TOP BRITISH scientists arrive in Cyprus today to begin a full-scale investigation into the health effects of the British antennae at Akrotiri.
But the study is unlikely to derail work on the completion of the Pluto Project, the modernisation of British spy installations – inciting anger among critics who say the SBA are paying no more than lip-service to concerns about the safety of electromagnetic radiation.
First promised 15 months ago in response to the anti-antenna riots in July 2001, the £250,000 project will only be finished after the controversial new three-mast antenna is up and running.
Backed by the Green Party and DIKO deputy Marios Matsakis, Akrotiri residents vigorously oppose plans for the new colossus (to measure 96-metres tall by 196-metres wide), which they say will dramatically increase cancer and health-related problems.
The team from Bristol University Oncology Centre will launch a major investigation into their claims in an attempt to draw a line under the ongoing controversy.
Questionnaires, translated into Greek, will be handed out by March to every adult living in Akrotiri.
Their answers will be then be correlated with objective data such as medical and burial records to establish whether the village is indeed a bad-health hotspot.
Scientists will then look for abnormalities by comparing the evidence with that taken from a “control” village, 20km away.
Experts said it took considerable time to find a similar-sized village not burdened by other environmental hazards, which could have distorted the comparison.
It will take the team until the end of 2003 to assess all the necessary data, take into account seasonal variation and measure radiation emissions.
They will submit a written report in early 2004.
But SBA spokesman Rob Need says the new antenna is on track for a completion date by the end of 2003 regardless.
The British have already spent £75,000 on studies to determine the environmental impact of the mast, which have proved inconclusive. Commissioned by London and Nicosia, they are footing half the bill for the latest study.
“The money’s not the point. This mast will be built anyway,” Need has said.
But Professor Allan Preece of the University of Bristol is sceptical about concerns, given the “tiny” level of radiation to which the village is exposed.
“We’re dealing with a volt a metre, which is tiny. We have that sort of level in hospitals because of antennae on the roof,” he said.
“Our wisdom and scientific thought would suggest that they oughtn’t to be concerned. But we need to keep an open mind [and be] as objective as possible; collect perceptions and opinions and correlate them with objective evidence,” he added.
Dr Andreas Georgiou, Public Health Specialist at the Ministry of Health, will assist in the management and review of the project, but no representative of the British government will be involved at any level.
A local research assistant will be recruited by Easter to help oversee the work when the Bristol team are in England.
Studies into the effect of electromagnetic fields on human health have proved inconclusive and contradictory all over the world.
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.
