Vatican cuts radio hazard
2001-04-09 20:51
Philip Pullella
Vatican City - The Vatican, in a
11th-hour effort to stop Italy from cutting off electricity to
its radio station over a row on electromagnetic radiation, said
on Monday it would eliminate some transmissions after Easter.
The suprise decision was announced a day before Environment
Minister Willer Bordon was due to hold a news conference to
announce measures against the station.
The minister has accused Vatican Radio of exceeding Italian
laws on radiation and of being a health hazard.
Last month, Bordon threatened to cut off all electricity to
the radio's transmission centre on Rome's outskirts. Residents
have said the radio's forest of large antennae have resulted in
a higher incidence of leukaemia in the area.
Vatican Radio, which broadcasts the Pope's speeches and
events to the world in some 40 languages, announced its
decision hours after the latest tests ordered by the
environment ministry comfirmed that the transmissions violated
Italian standards.
The statement said the broadcaster would shut down its
medium wave (AM) transmissions on the 1530 khz band for seven
hours a day beginning on April 16, the day after Easter.
That waveband is used for 14 hours a day and so the
shutdown would affect some 50 percent of broadcasts on that
frequency, which is primarily used for broadcasts in Europe.
A Vatican Radio spokesman said broadcasts on short wave
(SW), which is beamed to other continents, and frequency
modulation (FM), which is used for Italy, would continue
normally.
Most of the world receives Vatican Radio via short wave.
The statement said it was "presumed" that the AM antennae,
whose broadcasts are sent in horizontal waves, were the reason
why the broadcaster exceeded Italian limits.
It confirmed Vatican Radio's willingness to seek a
long-term solution on transmission levels that would "minimise
the risk to the population".
Vatican territory
Like Vatican City itself, the transmission centre is on
extraterritorial land and considered part of the sovereign
Vatican state.
Last month, Bordon said the National Agency for the
Protection of the Environment had registered three times the
legal limit for electromagnetic radiation during one evening
broadcast.
Since Vatican Radio was set up 44 years ago, Italy has
introduced the European Union's toughest limits on such
radiation, dubbed "electrosmog" by the Italian media.
The land housing the transmission centre was once open
countryside but has since been heavily built up with housing
and factories.
The main stumbling block over the issue, which has flared
for weeks in the Italian media, has been how the Italian
government could force the Vatican, a sovereign state, to
comply with its national laws.
--(Additional reporting by Alexandra Salomon)
- Reuters