CAPE GIRARDEAU HOSTS GLOBAL SAFETY GATHERING

Pledging to "Make Safety a Way of Life," an international organization with Missouri ties this week is meeting in Cape Girardeau.

The World Safety Organization (WSO), which is a consultant to the United Nations, is holding its "Regional Safety Conference for Americas" at Cape Girardeau's Holiday Inn.

WSO members participating in the conference include representatives from Spain, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, and the former Soviet Union, in addition to Canada and the United States.

Zdena Zajickova, formerly of Czechoslovakia and now of Doniphan, is the WSO's chief executive officer.

She said Monday that the conference is an opportunity primarily for professionals in the field of safety and accident prevention to share new information, technology and laws and regulations.

About 100 people will attend the four-day conference, which started Monday.

"Our major interest is always networking to get people working together," Zajickova said. "Just today, I talked with a man who dismantles nuclear reactors and another who works in a nuclear plant.

"The conference brings those types of people together to share information on the latest technology, innovations and regulations."

Topics discussed at the conference vary widely, including: "strength testing as a tool to reduce back injuries," disaster preparedness, excavation safety, transport of hazardous materials, "effects of `perestroika' on environmental safety and health" in Russia and the Ukraine, the Americans With Disabilities Act, and many more.

Zajickova said Professor Edward Petrosyants and Igo Dyland both traveled from the Commonwealth of Independent States formerly the Soviet Union to attend the event.

Petrosyants is the director of Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health for the Moscow organization responsible for safety programs in the newly formed commonwealth. Dybal is a linguistic expert for the Salvation Army and will act as Petrosyants' translator.

Local speakers include Alan Maki, director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority; Mark Hasheider, of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, will discuss disaster preparedness; and Joseph Rice, a local attorney, will discuss worker's compensation claims.

Zajickova said the WSO is comprised of professionals in the safety field in business, as government consultants and as educators.

"They're all on the higher level of their fields. There are no amateurs here, and they've all come to discuss these issues," she said.

The group also drafts resolutions for the U.N. on safety issues. "Our purpose is protection of people, resources and the environment," Zajickova added.

She said too often the general public needlessly resists regulation in those areas. But, she said, it's a necessity.

"I think it's often misleading that people think OSHA is against them," she said. "They have to realize we can work with them for the benefit of all, employers, employees, and the public. It's the same with the EPA and other organizations."

The WSO was founded in 1975 as a result of an international conference organized by the Safety Organization of the Philippine Islands. Delegates at the conference agreed on the need for an international exchange of information, programs, and new research and technology in safety and environmental fields.

Now, the organization is headquartered at Warrensburg, Mo. Why was it moved? It's a story Zajickova knows well.

Her husband, Glen E. Hudson, attended a 1985 conference in Manila. During the visit, he was named chairman of the WSO Certification Board.

He and Zajickova subsequently accepted more and more respon~sibilities in the organization, until they eventually took over its leadership in 1987. They lived in California at the time, but sought a different locale because of Hudson's emphysema, Zajickova said.

When they moved to Doniphan, the WSO headquarters moved with them. However, the small Southeast Missouri town lacked the type of administrative support needed for an international organization.

The WSO offices subsequently were moved to Warrensburg, which is relatively close to Kansas City and home of Central Missouri State University.

But with Zajickova and Hudson continuing to reside in Doniphan, the WSO board of directors might again seek a change to bring the headquarters closer to them possibly to Cape Girardeau.

"Last year, the board of directors said we should consider moving it closer to Doniphan," she said. "We're now considering Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Memphis."

The WSO will conduct an international safety conference at Memphis next year, with about 500 people from around the globe expected to attend.