THE STATE broadcaster is planning a summer cleaning of its “sick” premises in an effort to cleanse it of the various contaminations currently plaguing the building, at least until a new one can be built, said its chairman yesterday.
Makis Symeou, chairman of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) said that the broadcaster was now “doing much better” in its battle against sick building syndrome. The CyBC building in the capital was built nearly six decades ago, but more recently has been found to have caused numerous health problems for employees.
A number of CyBC employees were hospitalised in the last month after breaking out in a rash, losing consciousness and vomiting. Three employees are being treated for serious conditions reportedly related to a swelling of the brain, two of whom went to London hospitals. The one has since returned and is expected back at work in September, while the other is still being treated in the British capital. The third employee is continuing to work at the broadcaster.
Meanwhile, management has gutted many rooms of the building with a number of studios and rooms closed off, while others have been labelled semi-safe, with air ionizers operating to make them free of fungi and other contaminants.
After journalists refused to work in unhygienic conditions, management set up white tents in the lawn of the CyBC building for production work to take place. They have since been moved to other areas, with CyBC’s flagship radio channels, Proto and Trito, working out of prefabricated buildings. The latter stations have since had to operate without soundproofing, producing broadcasts with a tinny echo.
Symeou told the Cyprus Mail that test results on general hygiene levels were made and that the broadcaster was “doing very well”.
“We won’t stop there. We are taking advantage of the summer when lots of people will be taken out of the building and we will do a very good clean up of our strategic centres, that is, places which can’t be moved, and where necessary, we’ll replace equipment,” he said.
Symeou noted the new CyBC headquarters building will be delivered at the end of July which can fit up to 160 people, thereby helping to implement the summer cleaning programme.
The “clean” Studio Three will also be used much more after the World Cup programmes end on July 11. “Of course, some areas are not worth trying to fix because they’ll cost too much. But we will do as much as we can to ensure the health and safety of our employees,” he added.
The chairman also noted that cabinet finally gave its approval to the board’s proposal made last November for CyBC to self-finance a new building.
“We have around 70 donums of land near the CyBC, and we will use approximately 10 donums to get a loan for the new building,” he said.
Asked to comment on the three employees who are in a serious condition, he said: “We are close to them.”
Costas Costa, a member of the CyBC advisory committee on health and safety and acting secretary of the PEO union branch at CyBC, said that employees were waiting for further tests to take place.
“The state laboratory told parliament last week that they don’t even have the machines necessary to test for certain bacteria,” he said.
“The committee is meeting every day. We have crews cleaning and maintaining all air conditioning units, studying ways of improving ventilation and have imposed stricter and more frequent measures on cleanliness, including getting rid of the dead cats on the roof,” he added.
Costa acknowledged that the building was very old, making it difficult to locate the causes of the problem with air quality and contamination. “We don’t know where the source of the problem is. Until the tests are completed, we can’t tell if the problem will return.”
Asked whether Legionnaires’ disease was a risk, he said there was 99 per cent no problem. “But we found two places, a fridge and a tap, where the level reached four. Zero is no problem and ten is dangerous. So we closed these areas off and are working on reducing the levels to zero.”
