1) The number of signatures on the petition to Parliament I sent in last night‘s update tripled!!
If you haven’t signed, please consider it.
2) A press release re the push for review of RF classification. It has info that differs from the one from Microwave News in last night‘s update. e.g. to be reviewed from 2020-24 instead of 2022-24. This is still just a recommendation. IARC is filled with industry people, so it could be a battle to get the review and even harder to get a fair, unbiased review.
Radio frequency waves are among the agents proposed for IARC to reassess with high priority
“After the publication of numerous studies, including the recent National Toxicology Program (NTP) study in November 2018, experts considered that radio frequency waves should be reassessed with high priority.
As the authors conclude in the article, it is more than likely that IARC will consider this recommendation:
“In accordance with the provisional standard operating procedure adopted by the IARC Governing Council5, IARC will take this advice into account when selecting agents for future evaluations of monographs, in accordance with the preamble to the IARC monographs.”
3) Dr. Om Gandhi, Prof., Univ. of Utah, confirms the findings Dr. Arazi (Phonegate) in France that most cell phones exceed, by as much as 11 times, the very high SAR limits when held close to the body. And cell phones don’t even have labels warning customers NOT to have the phone anywhere near their bodies at any time.
This really is something we should work on. A petition to Parliament requiring a label with the info visible instead of being hidden in small print in a manual no one reads.
Microwave Emissions From Cell Phones Exceed Safety Limits in Europe and the US When Touching the Body
“Their data corroborate our findings that most cell phones will exceed the safety guidelines when held against the body by factors of 1.6–3.7 times for the European/ICNIRP standard or by factors as high as 11 if 1-g SAR values were to be measured as required by the U.S. FCC….
Whereas the cell phones are often used held against the ear canal or against the body in shirt or pant pockets and are therefore very close to the body, the cell phone manufacturers in the last 5–10 years have started to recommend that they be held 5, 10, or 15 up to 25 millimeters from the body. We assume this additional spacing between the cell phone and the body was recommended because of our past publications that these wireless devices will not pass the safety standards when held against the body on account of the very rapidly diminishing EM fields close to radiating antennas.”
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8688629
4) Is anyone organizing a 5G protest on May 15? If so, please let me know so we can let others know. If not, why not? I know people are concerned about having microcells right outside homes — why not join with groups around the world who are making a statement – NO 5G! NO MICROWAVE RADIATION !
Dear friends,
The May 15th National Day of 5G Action is rapidly approaching. Many of our affiliated organizations across the country will be hosting peaceful rallies in front of wireless carrier stores from 12pm to 1:30pm (local time) to express their concerns about the potential health impacts of 5G on behalf of the most vulnerable members of society—our children.
We are reaching out to see if you and members of your organization will be participating in this historic event.
If you are planning an event, we’d like to add you to our interactive map so that others who want to participate can learn the details of where and when your event will take place. Also, we’d like to be able to tell local press where there is an event happening near them.
So if you’re planning to be part of this historic day of action, please drop us a note at info@americansforresponsibletechnology.org and let us know!
Thank you for all you are doing to bring attention to this critical emerging public health issue. We hope you will join us on May 15th.
– The Grassroots Team
Letters:
Below is a stream of powerful emails written to and ignored by Energy Min. Mungall. I think the member who wrote these expresses very well the frustrations many of us have felt with the non-responses by many in the NDP government, especially Min. Mungall, as well as Prem. Horgan. They made so many promises, when they were running for office, to be transparent, to be responsive, and to help us in our fight to make our homes safer. What happened? (read from the bottom up)
Sent: April 17, 2019 5:11 PM
To: EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Cc: john.horgan.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Subject: MINISTER ASSISTANCE REQUIRED: BC Hydro + BCUC
Importance: High
To: Minister Michele Mungall
cc: John Horgan (my MLA)
I have just received an email from BC Hydro where they state “The Minister has asked us to respond to your concerns”. Why as minister are you forwarding my email to you over to BC Hydro to answer? Just so you are fully aware I have been emailing BC Hydro since 2012 about smart meters. BC Hydro only quotes and follows policy and the tariff, and refers me to the BCUC complaint process in their reply emails. When I write the BCUC they claim they are not able to offer me any assistance due to Directive #4 and the BCUC then refers me to you the minister “the Minister’s office would be best to respond, as this is within their purview”.
I do not require further clarification from BC Hydro. The issue I’m asking you to address is clearly laid out in my emails to you below. We need the NDP government to keep to John Horgan’s pre-election promises. Most importantly this includes the removal of the Liberals’ use of Directive #4 which renders the BCUC useless in regards to smart meters and protecting the public. BC Hydro cannot remove Directive #4, only you the minister, which is why I have been emailing you instead of BC Hydro.
John Horgan has claimed the smart meter issue has resulted in the most emails his office has received on any subject. Does this not give you a strong idea of how important this issue is to thousands of British Columbians? You claim the NDP government will reinstate oversight power back to the BC Utilities Commission. But when will this occur? Many of us are fighting to keep and remove smart meters off our homes and your reluctance to act will not provide any assistance as long as Directive #4 remains in place effectively neutering the BCUC to assist the public it exists to serve.
The premier has made promises in the past and even delivered a petition to the legislature demanding a smart meter opt out which was only granted because of concerns from many thousands of people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL3RMvRuPUI
Mr. Horgan said “an NDP government would refer the file to the British Columbia Utilities Commission, an independent energy regulator, seeking its guidance on how to satisfy the members of the community who do not want the devices.” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ mandatory-smart-meters-not-anymore/article8029942/
An NDP government would “give a direction to the utilities commission to give us best advice on what opt-out provision would suit the B.C. context,” said Horgan. “Other jurisdictions are doing that now.” People who have accepted smart meters against their will have “every right” to raise those issues with the utilities commission should the NDP form the next government, said Horgan. https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/ndp-pledges-to-seek-alternatives-for-people-who-don-t-want-smart-meter-1.89467
So I need a reply from you on what exactly you will do to assist the thousands of British Columbians that have been fighting for years to stand up for our right to keep a smart meter off our homes. I expect you as minister to direct the BCUC to act on the very issue of forced smart meter installation and require BC Hydro to keep to the full scope of the meter choices program at inception by utilizing still obtainable legacy meters. I would also expect the monthly legacy meter charge to be reviewed by the BCUC as the fee BC Hydro customers pay is the highest in the world and far higher than what FortisBC charges its customers for the same. I expect our rights to be respected, however we need political leaders like you to not abdicate leadership at the very time you and the NDP have the authority to act. Please fully reinstate the BCUC ASAP so they can act. I cannot believe an NDP government would not keep to its very clear promises.
Please provide a reply ASAP on what you will be doing.
*****
Sent: March 26, 2019 4:24 PM
To: EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Subject: MINISTER ASSISTANCE REQUIRED: BCUC
Importance: High
To Minister Michele Mungall:
I have learned the NDP plan to reinstate oversight power back to the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC).
- Please let me know if this will allow the BCUC to now review the smart meter program? In particular will you remove the Order in Council the Liberals utilized to severely limit the BCUC in regards to its oversight on the smart meter program?
- Also, please advise on how I am to proceed in asking the BCUC to intervene in my issue with BC Hydro as outlined in my emails below? Please note I have yet to receive a reply from your office nor my MLA John Horgan.
- Ideally I would expect you as minister to direct the BCUC to act on the very issue of forced smart meter installation and require BC Hydro to keep to the full scope of the meter choices program at inception by utilizing still obtainable legacy meters. I would also expect the monthly legacy meter charge to be reviewed by the BCUC as the fee BC Hydro customers pay is the highest in the world and far higher than what FortisBC charges its customers for the same.
Please advise ASAP as BC Hydro claims my electricity will be disconnected in the spring if I continue to resist the installation of a smart meter on my home.
*******
Sent: January 29, 2019 4:57 PM
To: EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Subject: RE: MINISTER ASSISTANCE REQUIRED: BC Hydro Choices program
To Minister Michele Mungall (or to whomever reads her emails):
Please let me know if I will be receiving a reply from the minister from my email below from December 13th?
Has my email been brought to the minister’s attention?
BC Hydro continues to assert they are to force a smart meter on to my home, and I continue to assert I am not willing to assume any risk associated with smart meters when viable alternatives still exist to meter my electricity that BC Hydro is purposefully choosing to now ignore. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12 (excerpt) – No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference. I have shown with documents like the attached, and my arguments in emails below, that smart meters violate my basic human rights and form the rationale of why the meter choices program should continue to offer non-smart meters like it has from inception.
I expect BC Hydro to respect my basic human rights, however we need political leaders like you to force BC Hydro to respect our rights, and not abdicate leadership at the very time you and the NDP have the authority to act.
Please let me know what you will be doing, and soon.
*******
Sent: December 13, 2018 10:05 AM
To: EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Subject: MINISTER ASSISTANCE REQUIRED: BC Hydro Choices program
To Minister Michele Mungall:
Below is a letter of reply I have sent to BC Hydro. BC Hydro has made it clear in its correspondence it will ‘force’ a radio-off smart meter on to my home or disconnect my power. I send this letter to you so you can fully appreciate my concerns and why I need your intervention with BC Hydro directly or indirectly through the BCUC very soon.
In my letter to BC Hydro I clearly justify why I object to a radio-off smart meter and why I begrudgingly paid to keep a legacy meter to avoid all types of smart meters, and because Bill Bennett specifically said “nobody will be forced”. I perceive a threat to my property and mostly to my family’s safety + privacy, and I am therefore not willing to assume any risk associated with smart meters when viable alternatives exist to meter my electricity that BC Hydro is purposefully choosing to ignore. A legacy type meter in no way infringes on the efficient delivery of electricity, and the very existence of the meter choices program and other jurisdictions choosing not to use smart meters shows that smart meters are not essential equipment. I consider any type of forced smart meter installation on my home an infringement upon my rights and freedoms. Please review the attachment to my email from the United States Congress which in detail outlines the privacy threat from smart meters.*
(*Excerpt: According to the Department of Energy, smart meters may be able to reveal occupants’ “daily schedules (including times when they are at or away from home or asleep), whether their homes are equipped with alarm systems, whether they own expensive electronic equipment…, and whether they use certain types of medical equipment…NIST’s report on smart grid cybersecurity, shows how smart meter data could be used to decipher the activities of a home’s occupants by matching data on their electricity usage with known appliance load signatures”).
I perceive this detailed level of data gathering surveillance a clear and unnecessary invasion of privacy, and a threat to both personal security and the security for home and property. Since I am on a fixed rate pricing program for electrical energy usage, there is no business basis for BC Hydro to collect thousands of data points per month. BC Hydro only needs one data point every 2 months to be able to calculate my monthly bill. I can already easily tell when I’m using electricity and my ever increasing energy bill motivates me to conserve, so extra data points to measure my usage will not improve my conservation, just add unnecessary risk. BC Hydro’s claim to protect our personal information is essentially just an “attempt” limited to the extent that their systems and inherently vulnerable smart meters allow. Many corporations make the same claim that their networks are secure, however history clearly shows many have been hacked and BC Hydro cannot be predicted to be the exception or somehow uniquely immune. As BC Hydro assumes none of my liability, it’s only the home owner who is placed at greater risk by the installation of a smart meter.
The premier has made promises ^^ in the past and even delivered a petition to the legislature demanding a smart meter opt out which was only granted because of concerns from many thousands of people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL3RMvRuPUI
^^Mr. Horgan said “an NDP government would refer the file to the British Columbia Utilities Commission, an independent energy regulator, seeking its guidance on how to satisfy the members of the community who do not want the devices”. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/mandatory-smart-meters-not-anymore/article8029942/
^^An NDP government would “give a direction to the utilities commission to give us best advice on what opt-out provision would suit the B.C. context,” said Horgan. “Other jurisdictions are doing that now.” People who have accepted smart meters against their will have “every right” to raise those issues with the utilities commission should the NDP form the next government, said Horgan. https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/ndp-pledges-to-seek-alternatives-for-people-who-don-t-want-smart-meter-1.89467
I ask your government to please keep its promises to assist the public you serve in dealing with the remnant actions of the Liberals that the NDP objected to when they were carried out. If the Liberals can force the BCUC, via then energy minister Bill Bennett, then you also have the same power to undo what the Liberals did by using or undoing the same Orders in Council and Directives with the BCUC. Why would you not do so in order to keep NDP promises and keep to the democratic ideals promoted in NDP pre-election messages? Thanks to the assistance of John Horgan, a smart meter opt out was finally won versus the Liberals and now BC Hydro is not keeping the full scope of the choices program. That is, unless you direct them through the BCUC to force them to acquire still available legacy meters or simply to recertify our existing legacy meters. Many other Jurisdictions in North America have chosen to not adopt smart meters and those customers still have meters. Other jurisdictions that are using smart meters are treating their opt out customers with proper respect by charging them far less and more importantly, to keep legacy meters permanently.
If BC Hydro lacks the will, or planning and forethought, to retain, re-certify, or acquire non-smart meters for a well-known number of its ‘legacy meter’ customers, my family should not be made to bear any risk or consequence in being forced to accept a smart meter when Bill Bennett made it very clear: “no one will be forced”, “People who want to opt out can”, “They will not be forced to have a smart meter, but they are going to have to pay the costs.”
I know the NDP objected to the Smart meter program as a whole mainly for financial reasons but only you can ask the BCUC to look at the smart meter program. Can you at the minimum have the BCUC hold BC Hydro to the full scope of the meter choices program and not force smart meters on all of us?*** BC Hydro needs to keep the full scope of ‘choice’ in the meter choices program by continuing to use legacy type meters, otherwise there is no meaningful choice left in the program. What would be the point of creating a meter choices program that does not retain the full scope of choice from its inception, especially when the program was created for those BC Hydro customers who do not consent to a smart meter of any kind? At the time in announcing the choices program, thousands of account holders were appeased that we would not be forced to take a smart meter of any type and not just to delay a smart meter. If we are to be charged the highest opt-out fees in the world, and within BC, to only delay a smart meter you must realize that very few of us would have participated and paid into a program that was only designed as a smart meter ‘delay’ program.
***commentary from the Auditor General https://biv.com/article/2018/03/bc-government-urged-stop-chaining-its-watchdog EXCERPT: “In a review of the BCUC, B.C. Auditor General points to several cases of interference by the B.C. government. It reads like a cautionary note to the new NDP government to not follow the example set by the previous Liberal government. The BCUC is supposed to be an independent watchdog whose purpose is to protect ratepayers from government utility monopolies,”
Please let me know what you can do? Not just for me but for thousands of British Columbians that have voiced their opposition, and for the many who have simply capitulated due to high opt out fees and threats of disconnection from BC Hydro, and for the many who had their meters changed without full informed consent. Or, please tell me why the NDP has gone silent on the smart meter issue at the very time your party has the power to do something substantial, and when we need you the most?
Sharon Noble, Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.” George Bernard Shaw