[ACLU American Civil Liberties Union – Acoustic Neuroma – BCCLA BC Civil Liberties Association – BC Hydro Opt-out Fees – Bills – D. Bedard – D. Krewski – E. Cardis – EMR – F. Momoli – Frederick Weisberg – Health – INTERPHONE – J. Siemiatycki – L. Richardson – Liz Suavé, Telus – M. Vrijheid – M.É. Parent – M.L. McBride – Norm Ryder Letter to Doctor Perry Kendall re Brain Tumour Cancer Risk Doubles Study – R. Platt – Radiation – Security of Landlines v Insecure Cell Phones / Skype – Smart Meters Data Privacy – Wireless | BC – Canada – Seattle, Washington, USA]
1) In Seattle, the American Civil Liberties Union is working to protect privacy of data being obtained by smeters, whether the transmitter is activated or not. It also is questioning the huge fees which, in the first year, would approximate BC Hydro’s fees, falling in half the following years. The question that needs to be asked is, if the data is not the primary reason for the smeter, then why can people keep their analogs? What is the difference for BC Hydro between reading a transmitter-off smeter and an analog? When asked why we cannot buy a new analog, pay BC Hydro to certify and install it, the answer BC Hydro has given is that they can get information from the smeter with the transmitter off – our data which is not needed for billing purposes.
(click on photos to enlarge)
https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/letter-seattle-city-council-city-lights-advanced-meter-program (click on “download document”)
“The opt-out fails to protect privacy. According to the opt-out currently in place on SCL’s website, an individual can opt-out of wireless communications, but it is unclear whether they can opt-out of the granular collection of usage data, which, as described above, is most deeply connected to privacy concerns. SCL’s currently available opt-out form describes the choice as one between an “advanced meter” and a “non-communicating digital meter,” with no discussion of what data the latter actually collects. Our previous reading of the proposed opt-out policy, however, showed that a non-communicating digital meter still “collects hourly usage information.” The current opt-out forces an individual into paying for manual meter reading, even if wireless communication is irrelevant to his or her concern over granular data collection.”
https://www.aclu-wa.org/news/seattle%E2%80%99s-smart-meter-project-lacks-protections-privacy
BC Civil Liberties Association contact info from: https://bccla.org/getting-help/
Our casework line is staffed on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to noon and from 1pm to 4pm. We will not be able to answer or respond to calls outside of those times. The number is 604-630-9754 or toll free: 1-866-731-7507.
You may email the BCCLA at casework(at)bccla.org.
[BCCLA <casework@bccla.org>]
Correspondence can also be mailed to the BCCLA at: 900 Helmcken Street, 2nd floor, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1B3
2) Further re. Telus, from a member who was searching for landlines: An admission that cell phones are not secure while landlines are.
Telus Board Policy Manual – February 11, 2004 – Amended August 3, 2016:
(p.11/57
2.2 Preparation and Attendance
Each director will: ….
(c)….In exceptional circumstances (such as sickness or family emergency), the Board Chair can approve arrangements for remote participation through a Secured Facility. A “Secured Facility” includes a landline, Telepresence facility at any of the Company’s offices or any other method of communication considered secure. This excludes communications via cellular phone or the internet (eg. Skype);
3) Telephone companies want to keep their landline customers while in a death spiral.
““While there’s certainly an increasing trend for customers to rely on their cell phones as their primary phone these days, many continue to want home phone as well,” Telus spokeswoman Liz Suavé said, noting that families with children often want a home phone so there’s always a way to dial 911 in an emergency.”
Letters:
From: Norm Ryder (name given with permission)
Sent: May 28, 2017
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Probabilistic multiple-bias modelling applied to the Canadian data
Dear Dr Kendall
I have just obtained an abstract of a soon to be released paper Probabilistic multiple-bias modelling applied to the Canadian data from the INTERPHONE study of mobile phone use and risk of glioma, meningioma, acoustic neuroma, and parotid gland tumors.
Abstract
We undertook a re-analysis of the Canadian data from the thirteen-country INTERPHONE case-control study (2001-2004), which evaluated the association between mobile phone use and risk of brain, acoustic neuroma, and parotid gland tumors. The main publication of the multinational INTERPHONE study concluded that “biases and errors prevent a causal interpretation”. We applied a probabilistic multiple-bias model to address possible biases simultaneously, using validation data from billing records and non-participant questionnaires as information on recall error and selective participation. Our modelling sought to adjust for these sources of uncertainty and to facilitate interpretation. For glioma, the odds ratio comparing highest quartile of use (over 558 lifetime hours) to non-regular users was 2.0 (95% confidence interval: 1.2, 3.4). The odds ratio was 2.2 (95% confidence interval: 1.3, 4.1) when adjusted for selection and recall biases. There was little evidence of an increase in the risk of meningioma, acoustic neuroma, or parotid gland tumors in relation to mobile phone use. Adjustments for selection and recall biases did not materially affect interpretation in our Canadian results.
The full paper is of considerable interest to me and I believe many other members of the public in BC. I note the provincial government references (http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer/current-health-topics/radiofrequency-and-health/smart-meter-and-cancer-risk-statement Smart Meter and Cancer Risk Statement) one of the authors of the paper as part of the effort to convince the pubic the levels of radiation we are regularly exposed to are harmless. The paper is particularly interesting as it appears to suggest a quantum shift in her assessment of the potential for biological harm caused by EMR. I have 3 requests of your office:
1. Please immediately arrange to have all web pages and provincial government and its agencies updated to reflect the conclusions of the paper.
2. Arrange a public release to inform the public of the dangers of radiation and recommendations on how one can reduce their exposure and potential for biological harmful effects.
3. I am a person struggling to exist as part of my radiation-caused Acoustic Neuroma caused by a significant amount of radiation (several orders of magnitude greater than a cell phone) I received while working for the provincial government (prior to the tumour diagnosis, I never owned a cell phone nor had any other significant exposure to EMR). I of course have great interest in any paper discussing the causes of Acoustic Neuromas, I can not afford to purchase the paper and I am certain the full contents will be of great interest to many others. In the interests of the public good could you please obtain the paper and make it available for myself and other members of the pubic to study it.
If the paper is as significant as it appears it should be made sent to all public health officers, libraries and media in BC.
Norm Ryder
“If the probability of carcinogenicity is low, but the magnitude of the potential harm is high, good public policy dictates that the risk should not be ignored.”
C Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and acted on.”
~ Ben Franklin