Montana State Board of Health

Montana's Seventh Legislative Assembly created the State Board of Health of Montana in 1901. The Board was to "have the general care of the sanitary interests of the people" and was authorized to "make sanitary investigations and inquiries respecting the causes of disease, and especially epidemics, the causes of mortality and the influence of locality, employment, habits, and other circumstances and conditions, upon the health of the people." In 1967, with the creation of the State Department of Health, the State Board of Health was given the additional duty of overseeing the new department. The State Department of Health was abolished in 1971 and replaced with the Department of Health and Environmental Sciences. The same laws that created the new department continued the State Board of Health, but renamed it as the Board of Health and Environmental Sciences. This Board continued in existence until 1994.

The State Board of Health was responsible for the administration and enforcement of laws related to public health, including ensuring pure foods and drugs, inspecting tourist campgrounds, and licensing related businesses. The Food and Drug Division of the Board administered these sections of the law. The division director, sanitarian, and tourist campground inspector routinely conducted field inspections on restaurants, food- or drug-related businesses, hotels, tourist campgrounds, and water supplies to ensure sanitary conditions. The Food and Drug Division also licensed public eating places, meat markets, food manufacturers, soft drink manufacturers and distributors, and tourist campgrounds.

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