OARD

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A STATE BOARD OF

HEALTH.

CHAPTER 322, LAWS OF 1880.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

State Board

how con

stituted.

SECTION 1. Within twenty days after the passage of this act of Health, the governor shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, three State commissioners of health, two of whom shall be graduates of legally constituted medical colleges and of not less than seven years' practice of their profession. The said commissioners, together with the attorney-general, the superintendent of the State survey and the health officer of the port of New York, who shall be ex-officio members of the State Board of Health, and three other persons to be designated and appointed by the governor, one of whom shall be a commissioner of health of the Board of Health, of the city of New York, and the others shall be members or commissioners of health of regularly constituted and organized Boards of Health of cities of the State, shall constitute the Board of Health of the State of New York. Nothing in chapter three hundred and thirty-five of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-three of the State of New York or in the laws amending the same, or in the laws constituting Boards of Health in the various cities of the State, shall be read or construed to prevent the appointment of the said commissioners of Board of Health of cities also members of the Board of Health of the State of New York, and no appointment to an office, or acceptance thereof under this law, shall be held to vacate the office previously held in any Board of Health of any city in the State.

Oath of commissioners,

Term of office.

§ 2. The said three commissioners so appointed shall take the oath of office prescribed by the constitution for State officers, and receive from the secretary of State certificates of their appointment. They shall hold office for three years, and whenever a vacancy occurs, the place shall be filled as in other cases provided by law, and the other commissioners shall, from time to Vacancies, time, be designated by the governor as occasion may require, how filled. or as their places may be vacated in the Board by the expiration of the several terms of office.

Meetings of 3. The State Board of Health shall meet at least once in board. every three months and as much oftener as they shall deem necessary, their first meeting being held in the city of Albany within two weeks after the appointment duly made of the members of the first Board and after they shall have qualified as aforesaid, and each annual meeting shall be held within two weeks after the first of May each year after the first as herein provided. No member of the Board except the Traveling secretary shall receive any compensation, but the actual etc., of com-traveling and other expenses of the members and officers of missioners said Board while engaged in their duties shall be allowed and to be paid. paid out of the appropriation made for its support. They

expenses.

President to be annu

ally elected. Secretary to

be executive officer,

office three

years.

shall elect annually one member of the Board to be president; they shall also elect from among their own members or otherwise, a person of skill and experience in public health duties and sanitary science, to be the secretary and executive officer of said Board, who shall have all the powers and privileges and to hold of a member of the Board except in regard to voting upon matters relating to his own office and duties as secretary, and he shall hold said office for the term of three years, but he may be removed for cause after a full hearing by the Board, a majority of the members voting therefor. § 4. The State Board of Health may adopt by-laws regu- Board may lating the transaction of its business, and provide therein for laws. Seal. the appointment of committees to whom it shall delegate Quorum. authority and power for the work committed to them, and it may also adopt and use an official seal. Five members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

adopt by

tion of

§ 5. The secretary shall keep a record of the acts and Duties and proceedings of the Board, perform and superintend the work compensaprescribed in this act, and such other duties as the Board secretary. may order, and shall receive an annual salary of three thousand dollars, which shall be paid him in the same manner as the salaries of other State officers are paid, and such necessary expenses shall be allowed him as the comptroller shall audit on the presentation of an itemized account having vouchers annexed, together with the certificate of the Board.

Board.

§ 6. Said Board shall take cognizance of the interests of General health and life among the people of the State, they shall duties of make inquiries in respect to the causes of disease, and especially of epidemics, and investigate the sources of mortality, and the effects of localities, employments and other conditions upon the public health. It shall be the duty of said Board to obtain, collect and preserve such information relating to deaths, diseases and health as may be useful in the discharge of its duties, and contribute to the promotion of the health or the security of life in the State of New York. And it shall be the duty of all health officers and Boards of Health in the State to communicate to said State Board of Health copies of all their reports and publications; also such sanitary information as may be useful.

vision of

State, and

mend

necessary

7. It shall be the duty of the State Board of Health to Board to have the general supervision of the State system of registra- have supertion of births, marriages and deaths, and also the registration vital statisof prevalent diseases. Said Board shall prepare the neces- ties of sary methods and forms for obtaining and preserving such to recomrecords, and to insure the faithful registration of the same in the several counties, and in the central bureau of vital statis- legislation. tics at the capitol of the State. The said Board of Health shall recommend such forms and amendments of law as shall be deemed to be necessary for the thorough organization and efficiency of the registration of vital statistics throughout the State. The secretary of said Board of Health shall be the superintendent of registration of vital statistics of the State. As supervised by the said Board, the clerical duties and safe keeping of the bureau of vital statistics thus created shall be provided for by the comptroller of the State, who shall also provide and furnish such apartments and stationery as said Board shall require in the dis

Board to prepare forins for, and regu

late use of, transfer permits.

tion a mis

Governor

amine andre-"

sances, etc.

also

charge of its duties. And the State Board of Health shall prepare the necessary methods and forms and prescribe the rules regulating the issue and use of transfer permits, with the proper coupons attached thereto, to be issued by local organized Boards of Health, for the transportation of the dead bodies of persons which are to be carried for burial beyond the limits of the county where the death occurs; and in all cases, the State Board of Health shall require coupons to be attached to such permits, to be detached and preserved by every common carrier, or the person in Violation charge of any vessel, said railroad train or vehicle to whom of regula- such bodies shall be delivered for transportation. Any demeanor. violation of such rules and regulations shall be a misdemeanor. § 8*. At any time the governor of the State may require may requirethe State Board of Health to examine into nuisances affectBoard to ex-ing the security of life and health in any locality, and in such port on nui-cases, said Board of Health shall have all necessary powers Report, where to make such examinations, and it shall report the results to be filled. thereof to the governor, within the limits of time prescribed for such examination and report. The report of such examination, when approved by the governor, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of State, and the governor may, in relation to things found and certified by the said Board of Health to be nuisances, declare them to be public nuisances, and order them to be changed, as he shall direct, Governor or abated and removed. And such order shall be persumpmay order tive evidence of the existence of such nuisance, and all pernuisances abated. sons maintaining, or assisting to maintain, or aiding and abetting, in any manner, in the maintenance of such nuisance, after notice of such order, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by Violation fine not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in misde- the county jail of the county in which such nuisance is maintained, not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. In such cases, when such order has been made, the governor may, by his further order in writing, certified under his official seal, require the district attorney, the sheriff, and the other officers Dist. attor- of every such county to take all necessary measures to exeney, sheriff cute and to obey the order of the governor; and any act of any such county officers in the abatement of any such nuisance, so declared, which shall be reasonable or necessary for the execution of such purpose, shall be lawful and justifiagovernor's ble, and the order of the governor shall be their protection. orders. The expense of the abatement of such nuisance shall be paid by the county in which such nuisance occurs, and such expense shall be a charge or a lien upon the lands maintainwhich shall ing such nuisance, and shall be a valid claim on behalf of property of said county against all persons maintaining the same, or offenders. assisting in the maintenance thereof; and the lien and claim thus created may be collected by action to recover against either or all of the persons liable to pay the same, and may also be enforced by action to enforce the lien upon the lands maintaining the nuisance, by a sale thereof, to satisfy the same.

of order a

meanor.

and other

County officers to cause the execution of the

The county

to be responsible

for costs,

be a lien on

*As amended by chapter 308, Session Laws of 1882.

When local Boards to be represented at deliberations of

Boards.

§ 9. At any time at the request of the State Board of Health, or whenever the governor shall, as herein before provided, have directed an examination and report to be made by the State Board of Health into any alleged nui- State sance, any Board of Health of any city of the State may appoint and select any one of its officers as its representative, during such examination of any nuisance, and such representive officer shall have a seat at, and be entitled to take part in, all the deliberations of the State Board of Health, during such investigation, but without the right to vote.

employ ex

perts and examine

structures

and places.

of amount

to be expended for

expert

service.

10. Said Board may, from time to time, engage suitable Board may persons to render sanitary service, and to make or supervise practical and scientific investigations and examinations requiring expert skill, and to prepare plans and report relative thereto. And it is hereby made the duty of all officers and agents having the control, charge or custody of any public structure, work, ground or erection, or of any plan, description, outlines, drawings or chart thereof, or relating thereto, made, kept or controlled under any public authority, to permit and facilitate the examination and inspection, and the making of copies of the same by any officer or person by said Board authorized; and the members of said Board, and such other officer or person as may at any time be by said Board authorized, may, without fee or hindrance, enter, examine and survey all grounds, erections, vehicles, structures, apartments, buildings and Limitation places. But no more than five thousand dollars in any one year shall be expended for such special sanitary service. § 11. It shall be the duty of said Board, on or before the first Monday of December in each year, to make a report in writing to the governor of the State, upon the vital stat- Time of anistics and the sanitary condition and prospects of the State; and such report shall set forth the action of said Board and of its officers and agents, and the names thereof, for the past year, and may contain other useful information, and shall suggest any further legislative action or precautions deemed proper for the better protection of life and health. And the annual report of said Board shall also contain a detailed statement of the comptroller of all money paid out by or on account of said Board, and a detailed statement of the manner of its expenditures, during the year last past, but its total expenditures shall not exceed the sum of fifteen thousand dollars in any one year. 12. The sum of fifteen thousand dollars is hereby appropriated from the general fund for the purposes of this act, tion for exand the expenditures properly incurred by authority of penses. said Board and verified by affidavit, subject, however, to the limitations herein before imposed, and shall be paid by the treasurer upon the warrant of the comptroller.

§ 13. This act shall take effect immediately.

54

nual report.

Appropria