Appraisal Forms and Sanitation Standards Used in the Michigan Community Health Project

Abstract

Project (MCHP), initiated in 1930, is a cooperative undertaking of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation with state and local agencies and the people of seven rural counties in Southwestern Michigan.* During the early period of health department work in the MCHP each public health engineer had to develop his own standards and prepare his own inspection forms. While this provided a maximum range for ideas and individual initiative, it also allowed many glaring differences in the requirements for various items. Such concepts as adequate ventilation and lighting, where no law or criteria were set up, usually varied with the different engineers. These variations in ideas led to confusion in the field. Establishments in one county would receive a " good " rating for conditions that another county would not approve. When it was decided to use the MCHP area for student training activities, the weakness of the procedure became even more obvious. Such words as "adequate," " sufficient," "abundant," etc., had to be interpreted to each student if anything approaching a uniform standard of appraisal was to be maintained, even within a single county.Even though laws and state regulations covered many aspects of sanitation, a considerable amount of detail * Allegan, Barry, Branch, Eaton, Calhoun, hIiilsdale, and Van Buren Counties