CYPRIOT experts will this week examine whether British aerials at RAF Akrotiri pose a threat to the health of residents living nearby.
Akrotiri residents insist there is a link between cancer cases in the area and electromagnetic emissions from the antennae.
The start of work on a new 100-metre mast at the salt lake listening post sparked protests from local residents and greens, which turned into bloody anti-bases riots at the site and at Episkopi police station on July 3 after the arrest of DIKO deputy Marios Matsakis for cutting a fence into the site.
Local residents say the new giant aerial will cause cancer and also affect bird life at the salt lake.
The British Bases deny both claims. British environmental tests showed that the affect of the new antenna’s emissions on the environment would be minimal, but Greek tests have shown that the aerial would harm the local flora and fauna.
Work on the new aerial is currently on hold while Nicosia and London discuss its health and environmental impact. The Cyprus government wants an independent study of the issue to be carried out by international experts. Britain has not dismissed the idea out of hand, but has not yet given its final word. The British have said that the antenna will not go up if it is proven that it could have adverse health affects.
Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and House Environment Committee chairman George Lillikas of AKEL met yesterday to discuss developments in the affair.
After the meeting Lillikas said that Cypriot experts would carry out tests this week to determine whether emissions produced by existing aerials in the area pose a health risk. He said the tests’ results should be out by next week.
A parallel epidemiological study, starting soon, to examine if there are any links between emissions and cancer cases in Akrotiri will take about ten months to finish.
But Lillikas said that the British “do not look as if they are in a rush to allow an independent study to be carried out to examine the kind of environmental impact the new antenna would have.
“Obviously they know how difficult it will be for them to prove that the antenna will be harmless,” he said.
Meanwhile the Greens have threatened to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to block British plans to erect the huge aerial next to the Akrotiri salt lake.
The European Greens earlier this week called on the British government to stop the installation of more antennas at Akrotiri and said they were working with their Cypriot counterparts to decide “common actions” against the plans.
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.
