of rs cases were
reported within few weeks time. The
water tested fairly satisfactory after
April 10th and in the month OF June
there was not cost of typhoid fever
reported. Nay fourth the board of
health ordered the amount of chlorine
added to the water to be doubled and
with the exception Of days when the
supply Of chlorine on hand ran out.
approximately pounds of chlorine per
million gallons of water were added for
time. The laboratory tests for sew
age bacteria under this treatment have
been very consistently negative. The
Water co,rpauv iS now adding 4 pf