The Durant News

Your State Health Officer Says
Felix J. Underwood, M. D.

FALSE SECURITY

Pointing out the value of DDT in controlling flies, mosquitoes, fleas, bedbugs, lice and other insects capable of transmitting infections to man, and 1080 and Antu in destroying rats, Mr. H. A. Kroeze, Director of the Division of Sanitary Engineering, State Board of Health, said:

"It is a mistake to believe that these potent poisons alone will eliminate the health hazards involved in improper sanitation of the environment. We cannot hope for the maximum of health if we are negligent in the matter of proper collection and disposal of garbage, the chief source of community fly breeding and the chief food supply and breeding and harborage places for rats.

An ordinary dump with rubbish simply buried under a little dirt is not much good; it is open to rat infestation and fly breeding and is generally a nuisance.

"An area reclaimed by sanitary land fill is a community asset. Proper handling and compacting of the rubbish assures that settling will be held to a minimum and that the land will be useful when the operation is completed. In this method, rubbish is carried to the site where it is deposited in a trench or ditch previously made by a bull-dozer or bullclam; then it is leveled and compacted by bulldozers or similar equipment into about one-third its original volume.

Each trench is about 10 feet wide and is filled to a depth of about four to 10 feet with compacted rubbish. At the end of each day a cover of six inches of dirt is placed over the compacted rubbish; thus only a minimum of refuse is exposed at any time.

Mentioning Natchez, Jackson and other towns where this method is used to reclaim park areas, Mr. Kroeze stated that the sanitary land fill has the additional advantage of requiring a relatively small investment and of being operated at low cost. Special equipment, he stated, makes it possible for one man to handle the entire operation at the site for a small city."