The Public Health Act

Part III re-enacted the law on statutory nuisance with changes to the Public Health Act 1936, controls over offensive trades being transferred to Part 1. 

It might be helpful if here I describe something of the UK law on odour about which I shall be speaking later in the Conference. Odour offences are included under the Public Health Act (1936) although a report recently of a Working Party on the Supression of Odour from Offensive and Selective Trades said Farm odours have no known effect on the health of the individual but reactions to these are undoubtedly real and can cause distress and, above all, negation of leisure in the accepted English sense. ... 

Part III modifies the Public Health Acts 1936—61 and the Building (Scotland) Act 1959 with respect of powers to make building regulations and deals with provisions as to the approval of plans, unsuitable materials, type relaxations, approved types of building, carrying out of tests, etc. 

To a large extent, pollution of air is legislated for by the Alkali etc. Works Regulation Act 1906, the Clean Air Acts 1956-68, the Public Health Act 1936, the HSW Act 1974 and regulations made under these Acts. 

Prior to 1972, there were few controls on waste disposal. The power to inspect first appears in the Public Health Act 1848 and the duty to do so in the Sanitary Act 1866. These powers and duties could not prevent the nuisance arising from wastes but at least they should have ensured there were no unknown major toxic waste deposits. In 1875 the Public Health Act charged local authorities with the duty to arrange the removal and disposal of waste and signified the start of significant local authority power. This Act also ruled that householders had to keep their waste in a movable receptacle (the early dustbin) which local authorities were required to empty every week. 

MacMorran, Alexander, and Joshua Scholefield. 1914. The Public Health Acts, Annotated with Appendices. Vol. 1. 8th ed. London Butterworth Co., and Shaw Sons. 

The Public Health Act 1848 was the first piece of legislation that specified how waste should be stored and removed. The Act specified that household waste should be placed in midden heaps (unlined holes in the groimd) next to houses, and when they were full the waste was dug out and taken away. It also provided for a Central Board of Health to be established with powers to supervise street cleaning and refuse collection amongst other things. 

The fourth cholera pandemic (1863-1875) claimed many lives in London and afterwards the Public Health Act 1875 was passed. One aspect of this was that it placed a duty on local authorities to arrange the collection and disposal of waste each week or face penalties if they failed to do so. Each resident was required to place their rubbish in a moveable receptacle the first dustbins. The subsequent Public Health Act of 1891 required local authorities to provide a sufficient number of scavengers to ensme the streets were kept clean in their district and that household waste was collected and removed. 

Smoke and ash abatement in Great Britain was considered to be a health agency responsibility and was so confirmed by the first Public Health Act of 1848 and the later ones of 1866 and 1875. Air pollution from the emerging chemical industry was considered a separate matter and was made the responsibility of the Alkali Inspectorate created by the Alkali Act of 1863. 

Although the original Clean Air Act of 1977 brought about significant improvements in air quality, the urban air pollution problems of ozone (known as smog), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM,o) persist. Currently, over 100 million Americans live in cities which are out of attaimnent with the public health standards for ozone. The most widespread and persistent urban... 

New furnaces have to be constructed (as far as is practicable) so as to operate smokelessly. Chimney heights are controlled (see below). Smoke Control Orders can be introduced (to control domestic smoke) and grants are available to convert fireplaces to burn authorized fuels. Smoke (other than dark smoke, which is already controlled) is dealt with by Section 16 of the 1956 Act and is, for the purposes of Part 111 of the 1936 Public Health Act, to be considered as a statutory nuisance. 

Discharge of trade effluent into a sewer requires a consent from the Sewerage Undertaker under a procedure set out in the Public Health (Drainage of Trade Premises) Act 1961, Control of Pollution Act 1974 and Water Act 1989. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 is also applicable to prescribed processes and substances. 

US legislation on food additives consists of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD C Act), the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, and other applicable laws including the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act. The FD C Act states that foods are adulterated if they contain color additives that have not been approved as safe to the satisfaction of the Food Drug Administration (FDA) for a particular use. ... 

The law provides that each product must be registered before it can be sold legally in the state. Registration acts as a screen by which worthless and untried products are withheld from the market. Registration may be refused, after hearing, for any economic poison which is of little or no value for the purpose for which it is intended, or which is detrimental to vegetation (except weeds), to domestic animals, or to the public health and safety when properly used, and there may be required such practical demonstration as may be necessary to determine the facts. 

Highly toxic air pollutants fall under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Unlike criteria pollutants, these hazardous air pollutants must be controlled to protect the public health with an "ample margin of safety." Implied in this language is the belief in a discrete threshold of exposure below which no effects occur and from which a safety margin can be measured. Subsequent interpretations, however, indicated clearly that Congress did not equate safeguarding the public health with complete risk elimination. 

Predicate rules The underlying requirements set in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Public Health Service Act and FDA regulations (e.g. GLP), other than Part 11. 

Federal assistance may be provided to state and local authorities in enforcing their quarantine and other health regulations pursuant to section 311 of the Public Health Service Act. (42 U.S.C. 243(a)). In addition, CDC s quarantine regulations authorized Federal intervention in the event of inadequate local control. (Please refer to 42 CFR 70.2, and 21 CFR 1240.30)... 

Bioterrorism Act—The Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. 

Although we are concerned with the chemical industry in this text, the USEPA-developed Large Water System Emergency Response Plan Outline Guidance to Assist Community Water Systems in Complying with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of2002 (dated July 2003), with minor adjustments,... 

The Public Health Service Act passes to regulate biological products, the control of communicable... 

Refer to Sections 7.2.1 and 7.2.2 about the CDER and CBER. It should be understood that small and large molecule drugs are legislated differently the former under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the latter under the Public Health Service Act (PHSA). 

Congress passed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 as part of the Homeland Security Act, in response to the terrorism attacks of 11 September, 2001. The new law contains several provisions that are designed to strengthen the public health system generally and the availability of drugs, biological products and medical devices for countering bioterrorism, in particular. 

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