[5G – AAEM American Academy of Environmental Medicine – ACLU – Alzheimer’s – Appliance Damages – Autism – BC Hydro – BCUC – Bill Bennett – BioInitiative – Cell Towers – Children – Costs – Data – Directive #4 – Disconnection – Doctor – EcoJustice – EHS – ELF – EMF – Environment – FCC – Fiber – Fibre Optic – Fires – Gregor Robertson – Gregory Hagg – Gro Harleem Brudtland – Health Canada – ICNIRP – IEEE / ICES – International Doctors Appeal – IoT – Jerry Flynn – Jessica McDonald – John Horgan – Landlines – Lithium Batteries – Maria Stuchly – Meter Choices Program – Michael Repacholi – Microcells – Nancy Halbmeier – Ombudsman – Opt Out – Parks – Power Surges – Privacy – Raymond Louie – RF – Safety – Schools – SDG&E – Security – Small Cells – Substations – Telus – WHO – Wi-Fi – Wireless | Chilliwack, BC – Vancouver, BC – Canada – China – Norway – Russia – Palo Alto, California – Kentucky – Le Sueur, Minnesota – Missouri – Oklahoma – Brookville, Pennsylvania, USA]
A long update tonight, but you will have a week to read it because this will be the last update until Feb. 5. I am taking a break and will not have access to a computer. If there is something that must be shared immediately, please email it to Janis at:
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1) Re. Chilliwack Cell Towers, from a member. Why didn’t we know about this sooner? Did the announcements get put in the newspapers as required?
Unfortunately Chillwack Council has since given approval – encourage your readers to write them and voice their opposition. I have already done so. Thx:
Updated story: http://www.theprogress.com/news/411924756.html
2) Re. microcells. This industry article tells exactly what Telus is doing with the fiber optic cable and the microcells. Fool the people by telling them that this will improve the service, give them secure internet, etc. then put the fiber optic cable and for the “last mile” between the cable and the home, throw Wi-Fi at them and give them no choice. Pull the copper lines for cable and home landlines, and everyone will be forced to go wireless. In the USA, this is happening. People are fighting to keep their landlines and are being told they have no choice, that the carriers are pulling support for the copper lines. No thought is given to the fact that when electricity goes down, there is no phone service. What about emergencies when the cell service is down or slow? What about security?
We must write to the powers that be and tell them we will not accept this. We demand that we have a choice about having a landline or cable for internet. Remember how Telus lied to me about it being wired? They are giving “alternate facts” to all their customers. And with 5G, even more cell transmitters will be needed.
“The big idea McAdam sees as a possible future is that instead of sending a crew out to run fiber optic cable from utility poles into every house in America, a carrier could just pop a bunch of wireless routers in the mail and have the customers get the whole deal up and running themselves in minutes…
the 5G revolution may be a pipe dream. Pre-commercial trials have started, but it’s almost impossible to know yet just how many cells will have to be deployed in neighborhoods nationwide to maintain reliable service or whether the economics will make any more sense than relying on wired home connections.”
http://fortune.com/2017/01/26/verizon-charter-rumors-5g/
3) Another incident of smeters burning after a power surge. About 25% of a Pennsylvania town was affected. These sorts of things didn’t happen with analogs. As the Director of Emergency Services said, in 30 years, this is a first.
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article129121549.html
[& http://wjactv.com/news/local/jefferson-county-power-outage-causes-thousands-of-dollars-in-damages]
A few years ago, when smeters were being installed in Palo Alto, CA, a power surge caused 80 fires in homes with smeters, not one in a home with an analog. What more evidence is needed to prove these are fire hazards?
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2011/09/04/power-surge-raises-questions-about-smartmeters
4) Non smeters: EcoJustice has been a major force for environment for many years. Many of the major environmental legal precedents have this name as one of the “claimants”. They have been fighting Kinder Morgan (http://www.ecojustice.ca/faq-going-to-court-over-kinder-morgan/) and now are fighting the Alberta..> New Brunswick pipeline (http://www.ecojustice.ca/case/challenging-transcanadas-energy-east-pipeline/). Hopefully, one day they will be able to help us with our fight for an environment safe from RF. You might consider signing up for their newsletters and donating.
5) Oklahoma is considering a Bill that will allow people to opt out of having a smeter primarily due to privacy concerns.
“While encrypting smart meter data and warrant requirements for law enforcement address some of the privacy issues, refusing to allow a smart meter on your property is the only sure-fire way to ensure your energy use data won’t fall into the hands of government agents or private marketers, or end up stored in some kind of government database. Passage of HB1435 would make opting out an option for Oklahomans and give them control over their own privacy.”
6) In Kentucky, major resistance to a proposed smeter program. The normal “alternative truth” about health concerns. And as for saving money, the proposal is accompanied by a request for a large increase in rates.
“The commission said smart meters elicited more public comments than any other issue, with people raising concerns that the devices “transmit dangerous levels of radiation and represent a potential invasion of privacy by utilities.””
https://insiderlouisville.com/business/utilities-to-request-rate-hike-install-smart-meters/
7) Lawmakers in Missouri present Bills allowing opt out due, primarily, to security concerns.
The proliferation of smart meters creates significant privacy concerns. The data collected can tell anybody who holds it a great deal about what goes on inside a home. It can reveal when residents are at home, asleep or on vacation. It can also pinpoint “unusual” energy use, and could someday serve to help enforce “energy usage” regulations. The ACLU summarized the privacy issues surrounding smart meters in a recent report…
The privacy issues aren’t merely theoretical. According to information obtained by the California ACLU, utility companies in the state have disclosed information gathered by smart meters on thousands of customers. San Diego Gas and Electric alone disclosed data on more than 4,000 customers. The vast majority of disclosures were in response to subpoenas by government agencies “often in drug enforcement cases or efforts to find specific individuals,” according to SFGate.
8) The internet of things is driving demand for microchips which use a lot of energy and leads to short lifespan of batteries. More costs for us, the users of something we don’t want. Also admission of security issues.
“This in turn is also predicted to affect the market of microcontroller positively. Moreover, rapid installation of smart meter across different commercial and residential sectors in order to monitor overall electric energy consumption and to report the information back to the utilities for automatic billing purposes is anticipated to trigger the demand of microcontroller during the forecast period.
However, high power consumption of microcontroller is one of the primary factor anticipated to affect the demand of microcontroller negatively.
Microcontroller embedded in smart devices rely on batteries to consume required power for its efficient operation. This in turn decreases the lifecycle of batteries and is expected to increase the overall operating cost.
In addition, security related issues of IoT devices is another important factor predicted to limit the demand of microcontroller in the coming years.”
9) More problems with lithium batteries. This involves batteries for HP laptops:
http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2017/61898r-eng.php
10) Huge growth in smeter profit in the future, with more equipment and infrastructure, not to mention (which they didn’t) the ongoing and constant replacement and upgrading of smeters. And this doesn’t include the replacement of smeters which have a very short lifespan or ongoing software “upgrades”.
http://www.satprnews.com/2017/01/24/smart-meters-market-worth-18-2-billion-by-2019/
11) Mismanagement of BC Hydro by the Liberals, and misleading the public, has resulted in the terrible situation that faces BC Hydro and the people of BC – huge and growing debts, high and increasing rates for things that are dangerous to our health, well-being, and the environment, unnecessary, and beneficial only to the corporate buddies of the politicians.
Letters:
To: Hon. Bill Bennett <bill.bennett.MLA@leg.bc.ca>
cc: john.horgan.MLA@leg.bc.ca; Premier Christie Clarke <premier@gov.bc.ca>
Mr. Bennett: I have reached the point of requiring a reply from you the minister because all others I have written to have all ultimately referred me to you, such as BC Hydro, the BCUC, the Ombudsman, My MLA, The Privacy Commissioner, and safety authorities. They refer me to you because you are the creator of Directive #4. I require a clear answer quickly.
As you can see within the long correspondence below back and forth from BC Hydro, BC Hydro is threatening to disconnect my power if I do not accept a smart meter. As this is objectively forcing me to take a smart meter please let me know how this can be allowed if you created the Meter Choices Program to allow BC Hydro customers to pay fees to keep legacy type meters?
https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2013-2017/2013MEM0004-001125.htm
Within the link above from July 18, 2013, You made the following statement by way of press release announcing BC Hydro’s Meter Choices Program: “As we have said, nobody will be forced to take a smart meter. I believe that this is a fair and reasonable solution for all British Colombian’s.” Based upon this clear statement from you the minister, I am not to be forced to take a smart meter regardless of the specific choices BC Hydro has made to stop purchasing still available legacy meters and choosing to not re-certify legacy meters. 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 largely created for those BC Hydro customers who do not consent to a smart meter, either radio on or off?
At the time you made the above statements 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 – permanently – and not just to delay a smart meter. If you intended to charge us the highest fees in the world, and in BC, to only delay a smart meter, you must realize that very few of us would have participated and paid the extra fee if the program was only designed as a smart meter ‘delay’ program. We were paying those extra fees based on your word “that nobody will be forced”. If you read the correspondence below from BC Hydro, it’s clear I’m being forced due to clear threat of disconnection. If BC Hydro were to carry out their threat to turn off my power this would put my family at a health, safety, and economic risk and due to it being a monopoly I cannot obtain electricity from any other provider.
I object to a radio off smart meter which, as you can read in my email chain of arguments below, is clearly laid out and why I begrudgingly paid the legacy fees to keep a legacy meter and avoid all types of smart meters because you 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. I consider any type of forced smart meter installation on my home an infringement upon my rights and freedoms and clearly goes against the statements of you, the minister.
I need you to reassure me that I am not to be forced to take a smart meter so I can alert BC Hydro that you are to be taken at your word. Otherwise, if your statement was made in deceit that ‘nobody will be forced’ then I have wasted my family’s money participating in a program that does not keep to what was clearly stated. I do not see how your very clear statements can be construed as only temporarily true, or have some honestly expiry date. If I am not to be forced to take a smart meter then BC Hydro should be made to stop its threats and find me a legacy meter which are, by their own admission, still in inventory and I know are still in production. So, please reply ASAP that you are to be taken at your word as I am at risk of disconnection by BC Hydro. Please do not refer me to anyone else as everyone has referred me to you.
X
_________________________________________________________________________
From: Louie, Raymond <Raymond.Louie@vancouver.ca>
Date: Jan 27, 2017 at 7:09 PM
To: XX
Subject: RE: BC Hydro – planning electrical substations under Vancouver schools and park
Dear Ms. XX
Thank you for your email. I will review the material that you have sent to me and also ask City of Vancouver staff to look into this as well.
Sincerely
Acting Mayor Raymond Louie
Vice-Chair – Metro Vancouver Regional District
Immediate Past President – Federation of Canadian Municipalities
= = =
From: XX
Sent: January 27, 2017 12:53 PM
To: Correspondence Group, City Clerk’s Office; Robertson, Gregor; Jang, Kerry; Affleck, George; Deal, Heather; Ball, Elizabeth; Carr, Adriane; De Genova, Melissa; Louie, Raymond; Meggs, Geoff; Reimer, Andrea; Stevenson, Tim
Subject: BC Hydro – planning electrical substations under Vancouver schools and park
Please protect our citizens!
In announcing that BC Hydro plans to build massive electrical substations beneath a school and a public park in the City of Vancouver (CBC News article, dated January 20, 2017, by Jane Armstrong), demonstrates clearly the ongoing shocking ignorance and/or arrogance of electric utilities to the known dangers of electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) to humans and all living things! The article volunteered that there are already 37 electrical substations in Metro Vancouver, half of them within 100 metres to 200 metres of a park or school! The article said that more than half of B.C. Hydro’s 300 substations are within 100 and 200 metres of public spaces like schools, parks or shopping areas!
With respect to its proposed new substations, BC Hydro’s CEO, Jessica McDonald naively stated that: “The physical area on top of Cathedral Square park has an electric and magnetic field measurement of 30 milligauss! She went on to say that: “According to the World Health Organization and Health Canada, the safety threshold is 2,000 milligauss.” She should have added that this 2,000 mG is the same level recommended to all countries of the world by ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection), whose Chairman-Emeritus is the now infamous Dr. Michael Repacholi (more later).
http://www.electricsense.com/8335/magnetic-fields-safe-levels-exposure-emfs/
It is inexcusable that Ms. McDonald does not know that: “Once the health risks were identified in the 1940s and 1950s from radar, it became increasingly expensive to provide sufficient buffer zones around airports and power lines. Only Russia, China and other countries following the implications of their medical research adopted biological limits.” (Once again, it’s all about money.)
http://wiredchild.org/component/content/article/46-hidden/99-icnirp.html (A Must read!)
Ms. McDonald needs to know that In 1977, what was then Health and Welfare Canada’s Dr. Michael Repacholi, assisted by Dr. Maria Stuchly, established what is now Health Canada’s Safety Code 6. Two years later, in 1979, Drs. Repacholi and Stuchly presented to the IEEE Canada’s proposal to lower the ‘safe’ RF exposure limits for the general public to non-thermal EMF because of the ill effects American embassy staff experienced in Moscow (1953-1976)
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-79-364A1.pdf Obviously, they Canada changed its mind.
Ms. McDonald needs to know that, in 1992, this same Dr. Michael Repacholi, assisted by Dr. Anders Ahlbom (who was subsequently was found to be in conflict-of-interest and had to resign as Chairman of IARC’s Expert Panel on RF EMF), established ICNIRPs safety Guidelines. In 1996, the same Dr. Michael Repacholi headed up the 10-year, $250-million study for the WHO to establish ‘safe’ RF Guidelines for the world. Surprisingly, all of the above were compatible with those of the IEEE/ICES, which are promulgated to the world via FCC (Federal Communications Commission) on behalf of the USA and its military.
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-79-364A1.pdf
BC Hydro’s CEO clearly does not know that both BioInitiative Reports (2007 and 2012), the ICEMS (International Commission on Electro-Magnetic Safety) scientists, and the Russian NCNIRP scientists all agree with the BioInitiative scientists, who say that SAFE levels of magnetic fields in homes should not exceed even 0.1 mG! Nor does Ms. McDonald appear to know that in various countries magnetic fields in a home of just 2-3 mG have been strongly linked to childhood leukemia since 1979! Alzheimer’s Disease and Autism are two other epidemics closely linked to magnetic fields from 60 Hz electricity.
Surely, for once, Vancouver’s Mayor and Council need to wake up and realize that utilities such as BC Hydro are strictly profit-driven and will do whatever they can to make a profit. Secondly, Health Canada, as it demonstrated with Tobacco, Asbestos, Thalidomide etc., has shown again that it cares little for the health, safety and well-being for Canadians. For that reason, municipal governments have a special responsibility to ensure that their citizens are protected.
Lastly, the City of Vancouver’s engineering staff should also conduct its own accurate measurements – at least quarterly, if not monthly – of the ambient level of magnetic fields (in milliGauss) over the entire surface areas and adjacent to each and every substation within its jurisdiction. Only then can it know that the public are safe from ELF EMFs. BC’s PHO has absolutely no qualifications or expertise in EMFs and can only echo whatever Health Canada says.
Sincerely,
James G. Flynn, Captain (Retired)
_________________________________________________________________________
From: “Gregory Hagg” <ghagg@cityoflesueur.com> (Le Sueur, MN)
Sent: January 25, 2017
To: M
Subject: RE: smart meter
Thank you M for the email and I am very sorry about your wife and her condition related to EHS. Please continue to keep me posted with updates and also any additional information that comes your way regarding EHS.
My best to you and your family,
Gregory Hagg
= = =
From: M
Sent: January 10, 2017
To: Gregory Hagg
Subject: smart meter
Hello Mayor Hagg,
Congratulations, on being supportive of Ms. Nancy Halbmeier electronic hypersensitivity (EHS)! Such wisdom and compassion is rarely found today.
For most people, this is something they cannot comprehend, as it is rarely reported in mainstream media, while government health officials remain equally uninformed.
My wife has also been suffering from EHS for the last 8 years. We moved twice, because of it.
To say the least: EHS is a life changing, man-made affliction.
Dr. Gro Harleem Brudtland MD, former time Prime Minister of Norway and former head of the Word Health Organization, became electronically hyper sensitive, while in office.
Due to the massive increase of RF radiation, more and more people around the world have become victims, as their system is unable to cope with man’s unnatural, pulsed radiation. We know of several people who, in the last few years, contracted EHS.
EHS is a biologically correct reaction to an unnatural environment.
A great source of information on the adverse health effects of WiFi, cell towers, smart meters, etc:
The International Doctors Appeal 2012 (cut and paste bold text into web-browser).
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine repeatedly issued similar health warnings, especially for children.
Best regards,
M
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
~ Aldous Huxley