4-15. SUMMARY
a. As a preventive medicine specialist, you could be called upon to inspect a
variety of facilities that have no written or formal standards. These facilities are usually
public use facilities, family housing, or public schools.
b. Examining these facilities challenges your skill as an inspector. Because of
the lack of formal standards or regulations, decisions depend on your own perceptions
and judgments. You must balance Army standards for similar facilities with your
experience and with your awareness of the principles of sanitation to reach a sound
conclusion. Above all, you must use common sense in your evaluations.
c. The basic goal of inspecting these varied facilities is to determine whether
they present a safety or health threat to the public. You must keep this goal in mind
when evaluating a facility. Do not rate the facility based on your concepts of a good
"standard of living" or attractiveness.
d. The term public use facilities refers to places such as theaters, bowling alleys,
gymnasiums, and parks where people congregate, usually for recreation.
e. Public use facilities have both common problems and problems unique to
each type of facility. You should inspect the following general areas common
to most of these facilities:
(1)
The water source and distribution system.
(2)
Wastewater disposal.
(3)
Restroom facilities.
(4)
Hazardous chemicals, operations, or physical structures.
(5)
Food service operations and vending units.
(6)
Solid waste storage and disposal.
NOTE:
In addition, you should be aware of sanitation needs and problems unique to
a specific facility. Several examples are presented in the text.
f. A PVNTMED specialist (91S) becomes involved in family housing inspections
when alone at a post. Otherwise, an officer usually handles these complaints.
g. When inspecting family housing, your goal is to evaluate conditions that may
present a health threat to the public and not the standard of living. Be alert to situations
that could cause disease transmission and safety hazards. Several examples were
given in the text.
MD0166
4-8