Treasury Department

Bureau of the Public Health Service

Washington

PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEERING ABSTRACTS

Health Ordinances Pertaining to Milk. F. D. Holford. International Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors Fourteenth Annual Report, October 12, 14, 1925. pp. 45-50.

The classification of food products into definite grades by municipal ordinances which are standard throughout a given community is suggested. The nearest approach to a uniform standard grade is found for certified milk, due to many municipalities accepting the rules and regulations of the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions.

The prevention of fraud and the sanitary control of milk supplies are logical responsibilities of health authorities. The interest of the producer, distributor, health official and consumer do not differ in many things. If one loses confidence in the other all suffer the consequences. Their relationship is sometimes strained and complicated by too much evasion, too much law and too little honest effort to work together.

The author recommends that uniform requirements for municipalities would be more economical, would encourage small municipalities that have no control to adopt such methods, would create better understanding between States and municipalities and between health officials and individual dairymen and would be of great assistance to producers and dealers in dispensing their produce.-W. W. White.

The Health Department and the Milk Dealer. William B. Palmer. International Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors Fourteenth Annual Report, 1925. pp. 187-192.

The writer states that control of the milk supply is an interstate, intrastate, intercity and local problem when the milk shed covers a wide territory and is distributed in several cities by a large number of dealers. Field supervision of production and laboratory control is often maintained by milk dealers. The writer states that health departments can assist the dealers in perfecting the scientific side of their business with the ultimate benefit to both the dealer and the public. A successful consolidation of milk control work of the boards of health of five cities having a combined population of 140,000, is cited. Funds for laboratory, office and staff are provided by assessments included in each board of health budget. There was no duplication of work or expense under the plan and the advantage of unification of regulations and control has been demonstrated. The writer is of the opinion that boards of health can do much to simplify present chaotic conditions in the milk business by adopting standard ordinances which have the approval of official organizations.

A successful consolidation of small milk dealers in the Oranges, N. J., is cited. A pasteurization and bottling plant selling 6,000 quarts of milk a day is being operated. It has caused the elimination of small inefficient, inadequately equipped bottling plants and has simplified the enforcement of pasteurization of milk. Due to the suggestion of the health department, a short course in dairy bacteriology was instituted at the State Agricultural College, thus making available a short course in dairy sanitation.

The writer draws general conclusions pertaining to the advantages of unified milk regulations and control and consolidated efforts of small dealers in establishing properly equipped milk plants.-Russell S. Smith.

Some Heat Resisting Streptococci Found in Market Milk. H. O. Way. International Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors Fourteenth Annual Report, October 12, 14, 1925. pp. 179-183.

Analysis of bottled pasteurized milk from three pasteurizing plants showed the presence of 100,000 to 400,000 bacteria by plate count. Microscopic examination showed large number of streptococci occurring usually in pairs and sometimes in chains of four or six. In the raw milk chains of 6, 8 or 10, and sometimes 14 or 16 cocci occurred. Agar plates showed a predominance of very small "pin point" colonies of two types. One is slightly filiform or elongated; the other nearly round with a very slight halo. After heating a sample of raw milk counting about 80,000 of these colonies to 142-145 deg. F. for 72 hours, the count was found to be practically unchanged. These organisms have withstood 162 deg. F. for one hour. Vat samples ran as high as 200,000 to 300,000 colonies after pasteurization.

From plant control samples and a study of methods it was concluded that increase in colonies was due not to growth, but to a breaking up of chains from heat of pasteurization and pump agitation.

Examination of shippers whose raw milk contained large numbers of these organisms showed as the probable cause udder or teat infection other than garget in 20% of the cases, and teat cups and rubber tube connections of milking machines in the other 80%. Search for the source of organisms showed cow urine free except when

more than merely

contaminated with feces, and that cow feces contained a large number of these organisms. The presence of large numbers of these organisms in a pasteurized milk supply suggests an insanitary condition either in the herd or in the milk handling equipment. Teats may be infected either in the milk canal or on the outside.-Malcolm Lewis.

A Family of Typhoid Carriers. Anna Dean Dulaney. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 15, No. 10, October, 1925. pp. 885-886.

Twenty-two cases of typhoid in Columbia, Missouri, were traced to a typhoid carrier family. The father had typhoid twenty-six years ago, the mother sixteen years ago and the daughter-in-law ten months ago (shortly after marriage). Eight years ago the father, a chronic relapsing carrier, was required to close his dairy following a typhoid outbreak. In June, 1925, the son and his wife took charge of operating their new dairy. Three weeks after the typhoid outbreak among the dairy patrons began. Sanitary conditions were unsatisfactory with regard to location of milk house, privy and well.-A. S. Bedell.

Remodeling Old Barns as an Aid to the Production of Clean Milk. E. Grant Lantz, Department of Farm Machinery, The Pennsylvania State College. Second Annual Report, 1926, Pennsylvania Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors. pp. 159-162.

A description of essentials to be considered in dairy barn construction, including arrangement, design, light and ventilation is given. Particular mention is made of the "King Heat Loss Charts" as the best guide to what may be considered good construction in so far as ventilation is concerned. In these charts, the United States has been divided into four temperature regions and a set of recommendations prepared for each region. Heat loss of a two-inch wall of solid concrete has been rated at 100% and all other heat loss given in proportion to this unit.-H. A. Whittaker.

Report of Committee on Milk Plants. C. S. MacBride. International Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors Fourteenth Annual Report, October 12, 14, 1925. pp. 218-222.

A summary of results embodied in U. S. P. H. S. Bulletin No. 147, on experiments at Endicott, N. Y., relative to the thermal death point of various pathogenic bacteria as influenced by defects in equipment, is given. Suggested improvements to pasteurization equipment are tabulated.

Among other improvements suggested are:

Thermometer recording devices covering a narrower range, with more space between degrees and larger figures on the charts to enable more accurate temperature control.

Definite data on necessary space around crates when piled in refrigerator rooms to insure proper air circulation.

Education of country receiving plant personnel in their responsibility for the rejection of poor milk as a part of their routine duty.

Investigation of possible presence of toxic metals in milk, since their effect is cumulative, and small amounts taken with regularity may be dangerous.

Education of milk plant inspection personnel in plant economics, as well as sanitation, that the two may be coordinated in practicable requirements.—Malcolm Lewis.

CHLORINATION OF WATER AND SEWAGE.

EARLE B. PHELPS.

Journal Boston Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 13, No. 4, April, 1926. pp. 150-167.

This admirable paper discusses chlorination in the light of the developments of the past 16 years. Inquiry is made into the principle of disinfection and its chemical basis, the legitimate and proper role of chlorination in water supply practice, and the accomplishments and possibly some of the shortcomings of the process itself. It is estimated that not less than 30,000,000 people in the United States, living in some 3,000 communities, are today supplied with a chlorinated domestic water.

When calcium hypochlorite was first applied to drinking water, through fear that the addition of the chemical substance would lead to public disapproval, the solution of hypochlorite was referred to as "potential oxygen" in an attempt to disguise the true nature of the treatment, based upon the theory that chlorine acted solely as an oxidizing agent. Later investigations have shown the oxidation theory to be untenable and that in comparison with other oxidizing agents, the relative germicidal power of chlorine is much greater than its relative oxidizing power. The view is now fairly established that the germicidal action of chlorine is a specific toxic action similar in its general effects to the action of phenol, copper sulphate, and other non-oxidizing germicides. It is pointed out that chlorine is in no sense a suitable re-agent for oxidation of organic matter in general.

At the time when the chlorination was first introduced, it was felt that there was grave danger that this new process might be too readily accepted as a substitute for more thorough measures of water and sewage treatment. For once in the history of sanitation there was an actual danger that a sanitary achievement of real merit might be too readily accepted, for the cheapness and simplicity of the process threatened to bring about a condition of unsound practice which might discredit the process itself.

During the past sixteen years, the process of chlorination has become an almost universal one in water works practice. It has not only been quite generally adopted in the case of slightly polluted waters, but has also been used as an adjunct to filtration processes of all sorts. This development has permitted the use of higher loading factors upon filters, and has also, in many cases, provided a wide margin of safety between a badly polluted water and the consumer. There is considerable discussion at the present time of the propriety of the use of chlorination alone in the treatment of moderately polluted water supplies. Chlorination is an ideal method that provides a wide margin of safety at a low cost when superimposed as an independent process upon the usual treatment by filtration. However, in most cases where filtration is followed by chlorination, somewhat greater reliance is placed upon the latter. Thus, chlorination becomes part of the major process and the margin of safety is narrowed. It is a matter of judgment just how far the "margin of safety"

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