Experts are to investigate claims radiation from a nearby telecommunications tower is linked to growing numbers of sickness complaints among teachers at CedarBridge Academy. Acting Health Minister Philip Perinchief said Government was bringing in a team to probe potential health risks caused by high levels of radio frequency radiation.

The Minister said it was part of the drive to discover why staff are still suffering symptoms, even though the school underwent a $3.8 million clean-up programme after being shut down due to a mould infestation last year.

He said experts had previously investigated fears about the telecommunications tower from Police officers at neighbouring Prospect. Mr. Perinchief said yesterday: “You will have heard inquiries in respect of telecommunications, or radio frequencies. We are continuing to assess that.

“Telecommunications experts will go out and assess the area. They have done so before. These complaints have gone back some years. All we can do at Government is take all possible precautions and make possible all inquiries to seek the source.”

Mr. Perinchief said he remained confident the school was fit to stay open and called for patience from staff and parents. “I sympathise with any feeling of irritation or injury but at the moment we have to be guided by the scientific investigation. All we ask is that they be patient.

“I don’t know if anyone can be 100 percent certain, but from the tests we have completed and the results we have got, the school is habitable.”

Mike Charles, general secretary of Bermuda Union of Teachers, welcomed the radiation testing. He had raised the prospect earlier this week that nearby telecommunications towers in Devonshire could be to blame.

Mr. Charles said he understood that a test known as a TO-15 was to be conducted. “Hopefully that test will be able to identify if any other contaminants are in the air at school,” he said. “They did all they could with the clean-up of the mould.

“I suppose if there is no mould we have to test for something else. We understand this new test is going to be done as soon as they can get the materials here.”

He added: “I don’t think the teachers would be satisfied until all the tests are in and it can be demonstrated that there are no contaminants in the atmosphere or in the environment to cause them harm. Hopefully it can be done quickly.”

Mr. Charles denied that teachers should have given notice of Tuesday’s “sick out”, when 74 of them called in sick to force the cancellation of all classes for the day. Student Kelly Cabral, 18, from Pembroke, said: “I think it’s ridiculous. They didn’t accomplish anything by being off one day. They should have been more organised about the whole situation.”

But Mr. Charles said: “You don’t give notice of action if teachers are calling up sick. If the school is making them sick and they decide that they are not feeling well enough to go to school, if the teachers decided that’s what they wanted to do, we have to be guided by that.

“One has to question whether or not the people have had enough and there were feeling ill enough that they felt they wanted to take some form of action. Would this new test come online as quickly as it did if teachers didn’t do what they did? Sometimes you have to give some kind of gentle persuasion.”

Bermuda Public Services Union leader Ed Ball said about 20 of his members failed to attend work at CedarBridge on Tuesday. He said that under the Trade Union Act 1965 they should have given notice of industrial action but added that they also had a duty to protect themselves, under the Health and Safety Act 1981, if they felt at risk at work. “I can’t definitively say why they did it because there has been no consultation with us at the BPSU as to why,” he said. “I can only say that based on what’s been happening at CedarBridge the perception was that they felt it’s a health and safety issue.”

He said a union officer had been appointed to visit the school and talk to staff about their concerns.

Meanwhile, Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson last night called for Education Minister Randy Horton to be sacked over his handling of the mould at CedarBridge.

“The Minister has clearly lost the confidence of teachers” she said. “The situation has mushroomed into a crisis of confidence in the Government, which has showed no signs of diminishing under Mr. Horton’s leadership. “The Government has failed to share critical information that could calm concerns, doubts and the suspicion that it is hiding something.

“A new minister who takes charge of the situation and who levels with the people will go a long way to restoring the Government’s credibility on the issue.”