/ 07.20.2010 12:00AM
Vatican Broadcaster Fight Charges Linking Towers to Cancer
VATICAN CITY: The
head of Vatican Radio says the broadcaster will soon publish its own studies
about whether its towers are putting those who live near its transmission facility north of Rome at risk for cancer. The statement came after a report leaked to Italian press in mid-July purporting
to show a link between exposure to electromagnetic waves and an increase in
leukemia and lymphoma in the surrounding population.
The director general of Vatican Radio, Father Federico Lombardi, said on-air
the report’s findings were a surprise and Vatican Radio would soon release the
findings of its own experts. He also stated on the Vatican Radio
Web site that the international literature in the
field has never established a link between broadcast towers and cancer.
The leaked report is part of a court case brought by residents of the town of
Cesano, which is near the Santa Maria di Galeria facility.
Catholic News Service reported an Italian judge said the data
suggested there is “an important, consistent, and significant association
between residents’ exposure to Vatican Radio facilities and an increased risk
of the illnesses leukemia and lymphoma in children.” The report studied
the incidence of leukemia-related deaths of residents who lived within a
seven-mile radius of the facilities over the past 30 years.
The suit has been wending its way through the courts since 2001. In 2005, two
Vatican Radio officials were convicted in the matter, but that conviction was
overturned on appeal in 2007. In 2008, that acquittal was annulled.
During the earlier court investigations, no conclusive link between the
transmission site and cases of leukemia in the Cesano area were found, although
officials did find magnetic fields higher than the permitted 6 V/m² in 11 of 14
sites checked.--
from Radio World, which has
related links on the ongoing story