New Construction Sites

NEW CONSTRUCTION SITES. In the process of rapid socialist construction in industry and agriculture, world giants of industry are created in the USSR, which attract the attention of workers throughout the world. The word 'new construction sites' during the period of building socialism in the USSR is familiar and close not only to every worker of the Soviet Union, but also to workers throughout the world. Socialist industry is annually replenished with hundreds of new enterprises. In 1931, 518 new factories, plants, power stations, and mines enter the ranks of socialist industry. Some giant construction projects have already been completed and have gone into operation during these years, such as: the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, which at present (1931) daily provides over 100 tractors for socialist agriculture; the Rostselmash construction project; the reconstructed 'Red Putilovets' plant, and others. In 1931, the Kharkov Tractor Plant and the Moscow Stalin Automobile Plant (AMO) began operations; the first phases of the world giants of Kuznetskstroy and Magnitostroy are being completed. About the new construction sites in the East, Comrade Stalin spoke at the XVI Party Congress: 'In the future, it is necessary to immediately begin creating a second coal-metallurgical base. This base should be the Urals-Kuznetsk combine, the combination of Kuznetsk coking coal with Ural ore. The construction of an automobile plant in Nizhny (which began operation in early January 1932), a tractor plant in Chelyabinsk, a machine-building plant in Sverdlovsk, combine plants in Saratov (which went into operation in early January 1932) and Novosibirsk, the presence of growing metallurgy in Siberia and Kazakhstan, requiring the creation of a network of repair shops and a number of basic metallurgical plants in the East; finally, the decision to build textile factories in Novosibirsk and Turkestan - all this imperatively requires immediate action to create a second coal-metallurgical base in the Urals' [Stalin-Report to the XVI Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]. In 1932, Dneprostroi will be completed, the world's largest power station. Work is being carried out at an accelerated pace on the construction of dozens of other grandiose combines and plants: Chelyabstroy, Berezniki, Uralmashstroy in the Urals, Karaganda in Kazakhstan, Bobriki in the Moscow region, etc. Around the construction of industry giants, the attention and support of the broad proletarian masses of the USSR are concentrated. Such giants as Magnitostroy, Kuznetskstroy, are being built not only by tens of thousands of construction workers, but by the entire USSR. Every department, organization is obliged to provide maximum assistance to these most important new construction sites. Before the health authorities, enormous and extremely important tasks of medical-sanitary service for hundreds of thousands of construction workers at new construction sites have also been set. In 2-3 years, huge new cities are being created around the largest new construction sites, requiring the fastest possible development of comprehensive sanitary and medical treatment assistance. In 1929, the site of Magnitostroy was a bare steppe. Construction began to unfold in 1930, and by November 1931, Magnitogorsk already had 180,000 people. The medical-sanitary network at new construction sites was initially developed with great tension, on the one hand, due to the lack of medical personnel, and on the other hand, due to the lack of premises. In 1931, hundreds of doctors were already transferred to new construction sites. By the end of 1931, 150 doctors of various qualifications were working at Magnitostroy; at Kuznetskstroy - 92 doctors, at Avtostroy - 75 doctors, in Prokopyevsk - 64 doctors, in Berezniki - 37 doctors, etc. In Magnitogorsk, a special hospital complex of barrack type for 1,000 beds has been built. In this new socialist city, construction of a second huge hospital for 1,500 permanent beds with all improvements will begin in the near future. Outpatient clinic assistance is provided in three polyclinics of all specialties. At the construction site, there are 10 health posts on the most important sections of the construction area, which carry out extensive sanitary and health work and organize the fight to reduce morbidity and injuries; there are tuberculosis and venereal dispensaries, emergency assistance by automobiles, etc. From the separate problems of medical-sanitary affairs at new construction sites, the following should be noted. The most important preventive institution at new construction sites is the isolation-check point, which serves as the most necessary barrier to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases at new construction sites. It is absolutely necessary for construction at new construction sites to build premises for such an isolation-check point at the very beginning, and for health authorities to properly and clearly organize the corresponding work. No less important a moment in protecting the health of workers at new construction sites is the provision of baths and laundries, which has not yet been sufficiently carried out at new construction sites. Housing for workers is also very important. The usual type of housing at new construction sites is barracks. By mid-1931, there were over 1,000 such barracks at Magnitostroy. A huge disadvantage of these barracks is that in the majority they are insufficiently equipped and not plastered, which extremely complicates their maintenance in proper sanitary condition and leads to sharp fluctuations in temperature in winter. The sanitary minimum for barracks has already been developed; it is necessary to ensure its implementation. The sanitary condition of barracks depends to a large extent on the initiative of the workers living in them. At many new construction sites, a sanitary commission has been created in each barracks, which is supervised by a doctor attached to the barracks. At Avtostroy, Chelyabstroy, in Magnitogorsk, the network of sanitary commissions in barracks has been particularly widely developed, and workers have been involved in sanitary and health work during the cleanliness month. In April 1931, during the cleanliness month at Magnitostroy, a health care active of more than a thousand people was created; extensive social competition between barracks for the best barracks in sanitary terms was developed. During this month, enormous sanitary and health work was carried out throughout the construction area. Medical workers and especially doctors carried out their work with great enthusiasm. The success of the work of barracks sanitary commissions depends to a large extent on the daily and skillful leadership of medical workers. Doctors attached to barracks are obliged to decisively demand from commanders and cleaners the regular required cleaning of premises. At new construction sites, the barracks is especially a responsible household area where many difficult moments (crowding, overloading, etc.) of household service for construction workers intersect. Such a serious area of household service for workers at new construction sites is public catering. At new construction sites, workers in the overwhelming majority eat in public dining rooms. At Magnitogorsk in mid-1931, about 80,000 people were eating in dining rooms. Improving the sanitary condition in public dining rooms at new construction sites is the most urgent task for health authorities. At Bobriki, bacillus carriers - employees of the dining room - served as the cause of an outbreak of intestinal infection. The resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of August 5, 1931, requires health authorities to decisively improve sanitary supervision over public catering institutions. Unfortunately, the sanitary organization at new construction sites is insufficient and cannot yet ensure proper sanitary supervision over the large number of dining rooms at major new construction sites. Therefore, it is necessary, following the example of Magnitogorsk, to attach to each dining room, in addition to sanitary doctors, doctors from health posts and other doctors from other areas of medical work, so that the attached doctor bears full responsibility for the timely implementation of health measures to improve public catering. Only in this way can the depersonalization in sanitary supervision be avoided. In addition, it is necessary to conduct laboratory observation of dining room employees to identify and isolate bacillus carriers. The doctor cannot limit his work only to sanitary supervision; he needs to more deeply engage in the struggle to improve public catering, striving to improve the quality of food, variety of dishes, organization of therapeutic (dietary) nutrition, etc. The narrowest place in the correct, necessary and timely development of medical assistance at new construction sites is the personnel. Therefore, it is necessary for the People's Commissariat of Health and regional health authorities to determine in advance, based on data about new construction sites and the growth of their workforce, their need for doctors and develop methods to satisfy this need. From new graduates of medical schools, the necessary number should be reserved for new construction sites; qualified doctors are also needed; therefore, from residents, interns and other categories of qualifying doctors, a certain percentage should be allocated for new construction sites - regional and regional health authorities should take care in advance of transferring doctors to new construction sites from other work areas. The staffing of new construction sites with middle medical personnel should be fully carried out by regional and regional health authorities, also in advance, with the availability of an accurate plan of this need and its coverage. It is necessary to note in connection with the personnel issue the great difficulties with living space for medical personnel. These difficulties were observed until recently at Avtostroy, Magnitogorsk and a number of other new construction sites.

Simultaneously, deadlines for providing premises for medical-sanitary institutions must be established, as the lack of premises delays the timely deployment of medical-sanitary institutions at new construction sites. Another difficult aspect at new construction sites is nursery care. To this day, health authorities have not paid proper attention to this issue, although at new construction sites it is of enormous importance for the maximum utilization of the female workforce living there, which can only be achieved through nursery care. Construction itself is also interested in this. As a rule, nursery care with 100% coverage of children should be deployed at new construction sites. Furthermore, it is necessary to note the absence of a well-developed plan in advance for medical-sanitary and cultural-domestic service for a given new construction site, with precise accounting for the number of health points, beds, polyclinics, sanitary doctors, bathhouses, laundries, etc., as the new construction site is developed; this plan should be available in the People's Commissariat of Health, regional/cray health departments, and at the construction site. Scientific institutes have recently become much more involved in assisting health authorities at new construction sites: brigades were sent to Magnitostroy, Kuzbass, Avtostroy, individual scientific workers were sent, consultations were conducted, etc. It is necessary for scientific institutes to expand their assistance to health authorities at new construction sites even more widely through the closest coordination with the largest new construction sites, assuming patronage and scientifically developing a series of issues related to the medical-sanitary service of new construction sites. The Central Venereological Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health (Moscow) provides concrete assistance to Magnitostroy in organizing a department of the venereological institute. The Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy has conducted extensive practical work through sent brigades to improve the organization of mother and infant care at new construction sites. The Sanitary-Hygiene Institute (Moscow) has sent its responsible scientific workers to Magnitostroy several times on issues of improving water supply. Dozens of scientific institutes can do a great deal to improve the medical-sanitary service at new construction sites. Currently, some new construction sites are already developing their own scientific research institutes (Magnitogorsk, Stalingrad, etc.). The implementation of sanitary minimum, the fight to reduce morbidity and injury rates at new construction sites finally also requires active assistance to health authorities from trade union masses and trade union organizations. The presentation of periodic reports by health authorities of new construction sites at meetings of grassroots trade union bodies on the work carried out, the creation of groups to support health care at construction sites, the cultural-mass work of health authorities among workers, the conduct of mass campaigns in the fight for cleanliness (sanitary expeditions, sanitary-cultural relays, medical tugs, etc.), the development of socialist competition and shock work—these are the ways of the closest coordination of health authorities with trade union masses and trade union bodies. To strengthen leadership in health care affairs at the largest new construction sites, construction health departments have now been created in the RSFSR with the rights of district health departments, directly subordinate to regional and cray health departments. Their regulations have been coordinated with the Supreme Council of the National Economy. In the apparatus of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR, a special group of workers has been allocated to guide medical service at new construction sites. In such regional and cray health departments, for example in the Urals, it is also necessary to allocate special workers to improve leadership in health care affairs at new construction sites. For 1932, the control figures provide for a significant expansion of the network of medical-sanitary institutions at existing and planned new construction sites. The following data characterize this growth for some new construction sites: Medical assistance Hospital beds...... Outpatient points...... Health points. Nursery beds Doctors...... Sanitary doctors. . Magnitostroy Uralmashstroy Chelyabstroy 1931 1932 1931 1932 1931 1932 2 500 Beryozniki 1931 1932 Kuznetskstroy 1931 1932 Karaganda 1931 1932 10 3 13 350 8 12 40 15 33 20 400 80 12 The data presented characterize the significant growth in 1932 for individual new construction sites across all indicators of medical-sanitary service for workers at new construction sites. In total, for 17 main new construction sites on the territory of only the RSFSR, the general figures for medical-sanitary service are as follows: 1930 1931 1932 (planned) Total beds . . . 2 314 5 315 9 915 Outpatient reception points San.doctors . Health points. Nursery beds 3 344 This does not include new construction sites of other union republics, such as Dneprostroy, Shterstroy, etc.- In 1932, socialist construction will proceed at an even more vigorous pace to complete the five-year plan in four years, to complete the foundation of socialism. Hundreds of new enterprises will be launched next year. Drawing on the experience of previous years, health authorities together with all public organizations must maximize the improvement of medical-sanitary service for workers at new construction sites, in every way helping to fulfill the planned construction program.

I. Nikolaev. Scheme of operational work of health organs at New Construction Sites. The work of health organs at New Construction Sites must, on one hand, ensure sanitary supervision and sanitary measures for the improvement and sanitary technical servicing of the working population of new construction sites, and on the other hand, ensure the development of therapeutic and preventive care. Under the conditions of new construction, this medical-sanitary service, if carried out correctly and quickly on a wide scale, is a powerful means for fulfilling the industrial-financial plan and the precise completion of the production tasks of the new construction sites themselves. In the area of sanitary improvement and supervision, the activity of sanitary organs at New Construction Sites must begin with the very first steps in the construction and planning of the enterprises themselves and the residential settlements near them. Schematically, the individual branches of work of sanitary organs in this respect should be outlined and carried out according to the following groups of measures. 1. Sanitary measures for selecting sites for worker settlements at New Construction Sites, both temporary and permanent, and for their general improvement. 2. Sanitary measures for ensuring the settlement with good quality drinking and household water. 3. Sanitary measures for cleaning and removing refuse, filth, and garbage. 4. Sanitary measures for the housing of new construction sites (barracks, dormitories, public buildings). 5. Sanitary measures for bath-laundry service, i.e., for the personal hygiene of the working population. 6. Sanitary measures for public catering. 7. Sanitary measures for the prevention and control of infectious diseases, as well as other mass diseases. All these measures must be carried out according to plans developed in advance and with the immediate provision of sanitary personnel for the territory of New Construction Sites from the very beginning of construction. This plan should be constructed along the line of the urgent deployment by the economic and construction organs of New Construction Sites of necessary sanitary institutions, and then along the line of planning and implementing the sanitary minimum, to which the population itself is widely attracted. Systematic public sanitary supervision over the fulfillment of all these plans and the sanitary minimum is extremely important. 1. The selection of sites for residential settlements at New Construction Sites should be carried out taking into account the natural conditions of the area, proximity to the construction site, and ensuring rapid delivery of good quality water and removal of refuse. The place should be dry, with surface water drainage, protected from unfavorable wind directions, with the use of green areas. The layout of the settlement should not be chaotic; construction should be by districts, with allocation of areas for public buildings, with mandatory drainage or stormwater runoff. In the settlement, roads and passages should be equipped with proper backfilling, elimination of ruts and holes, and the creation of open spaces, etc. From the very beginning, measures should be taken for the greening of the settlement and for preserving existing greenery (plantings, lawns, meadows). The matter of cleaning the territory of new construction sites from pollution by street refuse should also be properly addressed from the start, with the allocation of special personnel for this purpose (cleaners). 2. The water supply of new construction sites is the most important sanitary task from the very first moments of construction. It is necessary to strive to reduce as much as possible the period of use of any temporary water supply and to switch to a normal order, i.e., the installation of a water supply system. With 3,000 or more workers at a New Construction Site, a central water supply system should generally be adopted. Water calculation should be based on a figure of no less than 30 liters per person. The selection of the water supply source should be carried out by sanitary supervision with full consideration of the quality of the water and its protection from contamination. When using water from open bodies of water, it is necessary immediately to provide the New Construction Site with installations for chlorinating the water. At a number of New Construction Sites, non-compliance with these basic sanitary requirements for water supply has already led to a number of unfavorable consequences (outbreaks of typhoid fever, etc.). It is useful to immediately upon the start of the development of a New Construction Site to allocate a special sanitary physician specifically for issues of sanitary protection of water and bodies of water (organization of protective zones, water analysis, sanitary supervision). The delivery of water throughout the settlement, to barracks, to other buildings, etc., and the organization of proper water delivery throughout the territory of the New Construction Site in the absence of a water supply system are extremely important. It is necessary to prepare and issue, on behalf of sanitary supervision, the necessary sanitary rules for water supply that must be followed. At the same time, it is necessary to organize the delivery of water (tanks, boiling and other purification methods) to the construction site itself. 3. Measures for cleaning the territory and buildings of New Construction Sites from garbage and other refuse are also a responsible task. Unfortunately, these measures are often given little attention, and the sanitary condition of many New Construction Sites is unsatisfactory. Here, it is especially important from the beginning of work to provide a plan for the implementation of corresponding cleaning measures, acquisition of necessary equipment, hiring of personnel, organization of transportation and allocation of necessary sites. This plan of measures for cleaning should be developed with the participation of sanitary supervision. Measures should be provided for the removal of a) filth, b) dirty household water, c) solid garbage, and d) refuse from kitchens and dining rooms. Even in temporary barracks, toilets should be provided, if possible heated (earth closets), with the construction of impermeable cesspools; if peat is available, the so-called peat toilets (layer-by-layer filling with peat) are recommended. Toilets should be calculated at one seat per 20 people. At construction sites and in other public places, public toilets should be installed with proper cleaning. Near buildings, there should be garbage pits with waterproof cesspools, tight covers, gratings, etc. For solid refuse and garbage, there should be separate containers. A special staff of cleaners should be designated for daily supervision of the cleanliness of toilets and sanitation facilities. For the removal of all this refuse, a sewerage cart (barrels and vehicles) should be organized from the very beginning of work. The approximate calculation can be as follows: liquid refuse - 1 m³ of filth per person per year; 12 liters of kitchen waste per person per day; dry garbage and sweepings - about 0.25 m³ per person per year. Cleaning schedules: earth closets - 1-2 times per year; cesspools and garbage pits - 1-2 times per month; peat toilets depending on their design - from once every 5-6 days to once per month. The use of food waste from dining rooms for livestock purposes (pigsties) with observance of sanitary requirements in the construction of corresponding institutions is mandatory. For the disinfection of filth, sewage fields are most convenient to recommend on new construction sites; the place for them is selected with the participation of sanitary supervision. In the field of sanitation as well, it is necessary to designate responsible persons for this matter and to attract the public. In the near future, the general question of developing a general plan for sewerage should be raised, with detailed study of the nature and quantity of household and industrial waters to be discharged, and determination of both the method of their purification and the places of their discharge. 4. The placement of workers (first construction workers) at New Construction Sites is subject to strict sanitary supervision. In the initial period, especially in warm weather, even military-type tents (canvas, or linen fabric) are permissible, with observance of sanitary requirements (wooden flooring raised 10-15 cm, space between tents equal to the diameter or height of the tents, etc.). A transition as soon as possible to insulated barracks of the standard type, accommodating 60-120 people, is desirable. In barracks, earthen floors are not permissible; lighting should be side lighting; in addition to bedrooms, the following should be allocated: a common room (reading room, assembly room), washroom, latrine, drying room for outer clothing, storage room. The cubic capacity calculation should be based on 3.5 m² (no less) of floor space per person. Each worker should be provided with a separate bed or cot; tables-cupboards - one per 1-2 occupants; in the rooms there should be hangers, wastebaskets, spittoons, a container with boiled water, etc. Special cleaning personnel should be assigned to each barrack; corresponding sanitary rules should be posted for compliance in each barrack. The issue of combating insects in barracks is particularly highlighted; in addition to thorough cleanings, periodic disinsections are extremely desirable. 5. Maintaining cleanliness of body and clothing is also a serious sanitary task at New Construction Sites. The arrival of huge masses of workers from different places, sometimes not entirely favorable in terms of infections, naturally creates a threat of outbreaks of the latter; work at new construction sites and the primitiveness of initial living conditions lead to extreme contamination. The first and main measure in this area is the establishment of a sanitary checkpoint with a bathhouse, barbershop, laundry, and disinfection chamber. All arriving worker masses must pass through this checkpoint. It can also be used by those living at the New Construction Site. At the same time, the construction of regular bathhouses is planned, calculated for full coverage (100%) of all workers with three uses of the bathhouse per month.

The arrangement of laundries should be based on the calculation of 6 kg of dirty laundry per month per person. Barber shops should be of the usual type. 6. Public dining at New Construction Sites should be fully implemented from the very beginning. The proper location of public dining buildings should be provided, taking into account double visits per day (lunch, dinner), appropriate equipment and furnishings of the dining rooms, careful sanitary supervision, examination of personnel, and efforts to maintain cleanliness of the premises (special attention should be paid to the destruction of flies). Auxiliary nutrition during work itself should be carried out through the delivery of food, the setting up of portable buffets, the use of thermoses, and the installation of tanks. As already indicated above, all work on the sanitary service of New Construction Sites will give favorable results with the planned development of all these sanitary measures and with the widespread application of the sanitary minimum method. The People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR has now developed detailed instructions on the sanitary minimum for New Construction Sites; the use of this instruction facilitates the work of sanitary personnel and public workers in this area.-In the matter of medical assistance to New Construction Sites, the initial work consists in developing a network of health posts that provide both preventive and therapeutic care. The establishment of health posts should proceed in parallel with all construction, serving as part of this construction and the industrial enterprise. Subsequently, a network of specialized outpatient clinics (unified dispensary) and hospital facilities is developed. Among the preventive institutions, day nurseries are in the first place, the network of which should be widely organized, as well as kindergartens, playgrounds, etc. Similarly, the establishment of a laboratory (sanitary and bacteriological analyses) and a disinfection point is immediately provided for, and if there are 10,000 workers, disinfection stations with transport. The fight against acute infectious diseases, with the presence of a sanitary checkpoint, laboratory, disinfection facilities, and sufficient sanitary personnel, can already take a systematic form at New Construction Sites. The immediate opening of an infectious barrack with a sufficient number of beds is an urgent measure in this regard. Sanitary personnel (district sanitary doctor) should be invited to each New Construction Site; if the number of workers at a New Construction Site exceeds 5,000 people, it is necessary to allocate special types of sanitary supervision (sanitary inspector for housing and communal services and for sanitary and food supervision, doctor for industrial hygiene, etc.). Work on sanitary education should be carried out with special attention. All these measures are mainly aimed at the initial period of construction at New Construction Sites. At the same time, broad plans for health-improving measures in the creation of new cities at New Construction Sites, so-called socialist-type cities, with the development of communalized living conditions and all the achievements of communal sanitation and technology in them, are being developed. The development of the layout of such new cities, their sanitary equipment and medical assistance should be carried out with the closest participation of health authorities, introducing the socialist principle of improving labor and living conditions into this matter. Among individual legislative and other guiding acts on medical and sanitary service of New Construction Sites, it is necessary to note a number of general resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on the construction of major individual New Construction Sites, as well as the following: Order of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy of the USSR of January 4, 1931 'On improving the supply of the working population of New Construction Sites'; Resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy of the USSR of November 27, 1931 on public dining at New Construction Sites; Resolution of the Central Union of Consumer Societies of April 24, 1931 'On closed distribution points at New Construction Sites'; Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union of May 3, 1931 'On the supply of New Construction Sites with work and special clothing'; Order of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy of the USSR of April 12, 1931 'On the maintenance of day nurseries at New Construction Sites'

a. Sysin.