A request filed by the Lija council and a number residents for the removal of a Melita plc repeater antenna installed on the roof of a house in Preziosi Street has been dismissed by a court.

The plaintiffs claimed that the repeater antenna (installed in 2008) posed a risk to their health and they requested the court to order defendants to remove it.

In his judgement, Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon pointed out that the installation had been carried out in terms of law.

The conditions imposed upon Melita by the MCA stated that the licensee had to comply with any radiation emission standards adopted and published by the International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protection and any other appropriate standards as may be specified by law or by the MCA.

Mr Justice Zammit McKeon said it resulted from the evidence produced, including the testimony of expert witnesses, that the emissions from this antenna were a fraction of the maximum levels permitted.

Plaintiffs then submitted that the standards imposed by the ICNIRP were not correct and that other countries were applying different standards.  But the court declared that it was bound to apply the law as it stood, and the law only referred to the ICNIRP,, whose standards were universally accepted and applied by the majority of European Union states.

The court had not heard compelling evidence to accept the plaintiffs' submission that the emissions from the antenna were harmful to their health.

It however recommended that Melita raise the height of this antenna to the maximum height of 10 metres as established by law so as to increase the distance between it and the Lija residents.