By Anthony O. Miller
THE NEMITSAS foundry in Zakaki has essentially asked the Supreme Court to lift the smoke particulate-emission limit of 300 milligrams per cubic metre of air that was imposed by the Labour Ministry.
Meanwhile Labour Minister Andreas Moushouttas told the Cyprus Mail yesterday he thought Attorney-general Alecos Markides had already filed a criminal complaint against the foundry, charging it with exceeding that 300mg particulate limit.
He was uncertain if Markides had also filed a motion seeking to enjoin Nemitsas from making further smoke emissions until the criminal complaint is heard in court: “It is the attorney-general’s responsibility to ask for the injunction … The decision is up to him.”
Markides was not available yesterday for comment, having left for the Cyprus proximity talks in New York with President Glafcos Clerides.
“In principle, we do not wish to comment on that,” Nemitsas Managing Director Kikis Petevis said yesterday when asked if the firms suit sought a repeal of the Labour Ministry’s 300mg limit.
“It’s not against the 300mg limit that we’re going; it’s against the whole way of how these limits were set, because what we want to find out is what basis we’re going — 300 this year, 50mg next year. That’s the basic issue behind,” the Supreme Court lawsuit Petevis said was filed on Friday.
He said Nemitsas wants court help to ascertain “what these limits have been based upon, which are being imposed on us and on the other foundry in Nicosia,” the Marios & Elini foundry in Ergates, which Moushouttas has also sued.
“According to our information — we may be wrong — no such limits have been imposed by the EU, at least the EU directive that we mentioned in our (Supreme Court) appeal. At least how we read it, it doesn’t mention any limits,” said Petevis, son-in-law of foundry founder, former Commerce Minister Takis Nemitsas.
“The (300mg) conditions which were set were studied by six (Cyprus) ministries, and they are the conditions of the Republic of Cyprus,” Moushouttas told reporters yesterday.
“There are factories in Europe that function with these conditions, and we are trying to harmonise ourselves with Europe. This was not imposed by the European Union, but (the 300mg standards) were in accordance with what applies within the EU,” he said.
Moushouttas acknowledged Nemitsas’ claim that the 300mg standards are “prohibitive for the functioning of his foundry”, do not comply with EU standards, and will force it to close. But he said he did not agree with the claim, “because in a year we will move ahead and demand him to limit emissions to 50 milligrams, which I repeat is technically feasible and applies in countries of the European Union where foundries have not closed” because of them.
More than 50 pupils of the 8th Elementary School required medical treatment on November 11, after being stricken in the playground by toxins in smoke from the Nemitsas foundry. On October 14, 47 of the school’s pupils were hospitalised with symptoms of poisoning from the foundry’s smoke.
The pupils complained of headaches, dizziness and nausea. Some were physically sick in the playground. Many parents came to the school to collect their children.
Before filing suit against both Nemitsas in Zakaki and Marios & Eleni foundry in Ergates, Moushouttas had gone along with claims that the burning of tyres by local residents accounted for the noxious fumes in the smoke that made the children ill.
Markides, while filing a criminal complaint at Moushouttas’ behest against the Marios & Eleni foundry, did not seek to enjoin the factory from emitting smoke until the suit was settled. He said this was due to smokestack modifications, which would reduce emissions to the 300mg standard.
Faced with Nemitsas’ head-on counter-suit, a bullish Moushouttas declared: “It’s up to the court to decide.”
“We have as a country thought that we had to put these terms and conditions, and we feel they are in line with those in the countries of the European Union,” he said.
