Health, BOARDS OF, organizations established by a government for the purpose of protecting the health of its citizens. Boards of health are municipal, state or national, according to the authority by which they are established and the region over which they have jurisdiction. In the United States they are of municipal and state origin. Municipal or city boards of health are appointed by the city government and have jurisdiction over the region included in the city charter. Their most important duties are to prevent the spread of contagious disease by enforcing vaccination and forming and enforcing strict quarantine regulations, to prevent the adulteration of medicines and food, to prevent the sale of injurious drugs, to see that the municipality is kept free from the accumulation of garbage and other material that is liable to cause disease; also, to prescribe and oversee the duties of coroners. State boards of health have a more general line of duties than municipal boards, and their function in many cases is advisory. Nearly all states and territories now have such boards, and their services are often of the highest value in preventing the spread of disease and in protecting the citizens of the state from the sale of injurious food products. In the United States there is no national board of health, the duties of such a body being assumed by the marine hospital service, which is connected with the department of the interior. These duties consist chiefly in enforcing United States quarantine laws, which are enacted to prevent the entrance into the country of persons afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases.