Sanitation is defined as:

• A. The practice of health rules by an individual to safeguard his own health and the health of others
• B. Effective use of measures which will create and maintain healthful environmental conditions
• C. The transmission of diseases from one host to another
• D. The scheduling of sanitation drills

Answer: (B)

Sanitation focuses on creating and maintaining healthful environmental conditions through coordinated measures. This emphasizes the environment and systems—water quality, waste disposal, sanitation facilities, housing, sanitation infrastructure, and other environmental controls that prevent exposure to hazards. It’s about what communities and authorities implement to keep the surroundings safe, not just what an individual does for personal health.

That’s why a definition that highlights using effective measures to build and sustain a healthy environment fits best. Personal hygiene describes individual actions to protect one’s own health, not the environmental system as a whole. Disease transmission refers to how illnesses spread, which sanitation aims to prevent. Scheduling sanitation drills is about preparing for events, not defining what sanitation means.