Annual report of the Department of Public Health, Province of Alberta.

  • Alberta. Department of Public Health.
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Department of Public Health, Province of Alberta. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/268 (page 28)
    The Provincial Laboratories serve as centres for the distribution of .vaccines and sera which are provided by the Department free of charge for the prevention and treatment of various communicable diseases. The new Provincial Laboratory of Public Health building on the campus of the University of Alberta, was occupied in December 1950, and has made the most modern accommodation and facilities available for this vitally important service. The opening of the new Provincial Laboratory of Public Health at Edmonton and the new Southern Branch Laboratory at Calgary, to which reference was made in the Annual Report of 1950, has marked an important mile¬ stone in public health progress in Alberta. All public health laboratory service is provided free of charge, with the exception of a few examinations which involve highly specialized procedures. Public health laboratory service is of vital inmportance in safeguarding the public health. We have been most fortunate since the inception of this service in 1907, in the high standard of service maintained by the staff. Detailed information concerning the work of the Provincial Laboratories, will be found in the report of the Provincial Lab¬ oratories. Sanitary Engineering and Sanitation. Plans and specifications submitted to the Provincial Board of Health for waterworks, sewerage and sewage disposal plants, as well as extension of the same, have been carefully examined and where approved, the necessary certificates issued under the pro¬ visions of the Public Health Act. The tremendous expansion in the construction of waterworks and sewage disposal plants and in the extension of existing plants in cities, towns and villages to which reference has been made in pre¬ vious reports, has continued throughout 1951, on an even larger scale. This unprecedented increase in the number of waterworks and sewage systems, has resulted in a tremendous increase in the amount of supervision required if proper maintenance and operation procedures and the necessary public health precautions are to be observed. Mr. W. A. Dexter, M.A.Sc., rejoined the staff as Assistant Pro¬ vincial Sanitary Engineer in May after completing a post-graduate course in Sanitary Engineering at the School of Hygiene, University of Toronto. At least one additional sanitary engineer is required in order to keep pace with the tremendous expansion to which I have made reference. The survey of the North Saskatchewan River was completed in 1951 and a detailed report on the same has been prepared. The Provincial Board of Health issued an order based on this survey, to the city of Edmonton, to install primary sewage treatment facilities by November 1st, 1954, and the Board also directed that dumping of garbage along the banks of the North Saskatchewan River be dis¬ continued. A stream pollution survey of the Bow River and its tributaries, was started during the summer and it is hoped to com¬ plete this project in 1952. The tourist camp inspection and classification programme, which was inaugurated in 1947 in co-operation with the Department of Industries and Labour, was continued along the same lines as in