1847 – Brigham Young and pioneers arrive in Salt Lake City. Young advises settlers to boil drinking water, eat sensibly, work hard and get plenty of sleep.

1849 – The Society of Health is created. The group’s objective is to “give information to the masses and enable them to help themselves.”

1889 – The Deseret News advocates for construction of a downtown sewer and a “dry earth system of defecation” for the rest of the city.

1890 – The same paper recommends condemning all surface wells and connecting all residences with city water lines to prevent the spread of cholera and other diseases that were carried in contaminated water.

1896 – Utah becomes a state.

1898 – Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon sponsors a bill creating the State Board of Health. Dr. Theodore Bruce Beatty is named the state’s first health officer. He serves in the position until 1934.

1900 – Dr. Beatty recommends the Board of Health adopt a program of mandatory smallpox vaccination. There was immediate and statewide opposition, led by the editorial writer of the Deseret News. Despite support for the program from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Governor, the State Legislature succeeds in repealing the ordinance.

1907 – Lawmakers authorize the teaching of sanitation and disease prevention in public schools.

1911 – Doctors are authorized to examine school children and report diseases and defects to parents. Laws were enacted to require the reporting of sexually transmitted diseases and to treat the eyes of newborns to prevent gonorrheal infection.

1915 – Public Health establishes chlorination of water in Salt Lake City.

1916 – The Utah Public Health Association (UPHA) is formed.

1922 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sheppard-Towner act, providing financial assistance to states for maternal and child health programs. Dr. Beatty turned to the LDS Church’s Relief Society to administer the law, which soon had 194 health clinics operating across Utah.

1925 – Public Health Laboratory established to do drug testing and testing for causes of death.

1930s – More federal funding becomes available to states with the passage of the Social Security Act.

1937 – The Legislature orders the Board of Health to set testing standards for prophylactics (condoms and ointments) and the devices are tested at the State Health Laboratory. The first fully organized local health department opens in Davis County.

1953 – The state adopts a complete Utah Health Code, which sets down laws and the organization of the State Health Department. The code includes chapters relating to vital records, communicable disease, public health nursing, sanitation, hospital licensor and maternal and child health.

1960s – The legislature enacts laws to control air pollution, require testing of all newborns for the metabolic disorder PKU, and to establish a statewide Medical Examiner system.

1962 – Public health begins regulating milk supplies in response to radioactive contamination of hay and pasture lands from the Nevada Atomic Test Site.

1967 – Public health launches the “Muzzle the Measles” immunization campaign, which reaches an estimated 96 percent of susceptible children.

1968 – Utah establishes the first Cancer Registry.

1970s – The state legislature authorizes the Department to organize emergency medical services (EMS) into a statewide system and to train and certify EMS personnel.

1972 – Office of the Medical Examiner is first established.

1975 – The Public Health Laboratory building is completed, providing a central location for laboratory services.

1976 – The State Board of Health fails in its efforts to require all public water supplies to be fluoridated for the prevention of tooth decay.

1979 – Public health begins to increase focus on promoting wellness through healthy lifestyles and eliminating risk factors for diseases like heart disease and cancer.

1980s – The “Baby Your Baby” campaign is launched to address a growing infant mortality rate.

1981 – Health statutes are recodified to include emergency medical services, solid and hazardous waste, radiation, health facility planning, and financial assistance for medical care. The Board of Health is replaced with a Health Advisory Council, with the Executive Director of Health reporting directly to the Governor.

1986 – The new Cannon Health Building opens in Salt Lake City. It is the first government facility in Utah to be entirely “smoke free.”

1991 – The state legislature removes the environmental health function form the Department of Health and creates a separate Department of Environmental Quality.

1991 – The UDOH partners with a local television station on the Check Your Health (CYH) program. CYH gets regular information to Utah viewers to improve their overall health.

1991 – Office of the Medical Examiner building is completed.

1992 – All but two divisions of the Department of Environmental Quality (Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste and the Division of Water Quality) move out of the Cannon Health Building, into the new DEQ building complex.

1994 – The UDOH begins monitoring birth defects among Utah children.

1994 – The Utah Indoor Clean Air Act, which prohibits smoking in nearly all public places, passes.

1995 – The Utah Statewide Immunization Information System (USIIS) is launched with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). USIIS is an immunization registry that makes vaccination records available electronically to providers, health plans, schools, day care centers and publicly funded programs.

1997 – The UDOH and the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault launched the first media campaign against rape and sexual assault.

1998 – Utah's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is born. Utah can start insuring more children. Since the program began CHIP has insured over 100,000 low income children.

1998 – Newborn Hearing Screening is Legislatively mandated for all hospitals that have over 100 live births per year.

1999 – Newborn Hearing Screening is Legislatively mandated for all hospitals and birthing centers.

2000 – Salt Lake and Davis Counties adopted water fluoridation.

2000 – The new Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) building completed on the U. of U. campus.

2001 – Primary Care Network (PCN), a preventive health coverage plan for Utah adults, is born.

2001 – In response to a growing number of cases of asthma in Utah, the UDOH creates the Asthma Program.

2001 – A preventive health program called Gold Medal Schools is launched. The program promotes physical activity, safety and healthful food choices at elementary schools.

2002 – As the home of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Utah faced many new and unique challenges, including those related to public health. During the games, public health agencies worked together to watch for infectious disease outbreaks, coordinate emergency medical services and enforce food safety, clean air, pools and spas, mass gatherings and lodging. The Olympics gave public health a jumpstart in its emergency planning efforts and brought key partners to the same table in unprecedented fashion.

2002 – The UDOH holds its first open enrollment for Utah's Children's Health
Insurance Program (CHIP) and received 6,078 applications representing 13,505 children.

2003 – Utah is one of only four states to received CDC funding to create a Chronic Disease Genomics Program.

2004 – Utah becomes the first state to meet the federal Healthy People 2010 goal of decreasing the adult smoking rate to less than 12% of the population.

2005 – The Office of Vital Records and Statistics (OARS) celebrates its 100-year anniversary. For over a century the collection of records has had both a local & national impact. The celebration highlighted changes in vital records over the past hundred years as well as the impact that statistical information has had at both a local and national level.

2006 – The Martha Hughes Cannon Health building is 20 years old!

09/03/2009