2019 Alaska Statutes
Title 18. Health, Safety, Housing, Human Rights, and Public Defender
Chapter 15. Disease Control and Threats to Public Health
Article 6. Public Health Authority and Powers.
Sec. 18.15.390. Powers of the department in a public health disaster.

If the governor declares a condition of disaster emergency under AS 26.23.020(c) due to an outbreak of disease or a credible threat of an imminent outbreak of disease, the department, in coordination with the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs, may

(1) close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, any facility if there is reasonable cause to believe that the facility may endanger the public health;

(2) decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated or destroy any material if there is reasonable cause to believe that the material may endanger the public health;

(3) inspect, control, restrict, and regulate, by rationing and using quotas, prohibitions on shipments, allocation, or other means, the use, sale, dispensing, distribution, or transportation of food, fuel, clothing, medicines, and other commodities, as may be reasonable and necessary to respond to the disaster;

(4) adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste or contaminated material as may be reasonable and necessary to respond to the disaster; these measures may include the collection, storage, handling, destruction, treatment, transportation, or disposal of infectious waste or contaminated material;

(5) require all bags, boxes, or other containers of infectious waste or contaminated material to be clearly identified as containing infectious waste or contaminated material and, if known, the type of infectious waste or contaminated material;

(6) adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of human remains as may be reasonable and necessary to respond to the disaster; these measures may include the embalming, burial, cremation, interment, disinterment, transportation, or disposal of human remains;

(7) take possession or control of any human remains, require clear labeling of human remains before disposal with all available information to identify the decedent and the circumstances of death, and require that the human remains of a deceased individual with a contagious disease or transmissible agent have an external, clearly visible tag indicating that the human remains are infected and, if known, the contagious disease or transmissible agent;

(8) require persons in charge of disposing of any human remains to maintain and promptly deliver to the department a written or electronic record of each set of human remains, the disposal of the remains, and all available information to identify the decedent, including fingerprints, photographs, dental information, and a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) specimen of the human remains;

(9) order the disposal of the human remains of an individual who has died of a contagious disease or transmissible agent through burial or cremation within 24 hours after death, taking into account the religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased individual and the individual's family;

(10) require any business or facility holding a funeral establishment permit issued under AS 08.42.100 to accept human remains, to provide the use of the business or facility as is reasonable and necessary to respond to the disaster, and, if necessary, to transfer the management and supervision of the business or facility to the state during the course of the disaster;

(11) procure, by condemnation or otherwise, a business or facility authorized to embalm, bury, cremate, inter, disinter, transport, and dispose of human remains under the laws of this state as may be reasonable and necessary to respond to the disaster, with the right to take immediate possession of the facilities;

(12) appoint and prescribe the duties of emergency assistant medical examiners as may be required for the proper performance of the duties of the office; the appointment of emergency assistant medical examiners may not exceed the termination of the declaration of a state of disaster; the department may terminate an emergency appointment made under this paragraph for any reason.