REGULATION NO. 2-57
TOLEDO DISTRICT BOARD OF HEALTH RODENT, INSECT AND PEST CONTROL
A RULE AND REGULATION OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY AND GENERAL WELFARE BY REQUIRING EXTERMINATION OF RODENTS, INSECTS AND OTHER PESTS AND BY CONTROLLING THE SPREAD OF RATBORNE DISEASES AND INFECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE UNSANITARY CONDITIONS PRESENT WHEREVER RATS ARE FOUND BY REQUIRING THAT CERTAIN STRUCTURES SHALL BE RATPROOFED, FREED OF RATS AND MAINTAINED IN A RATPROOF AND RATFREE CONDITION, BY PROVIDING FOR THE PROPER STORAGE OF FOOD AND FEED; BY ELIMINATING CERTAIN CONDITIONS FAVORING THE HARBORAGE OF RATS AND BY PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF:
(Passed 6-26-85)
Be it resolved by the Board of Health of the City of Toledo:
Regulation 1a-48 of the Toledo District Board of Health be and the same is hereby superseded by the following regulation:
SECTION 1. For the purposes of this regulation certain terms used are herewith defined:
SECTION 1.1. The term "approved" shall mean that which the Commissioner by rule and/or regulation designates acceptable as a device, apparatus or method which by demonstration and/or test has proven workable for its intended use.
SECTION 1.2. The term "building" shall mean any structure, whether public or private, that is adapted for occupancy, for transaction of business, for rendering of professional service, for amusement, for the performance of work or labor, including hotels, apartment buildings, tenement houses, rooming houses, office building, public buildings, private residences, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abattoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories, and all outhouses, sheds, barns and other structures or premises used for business purposes.
SECTION 1.3. The terms "ratproof" or "ratproofing" applies to a form of construction which will prevent the ingress or egress of rats to or from a given space or building or gaining access to food, water or harborage. It consists of the closing and keeping closed by the use of material impervious to rat gnawing of every opening in foundations, basements, cellars, exterior and interior walls, ground or first floors, roofs, sidewalk gratings, sidewalk openings and other places that may be reached and entered by rats by climbing, burrowing or other methods.
SECTION 1.4. The term "rat-harborage" shall mean any condition under which rats may find shelter or protection.
SECTION 1.5. The term "commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of health of the City of Toledo, or his authorized representative.
SECTION 1.6. The term "rat eradication" means the elimination or extermination of rats within buildings such that the buildings are completely freed of rats or there is no evidence of rat infestation remaining, by any or all of the accepted measures, such as poisoning, fumigation, trapping, clubbing, etc.
SECTION 1.7. The term "owner" shall mean the actual owner of the property, whether individual, partnership, or corporation, or any person or persons who shall be in actual possession of, or have charge, care or control of any property within the City, as executor, administrator, trustee, guardian or agent. Such person or persons shall be bound to comply with the provisions of this regulation to the same extent as the owner, and notice to any such person of any order or decision of the Commission of Health shall be deemed and taken to be a good and sufficient notice, as if such person or persons were the owner or owners of such property.
SECTION 1.8. The term "food" and "foodstuffs" is intended to include, besides human food, grain and other feed for animals or fowl.
SECTION 2. Every building erected after the effective date of this regulation and every alteration, addition, extension, enlargement or repairs thereto, shall be ratproofed and maintained in such condition.
SECTION 3. Every building existing at the effective date of this Regulation and every alteration, addition, extension, enlargement or repairs thereto, shall be ratproofed and maintained in such condition, and all vacant or unimproved property shall be kept free of rat harborage at all times. The owner or owners of such building, vacant or unimproved property shall be responsible for complying with the provisions of this Section and Section 2.
SECTION 4. All building material, lumber, boxes, cartons, barrels, bottles, cans, containers, machinery, raw material, junk, fabricated goods, food, foodstuff and similar things which may afford harborage or food for rats, shall be kept, stored or handled in a manner or method approved by the Commissioner.
SECTION 5. Whenever there is a rat infestation in any building, open area or other premises the occupants thereof, and in the case of a multiple dwelling, the owner or owners thereof, shall immediately institute rat eradication measures and shall continuously maintain such measures until any such building, open area or other premises are declared by the commissioner to be free of rat infestation.
SECTION 5(A). Whenever there is an infestation of insects or other pests in any building or other premises, the occupants and/or owners thereof, and in the case of multiple dwelling, the owner or owners thereof, shall immediately institute extermination measures and shall continuously maintain such measures until any such building, multiple dwelling or other premises are declared by the Commissioner to be free of insects or other pest infestation.
(Passed 6-26-85)
SECTION 6. No building or part thereof shall be used as a place where food and/or foodstuff is stored, processed, prepared or manufactured, sold or offered for sale unless such building or part thereof is free from vermin and rodents.
SECTION 7. It shall be unlawful for any owner occupant, contractor, public utility, or any other person in making alterations, additions, extensions, enlargements or repairs, or in making installation of wires, conduits, pipes or other installations, or for any other purpose, to remove and fail to restore in like condition the ratproofing from any building or to make new openings therein that are not ratproofed.
SECTION 8. No person shall feed wild birds other than in approved containers for the food, elevated at least forty-eight (48) inches above the ground level.
SECTION 9. The Commissioner is hereby empowered to promulgate and enforce all reasonable rules and regulations for carrying out the purpose and intent of this regulation.
SECTION 10. Enforcement. This rule and regulation shall be enforced by the health commissioner in accordance with Section 3707.48 of the Revised Code of the State of Ohio which reads:
"No person shall violate Sections 3707.01 to 3707.53, inclusive, of the Revised Code, or any order or regulation of the Board of Health of a city or general health district made in pursuance thereof, obstruct or interfere with the execution of such order, or willfully or illegally omit to obey such order."
SECTION 11. Penalties. Each and every violation of this rule and regulation shall constitute a separate offense. Violation of this rule and regulation is punishable by Section 3707.99 of the Revised Code of the State of Ohio, which states:
A) Whoever violates section 3707.03 of the Revised Code, unless good and sufficient reason therefor is shown, is guilty of a minor misdemeanor.
B) Whoever violates section 3707.38 of the Revised Code is guilty of a minor misdemeanor.
C) Whoever violates section 3707.48 of the Revised Code is guilty of a minor misdemeanor on a first offense; on each subsequent offense such person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.
(Amended Feb. 18, 1975)
SECTION 12. Repeal clause. All rules and regulations or parts of rules and regulations in conflict herewith are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict only.
SECTION 13. Savings clause. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this rule and regulation is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, void, or invalid the validity of the remaining portions of this rule and regulations shall not be affected thereby.
SECTION 14. For the reason stated in the preamble hereto which is made a part hereof, this resolution is declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force upon its adoption.
Specifications for rat-proofing and related requirements under Regulation 2-57: These specifications are hereby promulgated as official interpretation of Regulation 2-57 effective April 2, 1957. In accordance with provisions of that regulation they were adopted by the Board of Health of the City of Toledo on April 2, 1957.
1. Definitions: The following definitions from the rodent control regulation are restated herein as an aid in interpreting the regulations given in Sections 2 and 3 below:
SECTION 1.1. The term "approved" shall mean that which the Commissioner by rule and/or regulation designates acceptable as a device, apparatus or method which by demonstration and/or test has proven workable for its intended use.
SECTION 1.2. The term "building" shall mean any structure, whether public or private, that is adapted for occupancy, for transaction of business, for rendering of professional service, for amusement, for the performance of work or labor, including hotels, apartment buildings, tenement houses, rooming houses, office buildings, public buildings, private residences, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abattoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories, and all outhouses, sheds, barns and other structures, or premises used for business purposes.
SECTION 1.3. The terms "rat-proof" or "ratproofing" apply to a form of construction which will prevent the ingress or egress of rats to or from a given space or building, or gaining access to food, water or harborage. It consists of the closing and keeping closed by the use of materials impervious to rat gnawing of every opening in foundations, basements, cellars, exterior and interior walls, ground or first floors, roofs, sidewalk gratings, sidewalk openings and other places that may be reached and entered by rats by climbing, burrowing or other methods.
SECTION 1.4. The term "rat - harborage" shall mean any condition under which rats may find shelter or protection.
2. Materials and workmanship: All work shall be done in compliance with all existing health, sanitary, fire, building or other ordinances and regulations. No work done may increase existing hazards. All natural lighting and ventilating openings shall provide essentially the same amount of lighting or ventilation as before treatment.
(a) Sheetmetal (iron) shall be galvanized, and shall not be lighter than 24 gauge.
(b) All hardware cloth shall be galvanized. No hardware cloth with openings larger than one-half inch (2x2) shall be permitted. One-half inch (2x2) shall not be lighter than nineteen gauge metal. One-quarter inch mesh hardware cloth shall not be lighter than twenty-four gauge metal.
(c) Perforated sheetmetal plates shall be not less than fourteen gauge thickness and the perforations shall not permit the passage of a cylinder one-half inch in diameter.
(d) Expanded sheetmetal shall be not less than eighteen gauge metal, and not larger than one-half inch mesh, and shall have a rust resisting protective coating, preferably galvanized.
(e) Aluminum shall conform to the following specifications for the purpose shown below:
(1) Window frames and channel flashing-
2-S-3/4 or 3-S-1/4 H-Unsupported 20 gauge
Supported 22 gauge
(2) Kickplates-3-S-1/2 H 20 gauge
(3) Ratguards-3-S-1/2 H 18 gauge
(f) Iron grilles or guards shall be equivalent rat-resisting properties as the above materials. Any opening in such grilles or guards shall not permit the passage of a cylinder one-half inch in diameter.
(g) Installation of screens, kickplates, metal flashing and similar items when subject to vibration, rough handling or excessive usage shall be by screws rather than by nails.
(h) When wood framed screening is used the wire hardware cloth screening shall be wrapped around the edges of the wooden frame, or shall be flashed with metal trim of a type and gauge denoted in the foregoing sections.
(i) Other metals and other materials such as cement, cement mortar, hard stone and hard burned brick may be used if they are of equivalent rat resistance, corrosion resistance and strength as the above materials, and accepted by the Commissioner of Health.
3. Rat-proofing requirements: In all buildings subject to rat-proofing by definition of Regulation 2-57.
(a) All opening in the exterior walls, foundations, basements, ground or first floors and roofs which will admit a one-half inch diameter cylinder shall be rat-stopped in an approved manner if they are within 48 inches of the existing exterior ground level immediately below such openings or if they may be reached by rats from the ground by climbing unguarded pipes, wires, cornices, stairs, roofs and other items such as trees or vines, or by burrowing.
(b) That whenever conditions inside or under buildings provide such extensive harborage for rats that the commissioner deems it necessary to eliminate such harborage, he may require the owner to install suitable concrete floors and/or rat-walls, or require the owner and/or occupant to correct such rat harborage as may be necessary in order to facilitate rat eradication in a reasonable time.
(c) Concrete rat walls shall conform to the following standard:
The concrete used shall not be inferior to a mixture of one (1) part Portland Cement to six (6) parts of combined aggregate (sand and gravel) by volume. Rat walls shall be 4 inches thick (minimum) and extend from six (6) inches above to twenty-four (24) inches below ground level, a concrete apron 4 inches thick and 12 inches wide shall be provided at the base of the rat wall.
(d) Where rat-proofing is done below ground level, as in the repair of foundations and/or the installation of rat walls, all repairs and/or installations shall be inspected and approved by the commissioner before the excavation is back-filled.
(e) In the event that business usages would result in stacking or piling material along the exterior walls, an approved type of rat-stoppage shall be extended to a height of 48 inches above the highest probable level of storing or piling.
(f) All doors, including sliding and folding types, shall be constructed so that the space between the lower edge of the door and the threshold shall not exceed three-eighths of an inch; provided further that the space between sections of folding and sliding doors when closed shall not exceed three-eighths of an inch.
(g) All exterior edges of the lower eight inches of wooden doors, door sills, and door jambs easily accessible to rats shall be protected by covering such edges of doors, door sills, and door jambs with 24 gauge galvanized sheet metal or other materials as specified in Section 2, except hardware cloth.
(h) All exterior doors which are likely to remain open are required to be equipped with automatic closing devices, or with screen doors which shall be equipped with such a device and shall be covered as above.
(i) All window openings below grade, within 48 inches of ground level, or any window accessible to rats shall be rat-proofed in an approved manner by grilles, expanded metal, or hardware cloth. (See Section 2-H).
(j) Outside stairways, elevator shafts, coal holes, etc., below grade shall be provided with tight fitting metal covers and frames flashed with 24 gauge galvanized sheet metal or other materials as specified in Section 2, unless they are of the open type and, in this case, they shall have the door or window opening in the foundation protected as required above for doors or windows. Walls of all structures shall be of rat-proof mate-rials.
(k) All sewers, pipes, drains, etc., through which rats may pass shall be closed with a perforated metal cover properly secured. Perforations shall not admit a cylinder one-half inch in diameter.
(l) All openings for pipes, conduits and other utility services, accessible to rats shall be closed solidly for the full thickness of the wall, floor, roof, etc., with an approved rat-proof material or fitted with a collar or shield, securely fastened to the wall or floor, of not less than 24 gauge galvanized sheet metal or other materials as specified in Section 2, extending at least three inches beyond all sides of the opening.
(m) All lighting or ventilating openings shall be protected as is required for windows.
(n) Skylights accessible to rats shall be designed to fit tightly and shall be constructed of approved rat-proof materials. Adjustable skylights which may be opened shall be screened with hardware cloth or expanded metal as described in Section 2.
(o) Roof ventilators, chimneys, pipe vents, downspouts, etc., permitting entry of rats into the interior of the structure shall be closed to such entry by grilles, hardware cloth caps, expanded metal covers or other acceptable rat-proof material. Perforations in such materials shall not be greater than one-half inch.
(p) If the space between two buildings is too small to permit inspection of the exterior walls of such buildings, such space shall be scaled so as to prevent the entrance of rats. Provision must be made in the rat-proofing in such cases that drainage is not obstructed.
4. Storage requirements:
(a) Exterior storage. All building material, lumber, boxes, cartons, barrels, bottles, cans, containers, machinery, junk, raw material, fabricated goods and similar items which may afford harborage for rats shall be stored or stacked in such manner, either upon rat-proof paved areas or elevated eighteen inches above the ground and so separated into storage units as to minimize the possibility of rat harborage and to permit inspection and extermination procedures.
(b) Interior storage. All food and foodstuffs shall be stored in such manner that ample spaces between floors, walls and partitions are provided to permit proper cleaning, inspection and extermination procedures.
(c) Garbage and rubbish to be placed in containers. When containers other than metal are permitted by the City, refuse collection regulations have proven to be inadequate for the sanitary storage of garbage and rubbish. Every householder residing in a building arranged for occupancy by not more than one family, shall provide and maintain in proper order and repair for the dwelling or premises occupied by him covered metal receptacles of a cylindrical design, provided with handles on the outside. Such receptacles shall have a capacity of not more than thirty-three gallons each and shall not be filled to a greater height than two inches of the top and a total loaded weight not to exceed sixty pounds. Garbage and rubbish shall be placed in separate receptacles or commercial dumpsters which shall be maintained in good condition and in sufficient number to contain all the garbage and rubbish emanating from every dwelling, hotel, restaurant, apartment house, public institution, or other premises. Each receptacle shall be provided with a close fitting watertight cover which shall at all times remain in position so as to preclude the ingress of rodents or the escape of odors therefrom. In any building arranged for occupancy by two or more households, the owner or lessee thereof, or his agent, shall provide the necessary number of containers. Containers not complying with this regulation, such as baskets, wood barrels, tubs, paint buckets, iron drums, water boilers, tanks, lard cans and the like, may be collected by the City the same as other wastes. Any defective container having ragged or sharp edges or any defect that is liable to injure or hamper the person collecting the waste, must be replaced immediately by a new container. Any defective container when used may be confiscated by the City after notice attached to such container not to again use the same.
(Res. 21-86. Passed 11-19-86.)
(d) That it shall be unlawful for any person to place, leave, dump, or permit to accumulate any garbage, rubbish or trash in any building or on any premise, improved or vacant, or on any open lot or alley in the City of Toledo so that same shall or may afford food or harborage for rats.
Vote on emergency clause (section 14) yeas (4), nays (0).
Passed April 2, 1957 - regular session, as an emergency measure, voting yeas (4) nays (0).
Louis Lewandowski, President,
Toledo District Board of Health.
Neil S. Larsen, Secretary,
Toledo District Board of Health.