Teachers are now complaining on a daily basis of sickness thought to be caused by the environment at CedarBridge Academy, union leader Mike Charles has revealed.

The general secretary of Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) told The Royal Gazette that he received telephone calls every day from union reps at the school advising him of the latest casualty.

“I don’t know the exact numbers of teachers who’ve been ill but it’s on a daily basis,” he said. “Each day the rep there tells me that another teacher reports being sick.

“More and more people exposed to whatever it is out there are coming down with these symptoms. Our teachers are going to work every day in fear.”

Mr. Charles is calling for a full-scale investigation into the problems at the Devonshire site.

He said: “Maybe we have to look at something else. Maybe the mould is only a part of the problem.

“The fact that teachers are still getting sick leads us to believe that something else needs to be done. It’s really frustrating and the teachers are, I guess, upset and we have to turn to something else.”

Mr. Charles questioned whether there could be a link with concerns raised by Police officers at nearby Prospect about potential health risks caused by high levels of radio frequency radiation from a new telecommunications tower.

He said the union planned to contact the Police Association.

Mr. Charles added that some people believed the whole area might be environmentally hazardous and that a number of teachers who taught at Prospect Primary and Robert Crawford School - which was on the CedarBridge site - had got cancer.

“Maybe it’s some radioactive type stuff,” he said “There have been tests before now about the amount of towers up there and what they can cause.

“I don’t know if it’s the atmosphere or the surface or the ground or underneath the ground. It’s becoming rather suspicious that all of these things are happening.

“I think that the time has come when someone has to do something about having some detailed scientific research into that area.

“It’s the only way we are going to be able to put to rest once and for all the fears and concerns that people have about that area.”

He said Education Minister Randy Horton’s claim earlier this week that CedarBridge was a safe working environment based on the results of air quality tests had angered teachers.

“The Minister might be comfortable in saying that but it’s no comfort to the teachers because people are still getting sick.

“It doesn’t bring any comfort to the people who have to go up there every day.”

A meeting held last week with Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann and overseas air quality expert Paul Gressin did little to allay fears, he added.

“They are saying that the levels are acceptable which I suppose theoretically or scientifically or whatever sounds really good.

“But teachers are still having problems when they go into certain rooms. Maybe some people can’t accept acceptable.

“You have got over a thousand people through that building on a daily basis. We talk about the teachers.

“What about the students? I don’t think we should rest on the fact that it’s acceptable.

“Are the people who are quite satisfied that the school is okay willing to take their offices up there?”