User:Urenoj/sandbox

History
There is some dispute at the local level as to the claim of being the first to establish a local board or health department. At least three cities claim to be the first health department in the United States. The city of Petersburg, Virginia, claims it established the first permanent board of health in 1780. The city of Baltimore, Maryland, claims it established the first US health department in 1793, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, followed 1794, claiming its Board of Health as “one of the first”. And Boston, Massachusetts, claims in 1799 it established the first board of health and the first health department, with Paul Revere named as the first health officer.

At the state level, Louisiana was the first state to create a state board of health in 1855, but it functioned primarily to influence regulations in New Orleans. Massachusetts was the first to establish a state board that functioned throughout its state with statewide authority in 1869.

At the national level, a simple National Board of Health functioned from 1879-1883. Not until 1939 was another federal agency established to manage public health on a national level. It went through several iterations a federal agency called the Federal Security Agency that had health functions such as the United States Public Health Service (PHS), and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 1953, that agency was reorganized and its health functions were elevated to a cabinet-level position to establish the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), which was renamed in 1980 to become the current and modern United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Current laws and regulations at each level of government
HHS notes the laws and regulations that it carries out on its website. Every state also has a health department to which HHS has given a description and hyperlink for each state health department. Other levels of government within each state are varied. For example, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has within it a health department in each of its 58 subdivisions called counties, but only three cities. One is in San Francisco: the San Francisco Department of Public Health; and two are in Los Angeles County: the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services and the Pasadena Public Health Department.