For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
(a) "Business buildings" means any structure, whether public or private, that is adapted for occupancy for transaction of business, for rendering of professional service, for amusement, for the display, sale or storage of goods, wares or merchandise, or for the performance of worker labor, including hotels, apartment buildings, tenement houses, rooming houses, office buildings, public buildings, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abattoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories and all outhouses, sheds, barns and other structures on the premises used for business purposes.
(b) "Health Officer" means the Superintendent, Commissioner or Director of Health or any duly authorized representative.
(c) "Occupant" means the person who uses or occupies any business building or part or fraction thereof, whether the actual owner or tenant. In the case of vacant business buildings or vacant portions thereof, the owner, agent or custodian shall have the responsibility as occupant.
(d) "Owner" means the actual owner, agent or custodian of the business building, whether individual, partnership or corporation. The lessee shall be construed as the owner for the purpose of this article when business building agreements hold the lessee responsible for maintenance and repairs.
(e) "Rat eradication" means the elimination or extermination of rats within buildings by any or all of the accepted measures, such as poisoning, fumigation, trapping, clubbing and similar means.
(f) "Rat harborage" means any condition which provides shelter or protection for rats, thus favoring their multiplication and continued existence, in, under or outside of any structure.
(g) "Rat proofing" means a form of construction to prevent the ingress of rats into business buildings from the exterior or from one business building establishment to another. It consists essentially of treatment with material, impervious to rat gnawing, all actual or potential openings in exterior walls, ground or first floors, basements, roof and foundations, that may be reached by rats from the ground by climbing or burrowing.
(1967 Code Sec. 16-5)