3701.34 POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC HEALTH COUNCIL
The public health council shall:
(A) Adopt, and may amend or rescind, sanitary rules to be of general
application throughout the state. The sanitary rules shall be known as
the sanitary code.
(B) Take evidence in appeals from the decision of the director of
health in a matter relative to the approval or disapproval of plans,
locations, estimates of cost, or other matters coming before the
director for official action. In the hearing of such appeals the
director may be represented in person or by the attorney general.
(C) Conduct hearings in cases where the law requires that the
department shall give such hearings and reach decisions on the evidence
presented, which shall govern subsequent actions of the director with
reference thereto;
(D) Prescribe, by rule, the number and functions of divisions and
bureaus and the qualifications of chiefs or divisions and bureaus within
the department;
(E) Enact and amend bylaws in relation to its meetings and the
transaction of its business;
(F) Consider any matter relating to the preservation and improvement
of the public health and advise the director thereon with such
recommendations as it considers wise.
The council shall neither have nor exercise executive or
administrative duties.
NOTES OF DECISIONS AND OPINIONS
Appeals to council 2 Constitutional issues 3 Enforcement 5
Hearings and decisions 1 Rulemaking authority 4
Zoning regulations 6 1. Hearings and
decisions
Public health council, under RC 3701.34(C) and 6111.17, is required
to conduct hearings in cases where law demands that council shall give
such hearings and reach decisions on evidence presented, and council is
required to make findings and conclusions and elucidate in writing such
decision and basis therefor. Forest Hills Utility Co. v. Gardner (Ohio
1972) 31 Ohio St.2d 78, 285 N.E.2d 378, 60 O.O.2d 50.
2. Appeals to council
The only persons who may appeal to the public health council from a
decision of the director of health in a matter relating to the approval
or disapproval of plans, locations,
estimates of costs or other matters submitted to such board, are persons
or officials directly interested and subject to such decisions of the
director. 1925 OAG 2770.
3. Constitutional issues
Designation of diseases which require quarantining of persons during
the infective stage, adopted by the public health council, is a lawful
exercise of the police power and does not violate any constitutional
right nor is it a delegation of legislative power. Ex parte Company
(Ohio 1922) 106 Ohio St. 50, 139 N.E. 204, 1 Ohio Law Abs. 10, 20 Ohio
Law Rep. 426.
4. Rulemaking authority
Prohibition will not lie to challenge the validity of the adoption of
regulations by the public health council. Ohio State Federation of
Licensed Nursing Homes v. Public Health Council (Ohio 1961) 172 Ohio St.
227, 174 N.E.2d 251, 15 O.O.2d 375.
Regulations adopted by the public health council may prescribe
quarantine of certain persons found to have venereal disease in an
infective form. Ex parte Company (Ohio 1922) 106 Ohio St. 50, 139 N.E.
204, 1 Ohio Law Abs. 10, 20 Ohio Law Rep. 426.
In the area of sanitation the state of Ohio has exercised preemptive
authority to promulgate regulations over the design and specifications
of semi-public sewage treatment plants by virtue of RC Ch 6112 and Ch
3701. Security Sewage Equip. Co. v. Beebe (Ohio Com.Pl. 1965) 5 Ohio
Misc. 178, 214 N.E.2d 853, 34 O.O.2d 378.
The food establishment regulations of the Ohio sanitary code
(HE-22-01 to HE- 22-14), proposed by the director of agriculture and
adopted by the public health council, are invalid, because there is no
statutory authority for the public health council to promulgate rules
governing general sanitation standards for food processing and
manufacturing establishments. OAG 75-056.
Under RC 925.01, 913.41 and 913.42, only the director of agriculture
has authority to prescribe sanitary regulations for food establishments,
other than those regulated under RC 3707.371 to 3707.376 and Ch 3732.
OAG 75- 056.
RC 3715.69 does not provide the public health council with authority
to prescribe sanitation standards
for food establishments. OAG 75-056.
The public health council has authority to adopt reasonable sanitary
and health regulations governing the maintenance and operation of
maternity hospitals and homes and the conditions on which such licenses
may be issued. 1952 OAG 1770.
Public health council of state department of health has authority to
adopt regulations establishing maximum allowable concentrations for
substances used in industry which are dangerous to public health. 1945
OAG 609.
Department of health may not, by means of regulations adopted by the
public health council, establish and maintain a system of registration
of births and deaths occurring in this state prior to the effective date
of the vital statistics registration law. 1940 OAG 2369.
Such sanitary regulations and rules relating to public health,
sanitation and quarantine as may be deemed necessary to protect and
preserve the public health and prevent the spread of communicable and
other disease applicable generally throughout the state, and especially
to and within state owned buildings and property, should be adopted by
the public health council, and it is the duty of the
state director of health to administer the rules and regulations so
adopted. 1940 OAG 1921.
5. Enforcement
Local board of health possesses authority to require that, whenever a
sanitary sewerage system becomes accessible to a property, the household
sewage disposal system shall be abandoned and the house sewer directly
connected to the sewerage system; this authority applies regardless of
the manner by which the sanitary sewerage system was constructed.
DeMoise v. Dowell (Ohio 1984) 10 Ohio St.3d 92, 461 N.E.2d 1286, 10
O.B.R. 421.
The sanitary regulations adopted by the public health council
constitute a minimum standard with which the regulations of city health
districts and general health districts must comply, but this does not
prevent a city or a general health district from adopting a more
stringent regulation when the condition of the public health within the
jurisdiction of the board of such district may reasonably be said to
require such action. OAG 74-014.
A health commissioner of a general health district is authorized to
enforce the sanitary rules and regulations adopted by the public health
council and may institute criminal
proceedings for violations of such sanitary rules and regulations. 1962
OAG 3343.
Any person suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis in such an active
stage that tubercle bacilli are being discharged, who neglects or
refuses to isolate himself as required by the sanitary code enacted by
the public health council under this section, can be prosecuted for said
violation by a local authority and if found guilty, penalized in
accordance with GC 4414 (RC 3707.48). 1951 OAG 691.
6. Zoning regulations
The Ohio department of health and public health council have no
authority to determine whether a manufactured home park, or the lots
within the park, constitute a nonconforming use for purposes of a
township or village zoning code. Such determination is within the
purview of the township or village that enacted the zoning code. OAG
00-022.
R.C.§ 3701.34
OH ST § 3701.34
