[ACS American Cancer Society – Analog Meter Suppliers – Apple iPhones – BC Hydro & BCUC Audits by Carol Bellringer, Auditor General – Bluetooth – Brain Glucose Metabolism – Catherine J. Frompovich – Cell Phones – Cell Towers – CEOs Against Cancer – Cerise Edwards – Clean Energy Act – Conflict of Interest – Corporate Sponsors (Accenture, Ameren, AT&T, GE, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens) – Deferral Accounts – Digital – Disconnections – Doctor Devra Davis, EHT – Don Barz Letter re Site C Costs – Drug Companies – DTE – Environment – FDA – Follow the Money Trails – FUNdraising App – Health Canada – Hydro One – Insurance – John Horgan – Karen Smith, CDPH – KCP&L – KPMG – Les Leyne – Letters to / from Ira Flatow, NPR re Popular Science Editor Sophia Bushwick Interview – Medical Devices – Meter Replacements – MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging EMFs, EMR & Safety – NIEHS – NIH – Nora Volkow, National Institute on Drug Abuse – NTP – Platte-Clay Electric Coop Landis+Gyr Smart Meter Explosion & Fire – RF Microwave Radiation – SB 6495 – Studies – Tobacco Science – Tracking – WHO – Wi-Fi in Schools – Wireless | Kamloops & Peace River, BC – Ontario – France – Berkeley & San Francisco, California & Excelsior Springs, Missouri & Washington, USA] & (video)
1) Smeter fires are continuing, even though we seldom hear of them. Just as happens in BC, the media doesn’t report them very often and no agency is tracking. Insurance companies pay claims, sue the utility to recover costs, increase premiums even though they are recovering costs, and no one is told that fire hazards are on their homes. I have stopped tracking in BC but if someone is interested in carrying this on, I would happily explain what I have learned about the processes. Unless we do the searching and tracking, no one will ever have a clue about how many smeter fires are occurring.
(click on photos to enlarge)
When reading this article, please remember that we are unable to remove the smeter and replace it with a safe analog. There is a law in BC requiring each home to have a smeter. We must fight to have this law changed, but anyone who changes the smeter while the law is in force will face serious consequences from BC Hydro – usually, power is turned off.
Smart Meter Fires: They Just Won’t Go Away
“Below are two electric utility meters. The one on the left is a fire-prone digital “smart” meter; the one on the right is a safe “analog” meter, which has been perfected for safety and accuracy over decades of use. However, an analog meter will not spy on what you are doing in your home; will not be able to interact with all your smart appliances, even shut them off or make them have “brown outs” if the power company thinks you are using too much electric power!”
2) Word is getting around in various journals. The title is somewhat misleading, offering good advice that really isn’t in the article itself, and it will get attention.
No electronics in the bedroom: Any device closer than arm’s length can cause cancer, infertility, and other health concerns, health officials warn
“The California Department of Health issued guidelines highlighting the health risks associated with cell phone radiation exposure, and encouraging the general public to minimize their exposure to it. The statewide guidelines came after certain cities such as Berkeley and San Francisco released local warnings that their citizens should make some distance between their mobile phones and their bodies.”
3) The Ontario Auditor General [AG] has reviewed Hydro One, smart meters, etc. over the last few years and has provided reports that highlight the problems in the utility and its various practices. Let’s hope that BC’s AG is really free to and capable of producing a similarly independent, hard-hitting report. I don’t know if public input will be allowed, but it wouldn’t hurt for us to write her with our concerns.
Carol Bellringer, Auditor General of BC <bcauditor@bcauditor.com>
Watching B.C. Hydro is a growth industry
Les Leyne, Times Colonist: “B.C. auditor general Carol Bellringer has a new item on her to-do list.
The office is taking over for the first time the job of doing a full-scale direct financial audit of the Crown corporation. The annual task is usually done by a private firm contracted by B.C. Hydro (KPMG).
The auditor general has done performance audits of specific B.C. Hydro functions in the past, but never taken responsibility for the annual direct financial audit…
…The auditor general goes into the job with a track record of vigorously objecting to the way the deferral accounts are handled, by government and Hydro alike. The office has a lot more clout than a contracted consulting firm, and isn’t shy about exercising it.”
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/les-leyne-watching-b-c-hydro-is-a-growth-industry-1.23137605#sthash.cKJCTcb0.gbpl [If you can’t read this article without a subscription, the article is @ the bottom of this update following Letters.]
I hope the Auditor General will look at the info in this letter. Many reports state that BC Hydro is selling power to industries and to the USA at rates lower than BC residents pay, and also rates that do not recover the costs of production.
http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/site-c-decision-callous-disregard-taxpayer/
4) When the issue of RF radiation is raised, often 3 sources are quoted as saying there is no evidence that microwave radiation is dangerous: WHO which we know is loaded with industry-affiliated people, Health Canada which has “scientists” who have major conflicts of interest having been paid to work for/do “research” for the industry, and the Cancer Society which has turned a blind eye to any dangers and has maligned independent scientists.
This article helps to follow the money to the American Cancer Society. I’m sure there are similar trails to the Canadian Cancer Society.
“Position based on research or based on corporate contributions?
Look at ACS corporate ties.
Top ACS corporate sponsors are Smart Meter/AMI manufacturing and technology companies Siemens, GE, IBM, and Accenture, Illinois energy company and Smart Meter proponent Ameren, wireless companies AT&T and Motorola, and Microsoft. There are likely many more corporate ties slightly lower down the contribution list. [2]
In addition, CEOs of Ameren Corp.,Motorola Solutions, IBM, and Accenture sit on the American Cancer Society‘s Global Council for CEOs Against Cancer – “an elite group of CEOs of the largest and most influential corporations who serve in an advisory capacity on time sensitive, industry, subject matter, or geographically relevant topics pertaining to the global cancer burden.” [3]
This explains ACS’ entrenched position on wireless hazards, and why it supports wireless technology.”
[http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2015-16/Pdf/Bill%20Reports/Senate/6495%20SBA%20HSMH%2016.pdf]
Letters:
From: Ira Flatow <iflatow@sciencefriday.com>
To: X
Date: January 5, 2018 at 10:35:12 AM PST
Subject: Re: omitted information
Dear X
Thank you for your thoughtful email. This is a very important issue which we take seriously.
I am told by the NIEHS that final results of the NTP rodent cell phone radiation study will be available in early 2018.
At that time, we will revisit the issue in depth.
As you mention NIH scientists, I invited you to listen to a past episode of Science Friday from 2011, when we discussed cell phone radiation for more than 20 minutes in an interview with Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the NIH. She spoke about her study published in JAMA linking cell phone radiation and brain activity. She expressed caution about using cell phones in that interview. She is the highest ranking scientists in a federal government position to publicly do so.
http://www.wbur.org/npr/134059267/cell-phone-radiation-affects-brain-study-says
Ira Flatow
Science Friday
19 West 44th St. Suite 412
New York, NY 10036
www.sciencefriday.com
Twitter @iraflatow
Facebook /IFlatow
Science Friday is produced by the Science Friday Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
= = =
On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 1:05 PM, X wrote:
Dear Mr. Flatow and Science Friday,
Occasionally I am able to listen to Science Friday and it is usually very interesting. I did not, however, hear the interview from which the following was transcribed:
——————————————————————
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.
——————————————————————
I find it somewhat disturbing that the reader/listener is left with the impression that there’s no substantial evidence that this technology provides health concerns. This is very reminiscent of the discussion surrounding tobacco, and we all know about “tobacco science”.
As responsible journalists, it’s surprising that you could find nothing to counter Ms. Bushwick’s comments/claims. If you’d like some information, you might try these sources:
– 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/
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCRF71eMZ1Q&feature=youtu.be
– https://ehtrust.org/science/facts-national-toxicology-program-cellphone-rat-cancer-study/
Having read and heard about the phone shop in Berkeley, California, who is being (was?) sued by the cell phone industry, red flags go up all over for me. I think you, Mr. Flatow, are old enough to have first-hand familiarity with the history of industry-supported tobacco “science”, so you should know how some “science” works, and be prepared to question it appropriately.
If it is that Ms. Bushwick and Popular Science depend on funding from the wireless industry, it is understandable that they present a rather biased (and therefore inaccurate) view on the subject.
Unless NPR is also dependent on funding from the wireless industry, I think you owe it to your public to now do a show on radiofrequency/microwave radiation (wireless radiation) where you can interview NIH scientists and other experts who have actually studied the health effects of wireless radiation; there is absolutely no shortage of available science that presents wireless effects on health.
Please serve your public as they deserve to be served!
Sincerely,
X
______________________________________________________________________
Les Leyne: Watching B.C. Hydro is a growth industry by Les Leyne – Times Colonist – January 06, 2018:
B.C. Hydro is going to be scrutinized as never before while work continues at its $10.7-billion Site C power project on the Peace River.
An extra level of oversight on the project itself was included when the government decided Dec. 11 to continue the work. But well before that decision, the NDP in opposition was suspicious of B.C. Hydro. Since assuming power, it has served notice it also wants some reviews of B.C. Hydro’s general operation.
Independent of those, B.C. auditor general Carol Bellringer has a new item on her to-do list. The office is taking over for the first time the job of doing a full-scale direct financial audit of the Crown corporation. The annual task is usually done by a private firm contracted by B.C. Hydro. The auditor general has done performance audits of specific B.C. Hydro functions in the past, but never taken responsibility for the annual direct financial audit.
Bellringer won approval from the legislature finance committee last month for a boost to her budget to gear up next year to take over responsibility for the audit, and then start it the year after.
That means $240,000 in extra costs in the next fiscal year and $375,000 the year after. The budget for the new audit was originally about $800,000, but was revised during the committee appearances.
The upcoming audit will likely include considerable attention to one controversial aspect of Hydro’s bookkeeping — the practice of using deferral accounts to push large amounts of debt off the current books and into the future. It has been a sore point for several years. The argument over the practice reached the point last year when the auditor general qualified her approval of the B.C. government’s overall books because of the “inappropriate use of rate-regulated accounting” at B.C. Hydro.
As of last year, Hydro had more than $5 billion worth of deferred expenses in its $20 billion worth of net long-term debt.
The practice is allowed under some accounting standards if an independent third-party regulator approves it. But the former B.C. Liberal government specifically exempted Hydro from needing B.C. Utilities Commission approval to defer such costs. It also issued a number of directions to the BCUC that further voided the independence.
Those moves were what prompted the auditor general last summer to qualify her approval of the state of the B.C. government’s books. It was because the government financial statements are supposed to meet a certain standard, but the Hydro component within those statements does not.
Bellringer also appeared at a different legislature committee last year, the public accounts committee, to get approval for the project.
She said then: “We would like to be closer to what’s going on at Hydro. … We’ll be forming an opinion as to whether or not those statements were prepared the way they should have been.”
She also told MLAs the reasons her office decided to take on the job “have a lot to do with the qualifications that we had in the audit opinion.”
Although a lot of work already goes into the current independent audit by the private firm, the only public representation is a bland page on B.C. Hydro’s annual report that amounts to: “Looks OK by us.”
The auditor general goes into the job with a track record of vigorously objecting to the way the deferral accounts are handled, by government and Hydro alike. The office has a lot more clout than a contracted consulting firm, and isn’t shy about exercising it.
The audit is still a year or more away, but Bellringer’s office is warming up for it with a separate performance audit of the deferral accounts, which is nearing completion.
The office’s first look at those, seven years ago when they were less than half the current size, is what started the whole argument.
Just for good measure, the auditor general’s office is also conducting a performance audit of the oversight of the BCUC, not unrelated to the Hydro issues.
It also started an audit of Site C but suspended it when the new government referred the project to the BCUC. It’s now maintaining a “watching brief” on the project.
If B.C. Hydro were a TV series, it would be the most-watched show on the tube.
lleyne@timescolonist.com
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.