HEALTH

NEW HAVEN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Vol. XLIII, No. 7	July, 1916

This article excerpted from p. 3 of the issue.

The key to a year-round campaign for a clean city is to place the responsibility for sanitary conditions on all the people at all times.

Hold the tenants as responsible as the owner of the property for the condition of the house they live in, for the yard-front and back, for the sidewalk, for the halls, and the street directly in front of their house - that is, as to the rubbish and waste materials that go to make the Clean-up Week a necessity.

Have the citizens give the Department of Health their co-operation, see that it receives a financial support in per capita ratio to the size of the city, and make it compulsory to report all unsanitary conditions to the Board of Health wherever they exist an a violation of the law if not reported, holding those not reporting the conditions equally responsible with the ones causing them.

Next, teach the children in school the necessity of a clean yard, a clean cellar, clean hallway, and a clean sidewalk, showing them that these places, if allowed to get dirty and unsanitary, only mean sickness and disease to them and their brothers and sisters, and making pride in their homes an object to the children by a merit plan to be awarded by the Board of Health, or by a system of an honorary-mention report. This can be done with practically no expense, and as the child gets interested so will the parents.

Do away with the old-time unsightly and unsanitary ash-pits and manure-bins, compelling the owners of the property to provide: a metal can large enough to hold one week's ashes for every two families, one to hold empty tin cans, and one for garbage; a strong metal crate for papers and other inflammable materials, to be burned up three times a week or more often if necessary; a metal receptacle with a strong, close, wire cover for manure and large enough to hold one week's manure.

Then have these collected by the city in a systematic way at least once a week - I would strongly recommend twice a week - the garbage to be taken three times a week The regularity of these collections is very important.

Place on every street corner a receptacle to receive all rubbish and garbage, compelling the pedestrians to use them to throw waste into and not on the streets, under penalty of the law. Grocery stores, meat-markets, and every store which by the nature of its business makes a great deal of waste and garbage, must clean this away every day before closing up.

It is in the foreign and thickly populated sections of the cities, where the people do not speak or understand the English language, that the greatest efforts must be put forth and in a way that will make clear to them the importance of cleanliness. This can be shown by illustrations in their homes.

In all houses which are found to be in an unsanitary condition from whatever cause, after all efforts have been used and found wasted in an attempt to clean it up, some such placard as this should be placed, as for a contagious disease:

NOTICE

This can be a very effective weapon and can be so worded as to cover on one card all known unsanitary conditions; all but the unsanitary condition existing at any one place may then be blocked off on it. It can apply to the inside or the outside of the house, to the construction, to the class of tenants, to the yard, and in fact to anything that goes to make conditions unhealthy. The owner of the property will not care to have one of these signs on his house, nor will tenants, as no one cares to have such publicity concerning their homes. The result will be that those who are clean will quickly tell the proper authorities where the blame lies, then you have the individual and something definite to work on - in other words, you have the root of the evil.

You can also have placards of meritorious character, worded in such a manner as to recommend any one house or neighborhood. Here is a suggestion:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

The object of these signs is an appeal to the individual; one to shame him into keeping clean and the other a reward or incentive to keep clean at all times and not spasmodically.

It is the individual who must be taught or compelled to recognize the importance of every one's doing his or her share toward the prevention of unsanitary conditions and methods first in their own homes, and then in their neighbor's.

Unsanitary conditions arise from carelessness; but to overcome this carelessness it seems necessary to renovate human nature. Persons clean in themselves are invariably clean in their methods and habits, and vice versa.

This article was awarded first prize of $100 by Pictorial Review and published in its July issue, for the best suggestion on "How to start a Clean-up Campaign."