Safety confab open to Pacific

Gov. Juan N. Babauta is urging the Northern Marianas Alliance for Safety and Health to include other Pacific island entities as participants in this year’s planned NMASH 3rd Annual Governor’s Safety and Health Conference that will be held Aug. 15-19, 2005.

Babauta brought this up during a teleconference with U.S. Labor OSHA Region IX Administrator Frank Strasheim yesterday.

At a NMASH board of directors meeting on June 7, all 10 members of the NMASH Alliance teleconferenced with OSHA in San Francisco to plan an agenda for what the anticipated 300-350 entrants will receive in occupational health and safety training, public agency involvement in safety and environmental issues and federal presentations by the OSHA Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Babauta also suggested that consideration be given to regional matters and then suggested to Strasheim that EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers be invited to present updates on the islands’ FUDS, Formerly Used Defense Sites, as tying into environmental and occupation safety conference agenda.

NMASH and the CNMI administration will invite the governors, U.S. delegates and labor, environmental and health and safety personnel from Guam, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau and the state of Hawaii to join the CNMI’s group at this year’s conference.

Attending the NMASH teleconference were Public Health Secretary James Hofschneider, Department of Public Safety’s Commissioner Santiago Tudela and Fire Division’s Juan Wabol, Frank Guererro representing the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and the Department of Public Works, Labor Department’s acting Secretary Dean Tenorio and Reynaldo Deleon Guerrero, Rudy Pua from the Emergency Management Office, Reina Camacho of the Division of Environmental Quality, Northern Marianas College’s Al Johnson and David Attao; Peter Errett, chair of the Saipan Contractors Association; Alex Sablan and Christine Parke from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands chair Lynn Knight and SGMA chair James Lin.

Dr. Hofschneider accepted the nomination and placement of DPH as a full member within the NMASH Alliance at the meeting.

At last year’s 2nd Annual Governor’s Safety and Health Conference, Strasheim spoke on behalf of U.S .Dept. of Labor-OSHA Deputy Secretary John Henshaw, in recognition of extraordinary contributions to advance the protection of working men and women in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. (PR)