Guess Whats Coming With Dinner?
The situation doesn’t improve noticeably on the level of commissioner either. Lewis D. Polk, now Philadelphia’s acting commissioner of health, had been the deputy commissioner. Because of the civil service seniority pay scale, while Polk was the deputy he was making several thousand dollars more per year than the commissioner. His superiors offered him the higher post of health commissioner, which would have actually required him to take a pay cut. Of course, he refused. Now, to add to the confusion, he still receives his deputy commissioner’s salary, holds the title of acting commissioner, and exercises the authority of a full commissioner. But technically, the position of commissioner still remains vacant.
Under Polk there are about 25 public health inspectors and sanitarians responsible for the well-being of this city’s two million inhabitants. That comes out to about 80,000 persons per inspector. With close to 17,000 food establishments to police, that means that each sanitarian has nearly 700 places to inspect and re-inspect each year. About six years ago, before fiscal austerity and the City administration’s no-new-tax pledge, there were 50 Health Department sanitarians to monitor considerably fewer restaurants and retail stores than now exist. According to the department, they presently have about one-fifth as many sanitarians as they needed six years ago to do a thorough job. Today, the inspectors are lucky if they are able to make the rounds in their districts once a year.
THE WORK LOAD on each sanitarian is staggering. Two men cover the center city district which stretches from river to river and from Washington Avenue to Vine Street. Within that area they are responsible for answering all citizen complaints involving businesses that sell, serve or make food and milk items. Their job also includes the periodic inspection of each and every establishment with or without a citizen complaint.
If the health department sounds like an army without officers and a police force without enough patrolmen, it is also a scientific operation that is being run by laymen.
In June the department’s only veterinarian retired, and, thus far, no funds have been released to hire a replacement. The man who retired still returns half a day each week, out of a sense of loyalty to the old gang, and tutors new sanitarians about the veterinary aspects of public health — from dog bites to meat and poultry inspections.
Because the vet’s post has remained unfilled, there is no expert in the department to deal with recurring problems such as the unscrupulous meat packer who might try substituting chemically treated horse meat for cow meat. A sharp veterinarian is also capable of calmly and dispassionately dealing with bats, squirrels or dogs that have contracted rabies. Today, if you are sickened by horse meat or bitten by a rabid squirrel or dog, the health inspectors can do little more than offer their condolences to your survivors.
