26:3-31 Public health regulations.

26:3-31. The local board of health shall have power to pass, alter or amend ordinances and make rules and regulations in regard to the public health within its jurisdiction, for the following purposes:

a. To protect the public water supply and prevent the pollution of any stream of water or well, the water of which is used for domestic purposes, and to prevent the use of or to close any well, the water of which is polluted or detrimental to the public health.

b. (1) To prohibit the cutting, sale or delivery of ice in any municipality without obtaining a permit from the local board. No person shall cut, sell or deliver ice in any municipality without obtaining such permit.

(2) To refuse such permit or revoke any permit granted by it when in its judgment the use of any ice cut, sold or delivered under the permit would be detrimental to the public health. Upon the refusal or revocation of a permit by the local board, an appeal may be taken to the State department. Upon order of the State department a permit shall be granted or the revocation set aside.

(3) To prohibit the importation, distribution or sale of any impure ice which would be detrimental to the public health.

c. To license and regulate the sanitary conditions of hotels, restaurants, cafes, and other public eating houses and to provide for the posting of ratings or score cards setting forth the sanitary condition of any public eating house after inspection of the same and to post the rating or score card in some conspicuous or public place in such eating house.

d. To compel any owner of property along the line of any sewer to connect his house or other building therewith. This paragraph shall be enforced by the local board within its jurisdiction and it shall by ordinance provide a fine of $25 to be imposed upon any person who shall not comply with any order issued under the authority of this paragraph, within 30 days after notice by the proper officer of the board to make the required connections. An additional fine of $10 shall be provided for each day of delay, after the expiration of the 30 days, in which the provisions of the order or notice are not complied with. Such notice may be served upon the owner personally or by leaving it at his usual place of abode with a member of his family above the age of 18 years.

e. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1987, c.442.)

f. To regulate, control, and prohibit the accumulation of offal and any decaying or vegetable substance.

g. (1) To regulate the location, construction, maintenance, method of emptying or cleaning, and the frequency of cleaning of any privy or other place used for the reception or storage of human excrement, and to prohibit the construction or maintenance of any privy or other such place until a license therefor shall have been issued by the board, which license shall continue in force for one year from the date of issue.

(2) To fix the fee, not exceeding $5, for such license, and to use the fees so collected in supervising and maintaining said privies or other places and in removing and disposing of the excrement therefrom.

(3) To revoke such license at any time if the owner or tenant of the property on which any privy or other such place is located, maintains the same in violation of law, or of the State sanitary code, or any ordinance or rule of the board.

h. To regulate, control, or prohibit the cleaning of any sewer, the dumping of garbage, the filling of any sunken lot or marsh land, and to provide for the filling up of any such lot or land, which has become filled with stagnant water and is located in any built-up area.

i. (1) To license and regulate the business of cleaning cesspools and privies, which license shall continue for the term of one year from the date of granting, and to fix the fee that shall be charged for such license, not exceeding $20 for each vehicle or conveyance.

(2) To prohibit unlicensed persons from engaging in such business.

(3) To require any vehicle or conveyance used in such business within its jurisdiction to be approved by it.

(4) To revoke such license if any licensee or his employee or agent shall violate any ordinance or rule of the board in cleaning any cesspool or privy, or in removing the contents thereof.

j. To aid in the enforcement of laws as to the adulteration of all kinds of food and drink, and to prevent the sale or exposure for sale of any meat or vegetable that is unwholesome or unfit for food.

k. To regulate, control, or prohibit the keeping or slaughtering of animals.

l. To license and regulate the keeping of boarding houses for infants and children and to fix a license fee for the same and to prevent unlicensed persons from keeping such boarding houses. This paragraph shall not apply to:

(1) The Department of Children and Families.

(2) Any children's home, orphan asylum, or children's aid society incorporated under the laws of this State.

(3) Any aid society of a properly organized and accredited church or fraternal society organized for aid and relief to its members.

(4) Any charitable society incorporated under the laws of this State having as one of its objects the prevention of cruelty to children or the care and protection of children.

m. To require in buildings, designed to be occupied, or occupied, as residences by more than two families and when the owners have agreed to supply heat, that from October 1 of each year to the next succeeding May 1, every unit of dwelling space and every habitable room therein shall be maintained at least at 68 degrees F. whenever the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees during daytime hours from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. At times other than those specified interiors of units of dwelling space shall be maintained at least at 55 degrees F. whenever the outside temperature falls below 40 degrees.

In meeting the aforesaid standards, the owner shall not be responsible for heat loss and the consequent drop in the interior temperature arising out of action by the occupants in leaving windows or doors open to the exterior of the building. The owner shall be obligated to supply required fuel or energy and maintain the heating system in good operating condition so that it can supply heat as required herein notwithstanding any contractual provision seeking to delegate or shift responsibility to the occupant or third person, except that the owner shall not be required to supply fuel or energy for heating purposes to any unit where the occupant thereof agrees in writing to supply heat to his own unit of dwelling space and the said unit is served by its own exclusive heating equipment for which the source of heat can be separately computed and billed.

n. To regulate the practice of midwifery, but the exercise of such authority shall not conflict with the provisions of chapter 10 of Title 45 of the Revised Statutes (R.S.45:10-1 et seq.).

o. To enforce the making of returns or reports to the local board on the part of any person charged with such duty under any law and to take cognizance of any failure to make such returns and deal with the same in an effective manner.

p. To act as the agent for a landlord in the engaging of repairmen and the ordering of any parts necessary to restore to operating condition the furnace, boiler or other equipment essential to the proper heating of any residential unit rented by said landlord, provided, however, that at least 24 hours have elapsed since the tenant has lodged a complaint with the local board of health, prior to which a bona fide attempt has been made by the tenant to notify the landlord of the failure of the heating equipment, and the landlord has failed to take appropriate action, and the outside air temperature is less than 55 degrees F.

Any person who supplies material or services in accordance with this section shall bill the landlord directly and by filing a notice approved by the local board of health, with the county clerk, shall have a lien on the premises where the materials were used or services supplied.

Amended 1946, c.211; 1968, c.362, s.29; 1971, c.360; 1987, c.442, s.4; 2004, c.130, s.43; 2006, c.47, s.110.