- Another smart meter fire in Quebec: http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/regional/sherbrooke/archives/2015/08/20150814-185109.html The Google translation is below in Letters. Of course, the cause is attributed to the base, and perhaps rightly so. The base was designed and certified to hold an analog, not any digital meters, smart meter or otherwise. In many regards, the fire is similar to the recent one in Collingwood, Ontario – if the home had been built of anything but brick the fire could have been very serious.
- An excellent video from the PHIRE conference in San Francisco in June. (Health in the EM Era – Mythis and Misconceptions) This 15 minute video is dedicated, at the end, to a 15 year old girl who committed suicide. Her parents believe that WiFi in her school made her ill and her life unbearable.
- In Sweden, where EHS is recognized as a functional disability, progress is continuing. These news items are from Dr. Olle Johansson. Canada continues to do nothing. Dr. Kendall, our public health doctor, refuses to acknowledge that EHS is real.
Please, note that the Swedish Academy (i.a. responsible for the Nobel Prize in Literature) – in collaboration with various disability organizations and functional impairment experts – has decided to enter a new Swedish word, namely “funcophobia” (Sw. “funkofobi”) into their official word list over the Swedish language. Funcophobia is defined as “prejudice against people with functional variations”. Needless to say, this is a huge step forward for all disability groups, including persons with the functional impairment electrohypersensitivity.
Please, note that the Stockholm City Council civil servant for disability issues, the “funktionshindersombudsman” Ms Riitta-Leena Karlsson, has been invited to be part of the new Stockholm City Council group about democracy and human rights. As such, she is in a golden situation to also propel forward issues about the functional impairment (EHS) electrohypersensitivity. This is a very important additional leap forward that – again – puts the Swedish model at the forefront, I would proudly say.
- More hacking of things in the future, and once all of our appliances connect to the internet via the ZigBee in the smart meter, we will be threatened with constant invasion and attack.
- We keep getting more and more info about the invasive aspect of the smart grid, but who is listening? The Privacy Commissioner has said she is satisfied that BC Hydro’s encryption is adequate. Just as with fires and health, no one is paying any attention to the privacy issue. Where is the outrage?
Smart meters are a good example. This is an area where EFF has been very active … recognizing in California that there was a lot of serious privacy issues around the granular energy usage data. I like to use this quote from Siemens in Europe a few years ago where they said, “you know, we, Siemens, have the technology to record energy use every minute, second, and microsecond, more or less live. From that, we can infer how many people are in the home, what they do, whether they are upstairs, downstairs, do you have a dog, when do you usually get up, when did you get up this morning, when you have a shower.” Masses of private data. And obviously, this is a European perspective, which is especially solicitous of privacy, and yet the ability to make those kinds of inferences from energy usage data is clearly there. …
The thing that is interesting here is that, while there are real privacy risks, very, very few consumers seem to be aware of them.
http://smartgridawareness.org/2015/08/17/dragnet-data-collections-by-smart-meters/
Similar perspectives, but focused on the Utilities sector come from Mike Ballard, senior director, utilities at Oracle EMEA. “There’s now the ability to mix utility and non-utility data – especially with the introduction of smart meters. This enables us to drive down with much more detail into the greatly diversified patterns of consumption that we see across different households. Analytics already can present thirty to forty typical consumer profiles and this is going to grow as we gather more data and energy markets themselves become more complex. This in turn is going drive much more accurately targeted marketing, spotting home workers, for example with particular deals.”
http://www.m2mnow.biz/2015/08/17/35913-vast-data-new-tools-needed-to-create-new-realities/
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Letters:
Letter: Fortis gives electricity customer no choice on smart meter by Carol Stein – Kelowna Capital News – August 17, 2015:
– http://www.kelownacapnews.com/opinion/letters/322063671.html
(Please Comment & – http://www.kelownacapnews.com/contact_us/?curSection=%2F&curTitle=Contact+Us&c=y
Fire Google translation:
“The fire of a smart meter could have had serious consequences earlier this week to Farnham, in the Eastern Townships. According to the firefighters, it is in is taken little for the remains to be burned.
The fire caused damage to electrical installations. Fortunately, the coating of the building was brick which prevented the flames from spreading.
If the House had been in another material, the damage could have been much worse.
Farnham fire had never had to respond to a fire of this kind.
“In 34 years of service, I never had firepower electric base like that”, says the Director of fire services, Mario Nareau.
A worrying situation so that it is not less of 3.4 million smart meters have been installed in the province.
Hydro-Québec reaffirms that its facilities are not in question.
“In all cases, fire departments have concluded that the fires were in connection with electrical installations in residences, i.e. bases, because there was deterioration of these facilities ‘, says Serge Abergel, spokesman for Hydro-Québec.
The Crown Corporation encourages its customers to check the bases every five years. In addition, Hydro advise to go visit his website to learn more.
“Hydro-Québec defends himself by saying that it is the responsibility of the owner to ensure that the connection or base is quality, but there is nobody who knows enough ca.. When they came to change the counter, they should suggest or recommend to the owner to check its base”, adds Mr. Nareau.
Due to the risk of fire, Ontario decided to remove 5400 meters and Saskatchewan, 105 000. Hydro said however that in its case, different technology.”
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Newsletter prepared by Sharon Noble
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.