Tacoma Declares War on Filth—and Tuberculosis in the Milk
Tacoma’s board of health launched a summer cleanup campaign, ordering property owners to clear filth and dairies shipping milk into the city to submit cattle for tuberculosis inspection.
Tacoma, May 15.—Special.—The board of health has begun a campaign in the city against filth, and will compel property owners to clean up their premises, in anticipation of an unusually hot summer. The board also will hereafter insist on a rigid inspection of food, and will have cattle in all dairies shipping milk to Tacoma inspected for tuberculosis. Dr. John T. Lee was appointed inspector by the board today.
“The board of health has begun a campaign in the city against filth, and will compel property owners to clean up their premises.”
Public-health boards of the 1890s fought filth, contaminated milk and tuberculosis with tools cities still use: inspection, code enforcement and dairy testing. Tacoma’s summer cleanup reads like a precursor to modern food-safety and rental-housing enforcement.
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