Publications
The Sanitarian and His Duties
The Sanitarian and His Duties (1937) is an analysis of inspection duties in environmental health, together with suggestions regarding requirements of sanitary inspectors. This publication is a dissertation by Grace L. Loye, master of science in public administration within the Department of Public Administration of the University of Southern California. Loye was a student of Walter S. Mangold.
In its introductory chapter, Loye effectively outlines the development of inspectional services and emphasizes the need of additional consideration to the qualifications and duties of our profession. She wrote the following:
“One of the principal conclusions which forces itself upon investigators in this field is the serious need for adequate standards. Those standards which do exist arose mainly in response to local needs and out of custom and usage. There is, however, no adequate standardization of inspectional procedure or objectives, with the result that both the public and governmental officials are uninformed concerning inspectional activities. The inspectors in the main, create their own standards of inspection, restricted only by departmental rules and policies. This obviously makes for great variance in inspectional methods and procedures and undoubtedly has a deleterious effect on the morale of the inspector, for, without standards to guide him, he tends to become more or less indifferent and lax in the performance of his duties. . . . Perhaps the greatest need of inspectors, however, is adequate training. . . . The untrained layman or political appointee is no longer able to execute these duties properly.”
The analysis of duties is developed for the components of environmental health. Loye outlines the essential features of inspection for each component with major type situational subheadings. In parallel columns opposite these situations are listed items of required information. This material dealing with the knowledge and abilities required of sanitary inspector is further subdivided into “Technical” and “Auxiliary.” The content is further classified under specific titles such as science, laws and regulation, forms and records, finance, safety measures, and public relations.
The general topic covered include: Communicable Disease Control, Water Supply, Sewage Disposal, Dairy Products, Food Sanitation, Housing, and General Sanitation. The references cited are extensive for each topical heading.
In short, this publication is our Holy Grail. And other than the earlier licensing regulations, such as New Jersey in 1903 where a test was developed, it is the first time that our professional duties were detailed.
The copy pictured here was given to me in 1977 by A. Harry Bliss when I was a postdoc at the NEHA headquarters working on the “Report on the Role Delineation Project for Practitioners in ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝.” Bliss was one of the founders of the National Association of Sanitarians and the first editor of The Sanitarian, later to be renamed the Journal of ŔÖ˛Ą´«Ă˝. The copy is autographed by Loye to Bliss, in which she enscribed:
“To A. Harry Bliss:
With every good wish for the success of your own
literary venture into the field of sanitation.
Grace L. Loye”
The Sanitarian and His Duties was published by Edwards Brothers, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is 200 pages and originally cost $1.
Sanitarian's Handbook
Pictured on the left is the 1957 printing is the first edition of the Sanitarian’s Handbook: Theory and Administrative Practice by Ben Freedman, MPH, MD, director of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Division of the Public Health Training and director of the Division of Preventive Medicine at the Louisiana State Department of Health; and assistant professor of Public Health Administration, Department of Tropical Medicine and Public Health at the Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. The first edition and subsequent editions were published by Peerless Publishing Company in New Orleans, Louisiana.
This first edition was predated in 1942 by the Sanitary Inspector’s Manual of the Louisiana Department of Health, also authored by Dr. Freedman. It provided the basis for the Sanitarian’s Handbook.
The book has 38 chapters contained in 1,400 pages. While it covers most of the environmental health practice, it also included detailed information on conditions encountered by the sanitarian that may only have some mention in law or regulation, as well as specific knowledge and skills necessary when certain conditions are encountered in the field. These unique topical areas include frozen desserts, egg control and grading, seafood and shellfish control, simple field tests, refrigeration, temporary measures of sanitary control, and making concrete. Don’t laugh, us old-timers used the chapter on making concrete numerous times.
The first edition book still has the original publisher’s card. It was purchased new and inscribed on its free endpaper by Carl E. Dickerson, an Indiana sanitarian, in 1964.
Pictured on the right is the fourth and last edition of the Sanitarian's Handbook published in 1977. This copy was signed by Dr. Freedman in 1978.
The Sanitary Inspector's Handbook
This book pictured above is the first edition of the The Sanitary Inspector’s Handbook: A Manual for Sanitary Inspectors and Other Executive Public Health Officers by Henry H. Clay, a British sanitary inspector and lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Division of Public Health, University of London. It was published in April 1933 by H.K. Lewis & Co., LTD in London, England.
It is not the first book to cover environmental health. Other than some published military manuals, however, this handbook (also called the “Clay’s Handbook”) is the first to deal specifically with the whole range of the sanitary inspector’s duties. The book includes in 31 chapters, is well-illustrated, and provides numerous examples in each topic covered. It predates the U.S. version, The Sanitarian and His Duties by Grace Loye, by 3 years.
Subsequent editions of this book include logic gates with each subject. The logic gates guide the inspector (now, environmental health officer) through the investigation and resolution process. This book is the standard for our profession in the UK.
The above pictured book is signed by the author and was a gift from Mr. Clay to Dr. Huntindon Williams, health commissioner for Baltimore, Maryland. It contains the U.S. Treasury Department customs transmittal form, Mr. Clay’s business card, two Christmas greetings, and several letters from Mr. Clay to Dr. Williams.