Subdivision 1. Rules. The commissioner may adopt reasonable rules pursuant to chapter 14 for the preservation of the public health. The rules shall not conflict with the charter or ordinance of a city of the first class upon the same subject. The commissioner may control, by rule, by requiring the taking out of licenses or permits, or by other appropriate means, any of the following matters:

(1) the manufacture into articles of commerce, other than food, of diseased, tainted, or decayed animal or vegetable matter;

(2) the business of scavengering and the disposal of sewage;

(3) the location of mortuaries and cemeteries and the removal and burial of the dead;

(4) the management of boarding places for infants and the treatment of infants in them;

(5) the pollution of streams and other waters and the distribution of water by persons for drinking or domestic use;

(6) the construction and equipment, in respect to sanitary conditions, of schools, hospitals, almshouses, prisons, and other public institutions, and of lodging houses and other public sleeping places kept for gain;

(7) the treatment, in hospitals and elsewhere, of persons suffering from communicable diseases, including all manner of venereal disease and infection, the disinfection and quarantine of persons and places in case of those diseases, and the reporting of sicknesses and deaths from them;

Neither the commissioner nor any community health board as defined in section 145A.02, subdivision 5, nor director of public health may adopt any rule or regulation for the treatment in any penal or correctional institution of any person suffering from any communicable disease or venereal disease or infection, which requires the involuntary detention of any person after the expiration of the period of sentence to the penal or correctional institution, or after the expiration of the period to which the sentence may be reduced by good time allowance or by the lawful order of any judge or the Department of Corrections;

(8) the prevention of infant blindness and infection of the eyes of the newly born by the designation, from time to time, of one or more prophylactics to be used in those cases and in the manner that the commissioner directs, unless specifically objected to by a parent of the infant;

(9) the accumulation of filthy and unwholesome matter to the injury of the public health and its removal;

(10) the collection, recording, and reporting of vital records by public officers and the furnishing of information to them by physicians, undertakers, and others of births, deaths, causes of death, and other pertinent facts;

(11) the construction, equipment, and maintenance, in respect to sanitary conditions, of lumber camps, migratory or migrant labor camps, and other industrial camps;

(12) the general sanitation of tourist camps, summer hotels, and resorts in respect to water supplies, disposal of sewage, garbage, and other wastes and the prevention and control of communicable diseases; and, to that end, may prescribe the respective duties of agents of a community health board as authorized under section 145A.04; and all community health boards shall make such investigations and reports and obey such directions as the commissioner may require or give and, under the supervision of the commissioner, enforce the rules;

(13) atmospheric pollution which may be injurious or detrimental to public health;

(14) sources of radiation, and the handling, storage, transportation, use and disposal of radioactive isotopes and fissionable materials; and

(15) the establishment, operation and maintenance of all clinical laboratories not owned, or functioning as a component of a licensed hospital. These laboratories shall not include laboratories owned or operated by five or less licensed practitioners of the healing arts, unless otherwise provided by federal law or regulation, and in which these practitioners perform tests or procedures solely in connection with the treatment of their patients. Rules promulgated under the authority of this clause, which shall not take effect until federal legislation relating to the regulation and improvement of clinical laboratories has been enacted, may relate at least to minimum requirements for external and internal quality control, equipment, facility environment, personnel, administration and records. These rules may include the establishment of a fee schedule for clinical laboratory inspections. The provisions of this clause shall expire 30 days after the conclusion of any fiscal year in which the federal government pays for less than 45 percent of the cost of regulating clinical laboratories.

Subd. 2. Mass gatherings. The commissioner may regulate the general sanitation of mass gatherings by promulgation of rules in respect to, but not limited to, the following areas: water supply, disposal of sewage, garbage and other wastes, the prevention and control of communicable diseases, the furnishing of suitable and adequate sanitary accommodations, and all other reasonable and necessary precautions to protect and insure the health, comfort and safety of those in attendance. No permit, license, or other prior approval shall be required of the commissioner for a mass gathering. A "mass gathering" shall mean an actual or reasonably anticipated assembly of more than 1,500 persons which will continue, or may reasonably be expected to continue, for a period of more than ten consecutive hours and which is held in an open space or temporary structure especially constructed, erected or assembled for the gathering. For purposes of this subdivision, "mass gatherings" shall not include public gatherings sponsored by a political subdivision or a nonprofit organization.

Subd. 3. Licenses; permits. Applications for licenses or permits issued pursuant to this section shall be submitted with a fee prescribed by the commissioner pursuant to section 144.122. Licenses or permits shall expire and be renewed as prescribed by the commissioner pursuant to section 144.122.

Subd. 4. Camper cabins and bunkhouses. Camper cabins and bunkhouses are exempt from floor space, air space, or bed spacing requirements applicable to lodging establishments adopted by the commissioner. For the purposes of this section:

(1) "bunkhouse" means a building, structure, or enclosure intended to sleep more than one person for up to three nights that does not include a kitchen or bathroom; and

(2) "camper cabin" means a permanent rustic enclosure with walls and a floor that does not include a kitchen or bath; is located in a state park administered by the commissioner of natural resources, at a resort as defined under section 157.15, subdivision 11, or at a recreational camping area as defined under section 327.14, subdivision 8; and is intended to be a place where sleeping accommodations are furnished to the public.

History: (5345) RL s 2131; 1917 c 345 s 1; 1923 c 227 s 1; 1951 c 537 s 1; 1953 c 134 s 1; 1957 c 361 s 1; 1975 c 310 s 4; 1975 c 351 s 1; 1977 c 66 s 10; 1977 c 305 s 45; 1977 c 406 s 1; 1983 c 359 s 9; 1985 c 248 s 70; 1986 c 444; 1987 c 309 s 24; 2014 c 192 art 4 s 1; 2014 c 291 art 7 s 28; 2015 c 21 art 1 s 109; 1Sp2015 c 4 art 4 s 124