2018-01-02 An ITRON bid proposal allows us to see what BC Hydro refuses to provide

[AAP – Addiction – Appliances – Babies – BioInitiative – Brain – Cancer – Cell Phones – Children – Costs – Data Privacy – Doctor Aric Sigman – Devra Davis – EHT – EMF Scientist Appeal – Health (ADHD, Autism, Behaviour, Depression, Obesity, Real Play, Ritalin, Sleep) – iPad – Itron – Joel M. Moskowitz – Lifespan – Martin L. Pall – Measurement Canada – NIEHS – NTP – RFR Studies – Social Media – Steve Jobs Apple – Susan Greenfield – Toxic Childhood by Sue Palmer – Warranty – WHO – Wireless Devices – Write to John Horgan & Michelle Mungall re BC Hydro Smart Metering Program Investigation – Write to Ira Flatow NPR re Popular Science Editor Sophia Bushwick Interview | BC – UK – Jefferson County, Washington, USA] & Book & (video)

1) BC Hydro has refused to answer very basic questions about the bidding process and about the costs of the smeter program. But Jefferson County, Washington has been provided with the bid by ITRON to provide 19,500 smeters and the associated infrastructure. The only difference between BC Hydro’s program and this one that I could identify is that Jefferson County’s electrical utility will do the installations. The proposal is 131 pages long and I have not done a thorough read. Most of the stuff is just an attempt to get a customer, but there are a few things I found. No doubt there are more.

If anyone finds some, please let me know at: dsnoble@shaw.ca with “bid” on the subject line.

(click on photos to enlarge)

https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Jefferson-County-PUD-1-AMI-Proposal-by-Itron-April-19-2017.pdf

a) Page 6/131 – “Load disaggregation”. I’ve been told by an expert that this 1 second read allows second by second monitoring of usage and allows identification of appliances that are being use.

b) Pages 31-33/131 – “Unit Price”. The total cost divided by the number of meters comes to $120 per meter. Compare this with the replacement cost for BC Hydro’s damaged or inaccurate meters that are not covered by warranty: $200 per meter. http://theprovince.com/news/b-c-hydro-must-remove-more-than-88000-smart-meters (Jan. 2016) The cost disparity between what we paid and what other ITRON customers are paying demands an investigation.

I hope many will send this to John Horgan and Energy Minister Mungall and ask for this to be part of the BC Hydro investigation.

c) Page 40/131 – “Import Data Manager & Configuration Management” describes the data that is captured and maintained for each of the many millions of customers. Itron and BC Hydro had denied that personal data such as customer name, address, etc. would be captured but that is not what it says here. As I read it, along with the account associated with the specific meter comes the customer information. This is worrisome since Itron is managing data for many utilities with many millions of customers. How well protected is this data? Who has access to it to potentially hack, steal, share, sell?

d) Warranty – I could not find anything re. warranty but someone from the group resisting smeters in Jefferson County told me that there is a one year warranty. This seems consistent with a device with a 5-7 year expected lifespan and with the fact that BC Hydro was paying for replacement meters that probably were being replaced in 2016.

I have asked many times but never received an answer. Now I am awaiting a response to an FOI for the warranty BC Hydro received. I predict I will be told it is confidential info to which we, the paying customers, have no right.

2) The telecoms are ensuring the next generation is addicted to their devices and parents, without knowing it, are assisting. Just like the tobacco companies did….

The iPad is a Far Bigger Threat to Our Children Than Anyone Realizes.

“Ten years ago, psychologist Sue Palmer predicted the toxic effects of social media. Now she sees a worrying new danger…

Along with colleagues in the field of child development, I’d seen a rise in prescriptions for Ritalin, a drug for attention deficit and hyperactivity – a four-fold increase in less than a decade. And we’d collected a mass of research showing links between excessive screen-time and obesity, sleep disorders, aggression, poor social skills, depression and academic under-achievement…

Dr Aric Sigman, who has amassed a huge database of research linking children’s screen-time to ADHD, autism and emotional and behavioural disorders, also points to the conflict between screen-based activity and reading.”

http://www.somedaily.org/ipad-far-bigger-threat-children-anyone-realizes/

3) Last week (#4 – https://stopsmartmetersbc.com/2017-12-28-bc-hydros-problems-attracting-attention-in-the-usa/) I shared an article published by Popular Science which said that there is no evidence of harm from cell phone radiation and said that it would be safe to tape a cell phone to one’s head. To spread this irresponsible, downright wrong info is dangerous but now NPR radio has done so by interviewing the author, giving her a chance to spread this false information to even more people.

Please consider the comment below encouraging people to write to NPR, providing solid evidence and asking for experts like Dr. Devra Davis or Dr. Martin Pall to be interviewed to refute this uneducated person’s “alternate facts”.

https://www.facebook.com/whatis5g/posts/1636608693075533

(copied below for those who don’t use Facebook)

ACTION ITEM you can do from the comfort of your home!!

PLEASE WRITE NPR’S SCIENCE FRIDAY. AND PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!

Here’s why:

On Dec. 19th, Popular Science published a shameful article, “Cell phones aren’t a public health risk, no matter what California says.”

– https://www.popsci.com/cell-phone-cancer-public-health-california

Unfortunately, NPR radio picked up on it, and on Dec. 31st, Ira Flatow of Science Friday interviewed Popular Science editor Sophia Bushwick.

– https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/interstellar-goo/

In the interview, Bushwick stated:

“…I think the scientific consensus right now is they haven’t found a strong connection between exposure to cell phone radiation and brain cancer or other health problems…”

And about the recently released California guidelines, she went on to say,

“The guidelines are a little misguided. Because it’s creating a lot of fear around an issue that we’re not sure people actually need to be afraid of.”

WHAT YOU CAN PLEASE DO:

Send an email to Ira Flatow of Science Friday, asking him to do a show on radiofrequency/microwave radiation (wireless radiation) where he interviews NIH scientists and other experts who have actually studied the health effects of wireless radiation. This issue is too important, and there are too many lives at stake, for NPR to placate the public with false assurances of safety from Pop Sci.

Ira Flatow’s email is: iflatow@sciencefriday.com

On your email, please Cc the following people:

sara@popsci.com,
letters@popsci.com,
queries@popsci.com,
katie.hiler@gmail.com,
sophie.bushwick@popsci.com,
christopher@sciencefriday.com,
jleibach@sciencefriday.com,
info@undark.org,
tips@undark.org

Public Radio International published a summary article on the Science Friday interview.

– https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-12-31/california-public-health-report-suggests-cellphone-exposure-bad-us-scientific

Environmental Health Trust asks Popular Science to retract the article on stating cell phones aren’t a health risk.:

– https://ehtrust.org/retract-popular-science-article-cell-phones-arent-public-health-risk-no-matter-california-says/

The following is a snippet from Ira Flatow’s interview:

IRA FLATOW: So California guidelines about how to reduce exposure to cell phone radiation. Doesn’t say that it definitely causes cancer or other illnesses, but people have sort of interpreted it that way.

SOPHIE BUSHWICK: Right. I mean, the fact that they’ve issued guidelines saying, here’s how to reduce your cell phone exposure, seems to indicate that cell phone exposure is a problem. Whereas in reality, I think the scientific consensus right now is they haven’t found a strong connection between exposure to cell phone radiation and brain cancer or other health problems. But they have said that we need to keep studying this issue in the long term.

IRA FLATOW: So the people who are anti-cell phone radiation exposure – they jumped on this to say, see, we’re right?

SOPHIE BUSHWICK: Right. Some people I think have. They’ve said, look, this is vindication. But I think that for that reason, the guidelines are a little misguided. Because it’s creating a lot of fear around an issue that we’re not sure people actually need to be afraid of.
And I think really, the biggest health hazard that cell phones cause is a real health hazard, and that’s texting and driving. And texting and driving has killed and will kill far more people than brain cancer caused by cell phone radiation. So I think that if people are trying to find an issue to worry about, then that’s what they should be focusing on.

A few links you may wish to include in your email to help NPR “see the light.”

– https://ehtrust.org/?s=cellphones

– https://wirelessaction.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/irradiated.pdf

– http://www.bioinitiative.org/

– http://www.bioinitiative.org/updated-research-summaries-december-2017/

– http://www.saferemr.com/2016/05/national-toxicology-progam-finds-cell.html

– https://www.emfscientist.org/

– http://www.bioinitiative.org/cell-phone-radiation-study-confirms-cancer-risk/