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Because any water drawn from outside sources runs the risk of contamination, occupants of a public fallout shelter instead rely on water stored in metal drums, filled prior to the arrival of any radioactive fallout.  Each person would be allotted just over one quart of water per day for drinking.  The men and women from the opening scenes are shown in their basement shelter sipping from small plastic cups.  In the private home shelter, a soft-spoken housewife reveals how she stored several glass jugs of water, knowing her family would need to be entirely self-sufficient.  In the public shelter, official meals consist of high-protein crackers and carbohydrate-infused hard candy, though this may be supplemented by food brought by individuals.  Diets in the home shelter would of course be dictated by what is stocked ahead of time.  The housewife explains how she prepared elaborate and familiar meals for the first few days in the shelter to keep up morale, before gradually switching to meals which required very little cooking.  Sanitation presents another problem.  In the shelter, the narrator bluntly states, "human waste can't be flushed away by pressure on a handle."  For public shelters, the solution is found in the metal water drums which, once drained, are fitted with a polyethylene liner and seat (found in prepackaged Sanitation Kits which also contain toilet paper, sanitary napkins and other hygiene essentials).  This allows the drums to function as a commode.  In the home shelter, the housewife displays the facilities her husband created using a covered pail and plastic bags.

In both public and private shelters, the use of chemical disinfectants and insecticides is encouraged.  The astute public shelter manager demonstrates how to apply these chemicals, particularly around toilets, to stop the spread of dysentery, typhoid fever and other illnesses.  Similarly, corpses must be immediately removed from the shelter area, grimly shown when an elderly public shelter occupant is discovered to have passed away.  She is quickly wrapped in blankets and moved outside until a proper burial can be conducted.  No matter how prepared a shelter is, emergency supply shortages may still arise.  The final moments of the film discuss how to find food and water when stocks run low.  Safe water can be drawn from heaters, boilers and other indoor tanks and pipes.  Food may be recovered from outside the shelter, but first must be cleansed of fallout particles.  Upon receiving word that radiation levels have dropped, the housewife ventures into her kitchen and demonstrates how to decontaminate bread, fruit, canned goods and any meats which haven't spoiled.  Healthful Living in Emergencies, along with the other ten installments in the series, was primarily developed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and was not declared obsolete in the years following its release like many other contemporary civil defense productions.  Conversely, the film was reformatted to videocassette and could still be rented or purchased from federal government catalogs well into the 1980's. (4)