Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Specialties

Public health and environment.

History

Established in 1876.

In 1876, a Territorial Board of Health in the Colorado Territory was established, consisting of nine male physicians. The board’s goals were to study vital statistics, study the influence of climate on disease and health in different localities for citizens and invalids who came to seek relief, make sanitary investigations on the cause of disease and recommend hygiene for schools. Colorado became a state that year.

The next year, in 1877, the State Board of Health replaced the Territorial Board of Health. Its goals were similar: to collect and study vital statistics to determine the causes of illness and death, control epidemics and contagious disease, and advise on proper sources of water supplies and sewage disposal.