1) Hoverboards have been declared unsafe in the USA because the lithium batteries have caught fire. $$meters have lithium metal batteries and these are on our homes!
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/u-s-government-agency-declares-hoverboards-unsafe-n521881
2) In New York City, a pilot project for free Wi-Fi is resulting in homes as far away as 400 ft. being engulfed in the RF signal.
http://nypost.com/2016/02/19/residents-ecstatic-over-free-wi-fi/
3) SMART METERS SUCK!! A tribute to the many groups all over North America who are educating people about the dangers of these devices and fighting for our right to live in our homes free of threats and invasion. Notice photos from several BC rallies. Thanks to everyone to provided them and the many others that didn’t make the cut.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azI1hIkwLYQ&feature=youtu.be
4) From David Ashton UK via Facebook
Select Committee on National Policy for the Built Environment – Building better places, Report of Session 2015-16 – published 19 February 2016 – HL Paper 100
“Nearly all the built environment in the UK now has man-made electro-magnetic exposure. This is about a million billion times higher than the natural radiation at relevant frequencies and is assumed to lie behind increasing incidence of cancer and neurological illnesses. All this man-made radiation and field exposure is now classified as a 2B carcinogen and should therefore be treated as a controlled substance as regards the built environment.”
5) Some really good letters below. Now is the time to pressure the NDP about the fire issue. They have had so much information sent to them, yet they refuse to acknowledge this problem. John Horgan has spoken many times expressing concerns about the costs of this program. Why has he failed to take up the idea of demanding a recall for these defective devices? ITRON has known they have design flaws that could lead to fires, yet they continue to sell them. ITRON should be made to remove all of these things from homes and businesses, and replace them with analogs – to replace the reliable, trustworthy, and safe analogs they had taken from our homes and destroyed. And it would cost us, the BC Hydro customers, nothing. The incurred costs would be recovered and the future costs would be avoided.
The next election is coming and we should make the NDP realize this is an issue they must face NOW if they want our support. I hope many will write to MLAs, visit their offices and discuss this face to face, and please copy them on letters you’re writing to BC Hydro.
Letters:
From: X
Sent: February 19, 2016
To: gordon.hogg.mla@leg.bc.ca
Cc: bill.bennett.mla@leg.bc.ca; John Horgan <oppositionleader@leg.bc.ca>; adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca; andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca; Sharon Noble
Subject: Fw: BC Hydro Meter Choices Program
Dear Honourable Gordon Hogg,
We are writing today to express our deep dismay that the BC Hydro Smart Meters “Choice Program” has not been carried out in good faith, and to request your assistance in rectifying this.
According to information conveyed by you, in the Peace Arch News January 30, 2013, those customers of BC Hydro who choose not to have a Smart Meter installed on their homes will not have one installed without their consent.
http://www.peacearchnews.com/news/189112621.html : ( quoted in part below in blue)
Hogg told PAN Wednesday that he stands by the information sent out by his office to the constituent, which was verified with Coleman’s office.
The information provided stated: “Individual home owners who had not yet had a smart meter installed on their home, would not have to have one.
“BC Hydro may be contacting those ‘hold outs’ one last time and if you say ‘no’ and do not consent – that is the end of it. You will not be ‘forced’ into having one or be in fear of it being installed when you are not home.”
Asked for clarification, Hogg referred to a press release and and Jan. 23 op-ed piece issued by Coleman.
“‘BC Hydro will not install a new meter without the homeowner’s consent’ – that’s the key message,” Hogg said.
Acknowledging Coleman’s description of a process of addressing customers’ individual concerns as a prelude to final installation of smart meters, Hogg said he feels the message that an opt-out is possible is not getting out.
“I don’t think that’s been conveyed appropriately,” he said. “I understand that people will not have any meters installed without their consent, and that, ultimately, people will have an opt-out.”
Unfortunately, the “Meter Choice Opt-Out” program does not seem intended to honour the choice of those BC Hydro customers who wish to refuse a smart meter be installed on their homes. This is demonstrated in the correspondence received by us from BC Hydro February 9, 2016 informing us that a transmitter/radio-off meter will be installed on our home (a copy of that file is attached), and the Feb.16, 2016 e-mail reply from BC Hydro’s Smart Meter Program’s “Michael” to our Feb. 12, 2016 e-mail response to the above attached letter (both e-mails included below). Adequate numbers of certified analogue meters have not been provided for these customers’ long term needs by BC Hydro (and the option to not have a “smart meter” on one’s home is not portable….it is a one time choice that is exclusive to the home where the account is when the choice is made; if an Opt Out customer wishes to move to another home, the option to refuse a smart meter dies). We faithfully pay the “Legacy” meter fees required to retain our “legacy” mechanical analogue electricity meter. We have already had one mechanical analogue meter exchanged for the same type 18 months ago.
This has not turned out to be a ‘’’Meter Choice” program at all. A transmitter/radio-off smart meter is still a smart meter. If we wanted a transmitter/radio-off smart meter, we would have opted for that in the beginning. We did not, as we have legitimate concerns about the electromagnetic interference (dirty electricity) any transmitter/radio-off device or digital legacy meter introduces to our home, as we explained (not for the first time) below in our Feb.12, 2016 e-mail to BC Hydro. It seems to us that this ‘’”Meter Choice” program is rather more a Machiavellian attempt to coerce our compliance with use of technology that we know is not safe for our health nor our home, nor secure: exercises to wear us down with repeated events to which we must respond. What happened to your statement of January 2013 :“BC Hydro may be contacting those ‘hold outs’ one last time and if you say ‘no’ and do not consent – that is the end of it. You will not be ‘forced’ into having one or be in fear of it being installed when you are not home.” ?
Why has BC Hydro been allowed to harass its customers with repeated attempts to coerce us to accept something to which we are very clearly and consistently opposed? Where is the good faith on the part of BC Hydro, as previously conveyed by you, our own MLA, to carry out the Meter Choices’ program without forcing us to have such a meter installed on our home? We would greatly appreciate your assistance in this issue.
___________________________________________________________________________
From: XX
Sent: February 19, 2016 3:08 PM
To: Smart Meters – BCH <smartmeters@bchydro.com>
Subject: Legacy Meter Replacement
Attention: Daren Sanders
19 February 2016
Via Registered Mail & Email
Dear Mr. Sanders:
I am recovering from tonsil cancer and also have a mass on my kidney as well as a heart condition.
Therefore, we will only accept another analogue / legacy meter on our home.
Before the analogue / legacy meter is placed on our home, we require the following:
- Due to our numerous medical appointments, we require a phone call from your office setting up a mutually-agreed appointment to replace our current analogue / legacy meter with another analogue / legacy meter. We need to be home to shut off the master switch on our electrical panel in accordance with Measurement Canada’s stipulation that electricity meters are not to be swapped out with circuits under load. Our phone number is zzzz.
- The exchange must be done by a fully qualified BC Hydro installer and not by a Corix installer, and we will require their ID badge number and name. The last installer (#4F036) put our analogue meter in with such force we would like to check the base of the meter, prior to the new analogue/legacy meter installation, to ensure the ceramic base was not cracked at that time.
We reiterate we DO NOT want anything but an analogue / legacy meter on our home. We request you allow us our right to life, liberty and security as stated under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by granting this request.
Account Holder & Home Owner
= = =
From: XX
Sent: February 19, 2016 9:36 AM
To: daren.sanders@bchydro.com
Cc: leonard.krog.mla@leg.bc.ca
Subject: Analog Meter – Account number xxxxxxxxxx
Dear Mr. Sanders,
Please see the attached letter and as copied below from the attachment.
= = =
February 19th, 2016
Dear Mr. Sanders,
I am writing to you in regard to a letter I received from BC Hydro and yourself on February 18th, 2016. The letter is dated February 16th, 2016. Your letter indicates an exchange is due for my meter.
I called BC Hydro yesterday (18th) and spoke with a man. I told him no way is the meter ready to be exchanged. My old analog was replaced (17 years old) with another analog meter in July, 2014.
There are a number of issues for me with your letter. They are as follows:
1) I will accept only an analog meter, and not a digital one. I am paying legacy fees for an analog and insist on maintaining an analog meter. I do not want a digital meter…radio on or off!
2) I require an appointment for any person to attend at my residence. I live in a town house complex of 6 units and we had the locks changed on our electrical room. Therefore, there is no ability to enter the Electrical Room without me being home. I am a busy person and cannot just change a calendar at the drop of a hat that is booked months in advance to be home. I insist on an appointment being made.
3) If an exchange to another analog is going to occur…the power to my home MUST BE TURNED OFF to prevent damage to all of my electrical appliances and my home in general. Many homes and appliances have been damaged irreversibly by “live changes” to meters.
4) Any exchange must be done by a fully qualified employee and not by a Corix person for the same reasons given in #3.
5) I must receive documented proof that my meter in fact has expired.
I will be calling today to place this letter into play verbally as well.
Please advise as to my issues as noted above.
Sincerely,
XX
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
