Smyrna times., 1925-11-25
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GIVES
APPROVAL DELAWARE OYSTERS
ANALYSIS SHOW BIVALVES OF
DELAWARE STREAMS CLEAN
Packers Generally Are Living Up to
Government and State Regulations
Reports DIR. A. 7. Davis, Inspector

OONSIHIncHI anu OtdIe Negotiations
Reports DR.. A. T. Davis, Inspector
Delaware oysters, as far as the beds
in Delaware Bay are concerned, are
o. K, according to the result of the
analysis of the water covering the
beds and the bivalves are concerned.
The analysis was made at the labora-
tory of the State Board of Health at
Dover and DR.. Arthur T.Davis, execu-
tive head of the State Board of Health
has announced that he was very hap
py to make such news public. 81
never suspected that there was any
thing wrong with the BEDS" said DIR.
Davis, "but the government Public
Health Service sent H. L. Old. an as
sOciate engineer here to make the ex-
animation. Mr.. Old obtained samples
of both water and oysters from the
beds in Delaware Bay and we made
the tests here in Dover in our own
laboratory. The results are all that
we could hope for. While there was
some pollution shown in the water,
it was negligible as far as being a
menace to health and there was no in
dication of any contamination from
sewage pollution, which is always enc
of the greatest hazards in this con-
nection." DIR. Davis recently received
from Mr.. Old copies of the report he
had submitted to the United States
Public Health Service regarding his
examination of the oyster beds of Del
aware Bay. In the reports he sets
forth some of the little discrepancies
which now exist about packing houses
where oysters are opened and canned,
but they are all matters of detail and
of no great consequence with the ex-
ception of two.
Mr.. Olds suggests to DR.. Davis that
the State Board of Health now pro
ceed to issue permanent certificates to
eleven of the thirteen canneries To-
Gated in Delaware The two to which
certifcation is withheld, are plants
that have not been made to conform
to government and state health stand
ards. As soon as the proprietors
make the changes these plants will be
certified to. Until they do make the
changes, the houses cannot sell oys-
ters out of Delaware and only to Del
awareans or persons they may meet
in this state.
In the list of details to which the
United States Public Health Service
calls the attention of some of the oys-
ter packers is the use of wooden tubs
and vessels. The government health
regulations demand that all such uten-
sils about an oyster packing plant
shall be of metal and not wood, be-
cause wood cannot be sterilized. Some
of the canneries have not yet cOmplet-
ed arrangements they have under way
for the installation of standard sani-
tary cOnveniences for the employees
Others have not a sufficient supply OF
have not yet put into stringent effect
regulations calling for personal clean
liness of their employees. The danger
Of nail contamination from filthy anC
soiled hands is referred to, but all o
these details will be put into effect b!
all the houses, or else they will en-
danger the permit they have obtained
to pack oysters.
Each month the oysters being can
ned will be examined to detect at ono
any foreign contamination that ma
have crept into the oyster canning
house. In this way the monthly re
ports will indicate how the packer
are living up to the government an
state regulations.