Two cancer survivors, an area resident and a factory employee, told the court that their health issues were owed to years of use of a carcinogen as raw material at the now-defunct Astrasol shoe factory in an ongoing trial slated to resume on December 13.
The class-action suit was filed against the factory owner, the Latsia municipality, and the Cyprus registrar of companies.
In the inaugural hearing earlier this month, 58-year-old Theofanis Chrysanthou told his story, in which he spent years and €120.000 for cancer treatments for himself, for prostate cancer, and his son, for leukemia, after the family moved into a rented house across the street from the plant in 2002.
Since the factory’s eventual closure – for money troubles – in 2009, some 22 lawsuits were filed, which are being heard jointly.
Chrysanthou said the factory used dichloromethane R40 in processing shoe soles, which he blamed for the common and similar symptoms exhibited by many area residents.
First on the stand was Kyriacos Michael, a man who worked at Astrasol from 1995 to 2007, shortly before it was wound down.
He told the court that the factory had barrels with the skull-and-crossbones hazard symbol on them, and that two years after he got a job there he started having headaches and burning eyes.
Michael added that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and had to undergo seven chemotherapy sessions at the Nicosia general.
“We asked [the factory owners] for masks and they wouldn’t give us any,” he said. “I became impotent, I can’t even lay with my wife.”
Cross-examined by the defence lawyer, Michael was asked why he stayed on for 10 years after he first showed symptoms.
“I asked them whether the materials they used were carcinogens, and they said no,” he replied. “I had two kids in college.”
When the defence submitted that the cancer Michael showed is in no way linked with any of the materials used by the company, he said he was the only one among 12 siblings who got sick.
He added that another person who worked for the company died of cancer.
The day’s second witness was Christos Mina, who lives 50 metres away from the spot where the factory used to stand.
He said he got cancer in 2008, four years after his wife, who had to have a mastectomy and then a quarter of her lung removed.
Mina said he was diagnosed with five different tumours, which he recovered from after they were surgically removed.
The trial continues on December 13.
