By Martin Hellicar
THE LATEST emissions figures from the Ergates foundry have prompted the Labour Minister, Andreas Moushiouttas, to again ask for a closure order to be served on the metal works.
The figures showed that the foundry – which has been blamed for the high cancer levels in the nearby village – was vastly exceeding emissions limits imposed by the Labour Ministry.
Three separate measurements of foundry smoke show particulate levels of 366, 500 and 399 mg per cubic metre of air. The limit set by the ministry is 300 mg.
The readings were presented to the House Environment Committee yesterday, bringing a shocked reaction from deputies. Committee chairman Demetris Eliades repeated his call for operations at the controversial foundry to be suspended pending investigation of its effects on the health of nearby residents.
Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas made no secret of his displeasure at the new figures.
He vowed the state would again file for prosecution of the foundry owners for their failure to stick to emissions limits. Moushiouttas also said he had sent a letter to the Attorney-general’s office seeking a temporary closure order for the foundry.
This is the second time the Ministry has sought a closure order for the Marios & Andreas foundry outside Ergates village, about 20km south of Nicosia, after measurements carried out by its officers showed it was exceeding legal emissions limits.
Last month, Attorney-general Alecos Markides decided not to approve a Ministry request for a closure order, saying the foundry was making efforts to clean up its act and that the results of new measurements should be awaited.
But the new measurements released yesterday suggest the foundry has failed to mend its ways.
Ergates residents blame lead and cadmium in foundry smoke for the high incidence of cancer and breathing problems in their village. Studies by epidemiologist Dr Michalis Voniatis have lent weight to their claims. Voniatis found alarmingly high levels of cancer and breathing complaints among village residents and high concentrations of lead and cadmium in Ergates soil. More recently, Voniatis has found blood lead levels and blood cadmium levels in Ergates residents to be two-and-a-half and five times higher than the national average respectively.
The villagers want the foundry to be shut down immediately.
Eliades said the new figures released yesterday lent weight to these calls. “The new scientific findings create new circumstances and should force us to act, both as a House and as a government, to protect the health of the residents and the environment,” the committee chairman said.
The committee also considered Dr Voniatis’ latest findings, with representatives of the Health and Labour Ministries sticking to the government line that they were unreliable.
Labour Minister Moushiouttas and Health Minister Frixos Savvides want the cabinet to approve funds for a foreign expert to be brought in to study the Ergates situation.
The Labour Ministry representative told deputies Voniatis had not proved a link between the foundry and the villagers’ poor health.
“There were, in the past, other sources of very heavy pollution in the area, such as the uncontrolled burning of rubber tyres and rubbish to retrieve metals. This has not been considered or given the proper emphasis (in Voniatis’ study),” he said.
Moushiouttas and Savvides want a foreign expert to also look into emissions from the island’s other foundry, the Nemitsas works in Zakaki, Limassol.
Residents near the Nemitsas foundry also claim it is poisoning their air. The foundry insists otherwise, but also faces state prosecution for exceeding the 300mg per cubic metre emissions limit.
Moushiouttas has pledged to force both foundries to comply with the tougher EU emissions limits of 50 mg per cubic metre by the end of the year.
