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ON PCB MEDICAL EVALUATION br Gov’t wants feds to reimburse expenses
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Posted on Nov 03 2000
The CNMI will seek reimbursement from federal government for expenses incurred by the Department of Public Health in the medical evaluation of residents who may have been exposed to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination.
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio disclosed yesterday his administration has been meeting with federal agencies to find ways how the island government can be compensated for its efforts so far to address the health and environmental disaster.
“We are monitoring our expenditures and hopefully we will be able to get reimbursed on some of our expenses,” he told reporters in an interview.
DPH officials have estimated that the government has spent round $1 million for the medical testing and screening of more than 1,000 residents of Tanapag for the presence of the highly-toxic chemicals.
But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already assured the department that it will reimburse money spent for the health evaluation, noting funds will be sourced from this year’s fiscal budget.
A clinic opened in Tanapag last May to conduct the blood test and general check-up. Although it has ceased to operate regularly, the facility offered services again for villages for two days in mid-October.
DPH has yet to release results of the evaluation even though the Tanapag Action Group, a community organization aimed at stepping up resolution to the PCB problem, has been urging the department to divulge the findings.
PCB contamination in the village began when an unknown quantity of capacitors containing the highly toxic chemical were shipped to Saipan in the 1960s. The Division of Environmental Quality was only notified about their presence in Tanapag in 1988. (BS)
