THE GOVERNMENT has signed a £135,000 deal to carry out health tests on 1,000 residents in Omonia and Zakaki to determine whether there is a link between ill health and pollution from the nearby Nemitsas foundry.
The contract was signed on Friday between officials at the Health Ministry and a London-group of scientists, headed by Andis Leonidou.
The tender has been awarded to the same group of experts who carried out tests in Ergates, which last September forced the closure of the foundry after discovering toxin poisoning way over the World Health Organisation danger levels.
Health Minister Frixos Savvides has promised to shut down the Nemitsas foundry if tests prove it is damaging the health of local residents.
The single tender application for the tests took four months to review, and the project is expected to take six months from start to publication.
Testing is due to start on February 16.
Local campaigner Bernadette Charalambous yesterday welcomed the move.
“The tests are never going to be able to analyse 15 years of pollution, but nevertheless, it’s still progress. The new equipment fitted last month will probably reduce particulate levels, but it still really stinks,” she told the Cyprus Mail.
The Nemitsas foundry was forced to cut emissions from a maximum 300 milligrams to 50 milligrams per cubic metre of air as of January 1, 2001, in accordance with new government regulations.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
