NYS Public Health Legal Manual: A Guide for Judges, Attorneys ...

NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC HEALTH LEGAL MANUAL § 1.69
Commentary
There is ample authority in the Public Health Law, State Sanitary
Code and New York City Health Code for local health officers to
enter onto private property to investigate sources of contagious diseases
that may be dangerous to the public health, to abate or remove
objects as required, and to prevent entry into or exit from those premises.
See, e.g., PHL §§ 2100(1) [authority to exercise “proper and
vigilant medical inspection and control of all persons and things”];
2100(2)(b) [authority to prohibit “communication with or use of the
infected property” and to provide for a “thorough purification and
the cleansing of” the property]; 10 NYCRR § 2.6(a) [authority to
conduct an “investigation as the circumstances may require”];
Health Code [24 RCNY] § 11.03(e) [New York City Health Department
has authority to “conduct such surveillance, epidemiologic and
laboratory investigative activities” and to “implement public health
measures to control the disease”]. As with the authority of local
health officers to implement processes for isolation and quarantine,
local health officers may fill in any gaps in the applicable provisions
of these statutes and rules through the exercise of their common law
police powers. See supra, Commentary to IV(I)(1).
The Public Health Law, and the New York City Health Code and
New York City Administrative Code, similarly contain procedures
addressing public nuisances and permitting the abatement of
conditions dangerous to life or health. PHL § 1303; Health Code [24
RCNY] § 3.03; NYC Admin. Code § 17-145. These conditions go
beyond contagious diseases and can be used to address, e.g.,
radiological or chemical contamination that poses an immediate
health threat to the public. While the procedures governing
nuisances in Article 13 of the PHL are addressed to conditions that
are essentially created by the owner (or occupier) of the property
and that are required, after due notice, to be abated by that owner at
the owner’s expense, Article 13 should not be read as restricting
local health officers from taking immediate action pursuant to their
police powers to enter and seize property where the danger to the
public health so requires. See supra, Commentary to IV(I)(1). See
also PHL § 1303(3) [“Every local board of health shall order the
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