Governor Earl Warren signed into law Senate Bill 319 which provided for the registration of existing sanitarians and the future examination and registration of sanitarians employed full time in State and local departments of health of the State of California. During the bill signing Governor Warren stated that he was proud to sign such progressive legislation for public health.
The legislation that was adopted in 1945 for examining and registering of sanitarians defined a sanitarian as a person trained in the field of sanitary science and technology who is qualified to carry out educational and inspectional duties and enforce the law in the field of sanitation.
World War II had ended and relatives, friends and co-workers were returning from battle so the feeling now was that improvements in sanitation would be able to be accomplished in the everyday work performed by sanitarians. For too long the excuse that “there was a war on” had been used to hamper corrections and improvements in sanitation, construction and housing. There now seemed to be optimism that sanitarians would be able to achieve accomplishments in their field of work.