1) In the UK serious concerns continue about the costs, benefits and problems associated with the $$meter program.
“It is a very expensive IT programme and there is a long litany of IT failures with which government has been involved,” said Warren.
“One of the greatest difficulties does appear to be trying to set rules on technologies to be installed in a marketplace in which the technologies are changing so fast, so that information is no greater than a meter that was installed 50 years ago.”
Warren said countries such as Germany “took one look” at smart meters and decided that “the costs were far too high”.
[In case the link doesn’t work – Notes from:
Smart meters ‘only useful for providers’: ACE – Utility Week – April 13, 2016:
(Smart meters fail to provide customers with “genuinely” useful information, and are only useful to electricity providers who can use them to cut costs, according to the honorary president of the Association for the Conservation of Energy.
Andrew Warren, who is also chair of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, slammed the technology for “not keeping pace” with the market, and failing to provide “genuinely interesting information”….
“I think the main motivation for electricity companies, as they can make very substantial savings, is that they don’t have to employ or sub-contract meter readers.”
He added that the electricity and gas providers would be able to reduce the “enormous number” of people in phone banks run, as estimated billing is ended.
“It is a very expensive IT programme and there is a long litany of IT failures with which government has been involved,” said Warren….
“It is a very substantial amount of money for the consumer and adds to fuel bills…it is perfectly reasonable to ask the question, are we actually delivering the best bang for their buck?”)]
2) Privacy enforcement chiefs bringing IoT in for a few questions by David Curry – ReadWrite – April 14, 2016:
“Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) is putting the Internet of Things (IoT) world in its crosshairs1 during its 2016 global privacy “Sweep.” The group – a worldwide union of national privacy and law enforcement agencies seeking to tackle transnational privacy and data security issues – said they plan to vet all sorts of manufacturers on data privacy and security practices to see what issues, if any, are prevalent in this new connected industry.
It comes at the perfect time, as more homes and businesses start to adopt IoT devices and platforms. Knowing the potential privacy issues that companies could be neglecting will make the industry as a whole safer and secure, if IoT developers and manufacturers fix any issues identified in the GPEN report.”
http://readwrite.com/2016/04/14/gpen-privacy-data-security-iot/
3) One of the most respected and dedicated scientists who has studied wireless radiation for decades died recently. Prior to 2002, he was working for Ericsson wireless. When he was told to stop publishing articles about the health effects of microwave radiation, he quit and worked independently. He was still working on this important issue right up to the time of his death. Some of his colleagues have circulated some of his studies and reports.
It is too early to predict future rates of brain cancer, but these preliminary findings suggest that we should prepare for about a doubled brain cancer incidence rate and possibly as high as 25 times the incidence we have today. One result of such a worldwide increase in brain cancers would be a dramatic shortage of neurosurgeons leading to increased mortality. Any statement about harmless cell phones based on only 5-10 years of use has no scientific basis due to the long latency times involved.
And just a month before he died, this article was published, warning about that FM transmitters have been linked to melanomas, and a change in the antenna could prevent this.
http://www.citizensforsafetechnology.org/A-simple-way-to-cut-cancer-costs-by-30,27,4394
4) From a member in response to the article about the Wi-Fi conference by Jack O’Dwyer :
“I just had to respond to this report. I went to O’Dwyer’s and left this comment: “Since the conference has banned discussion of health effects and/or scientific studies, it appears that its purpose, then, is merely to see how to permeate fully every dwelling, office and work space in the world with Wi-Fi, thus maximizing the profits of the corporations involved. The conference is another callous example of not caring for people, but only for the corporations and their CEOs. It’s a wonderful example of hubris and extreme selfishness. They are spoiled brats who don’t give a damn.
So far, mine is the only comment that has been made on the O’Dwyer’s site.”
5) An excellent article regarding ComEd’s $$meter program in Illinois. A lot of good links to keep as references, including info from our own Jerry Flynn. Just as in BC, the utility company is ignoring scientific evidence that microwave radiation is dangerous. The question that follows is who should be held legally responsible for harmful or willful negligence?
Smart meter dangers, who knew and did not sound the alarm?
“Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) is pushing for the deployment of 4,000,000 smart meters despite the fact that government agencies and the military have known for decades that Radio Frequency/microwaves can cause serious health effects.”
Letters:
2 letters from the same person. No responses received yet.
From: X
To: hedy.fry@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Elizabeth.May.C1@parl.gc.ca
Date: April 12, 2016
Subject: My Letter to HESA vice chair Len Webber
Dear Dr. Hedy Fry, MP:
I have read the minutes of the April 28th HESA meeting, and the resulting report to parliament, Radiofrequency Radiation and the Health of Canadians. Thank you for your understanding of this complex issues, and for your comments in guiding the committee members to “right thinking” during this meeting.
I have shown the HESA minutes to my doctor, dentist, psychologist, Allergist, and acupuncturist in North Delta, Tsawwassen, North Vancouver, Richmond, and Surrey respectively, to convince them my symptoms were severe, very real, and not theatrics! I carry the meeting minutes in my purse now.
In June 2015 I sent the minutes and 12 Recommendations of the HESA Report to the BCTF, as well as an article (see attached pdf) about how I became EHS from work WiFi. I implored the editorial staff and BCTF Executive to release and publish this critical information before more teachers, staff, and children become EHS. Many young teachers with families, or new teachers just starting their careers, will not be as fortunate as I have been; I was able to hold out for 4 years until my 55th birthday and take Early Retirement when increasingly severe symptoms from chronic WiFi exposure forced me out of my own classroom. I was very saddened to leave my career so abruptly – I had at least 10 more good years of teaching in me!
Please see my letter to Len Webber, HESA vice chair, below, and the article I wrote to the BCTF.
I hope with your influence, contacts and charisma, Dr. Fry, that you can push forward with this issue and be instrumental in effecting change in federal policy around Safety Code 6, and in banning this harmful WiFi from our schools. Children need to be kept safe!
I thank you again for your kindness, empathy and compassion.
X
= = = = = =
From: X
To: len.webber@parl.gc.ca
Date: April 7, 2016
Subject: Teachers and Students AT RISK FROM WiFi: EHS (Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity disorder) numbers growing!
Dear Len Webber, HESA Chair:
Hello. I am a very recently retired EHS teacher from BC.
I have avidly followed the HESA April 28th meeting minutes, and also read and eagerly circulated the outstanding June 2015 report to Parliament entitled “Radiofrequency Radiation and the Health of Canadians.” In fact, I carry a paper copy of the April 2015 HESA minutes and the June 2015 Report in my purse at all times. I have HESA to thank for validating my illness and giving me credibility in my battle against WiFi and RF, because in BC there are no doctors trained to do this!
I have now exhausted all my connections and contacts at this point. I have been trying in earnest for 5 years to appeal to the school board, the 63 school superintendents in BC school districts, and other powers-that-be, to remove toxic WiFi from our schools. I have been restricted in the past by school policy and union protocol, but the restrictions are now lifted.
I am one of those canaries whom Dr. Riina Bray speaks of in the minutes of the April 28th meeting of HESA…I have extreme EHS. I was healthy and led a normal life until shortly after WiFi was installed at our school site in 2010. Formerly a Delta teacher for 25 years, I was forced onto Medical Leave this fall due to WiFi signals becoming intolerable, and my symptoms near WiFi was excruciatingly painful to endure. I chose Early Retirement after my 55th birthday in December 2015, and retired just last month. I have way too much energy, enthusiasm, experience, and love for teaching to be retired. SIGH.
Today I am submitting to you a letter I wrote to the BC Teachers Federation in the fall of 2014. I hope it will add to the increasing evidence in support of your important report and message. The letter is in fact an article I had submitted to the BC Teachers Federation for publication in Teacher Magazine two years ago. They have not yet published the information – I am told this is due to the controversy it might stir.
Since I was recently left with no alternative, due to increasing WiFi sensitivity at school, but to retire from my school district in Delta, I am free to release this information to the public…so I will be contacting the media to publish the article instead. Several other teachers in different BC locals as well as from other provinces in Canada are collaborating to contact our new Health Minister with information on WiFi health effects in an effort to stop the insanity!
The situation is out of control in our public schools right now, with the layering of multiple sources of radiation exposure from WiFi routers and boosters, laptops, iPads, and the hundreds (sometimes thousands) of strong iPhones actively in use daily in every public school.
In light of recent developments in the east, with 2 Ontario unions requesting that WiFi be removed from their schools due to teachers who are developing EHS symptoms (which forced my early retirement here in BC), and the subsequent lift of the media blackout here in the west (the Vancouver Sun and The Province covered the Ontario story after years of ignoring WiFI issues and Resolutions against its use here within the BCTF), it seems a fitting time to send my article to our local media, outlining my recent lengthy battle with the school board regarding strong WiFi systems in our district.
My rapidly developing EHS symptoms and strong reactions to radiowave frequency radiation forced me out of my townhome and into Early Retirement on March 1st this year. We, the EHS, are being robbed of our rights and freedoms. Others like me are now unable to participate in a formerly active, robust lifestyle, hike or jog in public parks, use transit, walk my dog on public sidewalks to run errands – all due to increased sensitivity to low overhead powerlines along roads, EMR from residential mobile phone use, home WiFi upgrades and boosters surging through neighbourhoods, and Smart Meter RF at street level. This is a basic Human Right to “clean air” that is being gradually robbed from us.
A redhead with sensitive skin, allergies and MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities), I am part of that growing group that is predisposed to become EHS. Symptoms began to emerge and develop only after lengthy and prolonged exposure to strong RF’s emitted by WiFi signals and routers in my classrooms and hallways. (I have no RF in my own home, having never subscribed to home WiFi, mobile phone service, or Smart Meters).
I am not suffering alone – my experience is not unlike that of thousands of other teachers and students in public schools throughout BC and Canada.
Please use any connections you might have to help circulate this information, in order to effect change in federal policy on WiFi use in public spaces and places such as schools, parks, public transit including ferries, and buildings which are now toxic to the increasing number of Canadians who are now EHS.
I thank you for your compassion and support. I have attached the article below.
Sincerely,
X
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.”
~ Czeslaw Milosz